Too Politically Correct is Wrong

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by pgrmdave

I think that Political Correctness comes from the right place, and goes in the wrong direction. It is there because there is a need to be respectful to people, and I think that much of it starts because of a genuine attempt to be respectful. ...

I'm a cripple. That is, I am handicapped. Granted, both words carry a lot of cultural baggage, mostly negative. The first one is the most negative. I grew up being referred to as handicapped. Once I got over the fact that it was TRUE, it never bothered me again.

Then, in the seventies, I was physically challenged, and I hated it. What did it mean, for crying out loud? And then a miracle happened. "Physically challenged" became offensive, too!!!!!!!!! Then the new buzzword was physicall special. (Yuchy!!) And then IT became offensive, too!!!!! Then there was (briefly) wheelchair person and disabled. And they all were criticized by SOMEBODY as insulting or demeaning!! HOO HAH!!!

Now, it's all I can do to keep from laughing in people's faces when they stammer for some word or phrase to refer to "you people". (In fact, recently, they started using "you people" -- and I responded with "oh, you mean the intellectually gifted afluent sex objects in wheelchairs?")

No matter how PC you try to get, the truth is going to offend someone, and your neutral terms will become insults.

I'm handicapped. Deal with it, sucker!

And if you kick my tires one more time, I will leave gray rubber tread marks all over your ugly face.

[HydrogenBond]

Poltical correctness is based on trying to spare feelings. This is a nobel intension. But using feelings to drive reason is backfiring. Instead of lowering the amount of hurt feelings, it is increasing hyper-sensitivity, requiring a constant flux of new feel good phrases. This is female illogic gone astray. It protects and regresses all in one step.

I think a group of young guy friends have it correct. They dump on each other with insults until everyone gets desensitised. After that, you barely need the top of the politically correct fluff-stuff to get by in life.

Well not exactly. Inner security against names may get you in trouble. One may assume that others are as secure as yourself, when all along they are sliding deeper and deeper down the slippery slope of social insecurity. Such as these, may do their best to get you on their slippery slide, with the iron fist of law. A couple of wacks and you will need a special fuzzy phrase to rub on your bruised hinnie.

This reminds me of a story. A few years back, I shared a summer place at the beach with my sister and her family. We met a neighboring couple who were very loud and rude. The kids got alone, so the parents tried also. After the first intro meeting the wife said to my sister, "see you later b!tch.

When my sister left, she was besides herself fuming with anger. The next day my sister was going to confront the women, but woman came over first, very friendly. She noticed my sister was preoccupied and asked what was wrong. My sister brought up the b!tch comment. The neighbor explained it was not meant as an insult, but from where she came from it was a term used by close toughskinned girlfriends. It was a term to start a friendly, comical and energetic exchange of girl talk (one of the guys). Once my sister realized that, the two would thereafter greet each other as "hey b!tch", even in public places (made others uncomfortable). They became instant friends because the social wall of insecure words was knocked down and they could see each other clearly.

[Edella]

One word thats been getting a lot of press lately is the "n-word",due to Michael Richards' racial outburst at the Laugh Factory.

It is a word known primarily as a means to denigrate African Americans. The word packs such power to represent overt racial hatred, most people will not even utter it in any context. Members of the media reporting on the Micheal Richards story use "the N-word" instead of repeating the actual word, to avoid offending audiences and advertisers I assume.This seems silly to me.Context is everything,and such blanket refusals to say or print "nigger" simply eradicate context and intent,the very reasons words are offensive ! If a joke is begun: two N-words walk into a bar... is it any less offensive?



The Rev. Jesse Jackson has recently called for a ban on the N-word in TV shows and films and music .Will this help with the problem of bigotry and racism in the U.S,? I think not.When Jackson was asked about free-speech issues, he said the word is ''unprotected."

I hate racism and all it stands for, if anyone is offended by my use of the word "nigger", please consider the context and intent.

[Boerseun]

I have to agree with Edella that context dictates the 'offensiveness' of words.
Me, being a white guy, will be in deep trouble when I adress a black American as 'nigger', whilst they tend to use the word amongst themselves with some pride, I might add. But nobody will question the black guy's intent when I'm adressed by him as 'honky', whilst the argument could be made that 'nigger' and 'honky' is equally offensive. And this sprouts from the whites having enslaved the blacks hundreds of years ago, and some guilt over the whole mess still existing amongst the descendents of those original slavedrivers - regardless of the fact that the current population of whites have absolutely nothing to do with slavery. This is just plain silly, as far as I'm concerned. It's words, dammit - but the context will make it offensive or not. In my mind, 'African-American' is equally offensive (or not), because it points to exactly the same people as 'nigger'.

Where I'm not getting the 'equality' of it all, why don't we refer to the Smiths of the US as 'British-American', or the Meiers as 'German-American', or the Blumenthals as 'Jewish-American'? Whites in the US are universally referred to as 'Americans', and insisting on referring to black Americans as 'African-Americans' is insulting to them, perpetuating their 'outsiderness'.

But I digress.

I can stand up in a meeting and say "If we don't do this, the company will be crippled by debt." Imagine if I had to say "If we don't do this, the company would be financially challenged." The first comment, the 'crippled' one, is by no means offensive. But I can't refer to the chairman who sits in a wheelchair as such. Then it becomes insulting and demeaning. Where do we draw the line? It's like Edella said - it's all in the context. But personally I think that in plenty cases (maybe most) we simply take it too far, and any word you can think off will be offenssive to someone to some degree. Live and let live, I say. As long as you understand what the next guy is trying to say, let him be.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

Me, being a white guy, will be in deep trouble when I adress a black American as 'nigger', whilst they tend to use the word amongst themselves with some pride, I might add. But nobody will question the black guy's intent when I'm adressed by him as 'honky', whilst the argument could be made that 'nigger' and 'honky' is equally offensive. And this sprouts from the whites having enslaved the blacks hundreds of years ago, and some guilt over the whole mess still existing amongst the descendents of those original slavedrivers - regardless of the fact that the current population of whites have absolutely nothing to do with slavery.

I am as much offended by blacks using the term as any other race, if not more so. No end of it in rap music and black comedians sketches, with a "we can say it but you can't" attitude. Hypocrisy.

Carrying someone's guilt besides your own strikes me as ludicrous, especially someone from the past. A lot of people in the deep South are still fighting the civil war for crying out loud. Get over it.

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by Edella

The Rev. [an US congressman]Jesse Jackson has recently called for a ban on the N-word in TV shows and films and music .Will this help with the problem of bigotry and racism in the U.S,? I think not.When Jackson was asked about free-speech issues, he said the word is ''unprotected."

I share Edella’s concerning Jackson’s suggestion that some words are “unprotected” by the first amendment. The rhetoric, and in some cases, the actual policy of the US government in the last few years lead me to wonder if the reading (or rereading) of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four should be a made a voter registration requirement – or at least a requirement of government office holders. At least then, legislation such as Jackson proposes could go by the catchy name “newspeak”.

Most paradoxical, I think, is that a ban on publishing and distributing media containing the word “nigger” would effect primarily black artists, who use it far more than artists of other ethnicities. It would ban the best work of the late Richard Pryor, arguably one of the best stand-up comedians ever, and, IMHO, a significant champion of racial harmony and mutual respect and understanding. When I first read Jackson’s comments, I though he meant to apply them only to the speech of non-blacks – an impression that lasted only a few sentences, where he called specifically for a ban on rap music. Jackson appears to despise rap.

[Chacmool]

Originally Posted by Pyrotex

Now, it's all I can do to keep from laughing in people's faces when they stammer for some word or phrase to refer to "you people". (In fact, recently, they started using "you people" -- and I responded with "oh, you mean the intellectually gifted afluent sex objects in wheelchairs?")

Well said, Pyro! But all of us here already know that you're our local intellectually gifted, afluent sex object in a wheelchair. Cheers!

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by Chacmool

Well said, Pyro! But all of us here already know that you're our local intellectually gifted, afluent sex object in a wheelchair. Cheers!

[interrobang] What?! [/interrobang]

How DARE you call me an "intellectually gifted, afluent sex object in a W-word"! I am so offended! Somebody call the PC Squad! [cough] My self-esteem has been savaged! [sniff] Well... maybe not.

[Boerseun]

Originally Posted by Pyrotex

[interrobang] What?! [/interrobang]

How DARE you call me an "intellectually gifted, afluent sex object in a W-word"! I am so offended! Somebody call the PC Squad! [cough] My self-esteem has been savaged! [sniff] Well... maybe not.

Please, people - that's an "intellectually gifted, affluent sex object in a wheeled personal mobility device".

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

Please, people - that's an "intellectually gifted, affluent sex object in a wheeled personal mobility device".

oh yeah okay. That's better.