Political Correctness ruining the US (or at least the holidays?)

The BBQ Pit
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After seeing Annie-Xmas’ Pit Threadabout being called racist for asking some young black folks to give up their seat made me wonder if being PC has twisted the minds of everyone in the US to look for a way to be a “victim”.

My latest example du jour, is a note sent out by my better half to her team, staff, employees or whatever the PC term is for calling a group of people that work for you. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings for implying that there is a hierarchical structure in the workplace, and that some people may actually have to follow the instructions of someone else. :rolleyes:

Anyway, she sent out an e-mail asking for a headcount for the upcoming “Holiday Dinner”. No mention of Christmas was in the note, which should make everyone happy, right? Happy Fucking HOLIDAYS. As far as I can tell, this doesn’t point to ANY specific religion, creed, race, sexual orientation, or whatever. It’s as generic as you can get. (Yes, I know the argument that Holiday is the combination of Holy and Day, but does anyone feel that the 4th of July Holiday is tied to a religious ceremony?) It’s just a word used to identify time in which people celebrate something… Anything, that usually includes family and friends and some time off work. The word has lost it’s religious underpinnings.

But wait! It OFFENDED SOMEONE. That’s right, a Jewish man reported the e-mail and my wife was told she should apologize to the jewish guy because… The term Holiday offended him. WTF? Oh yes, it seems that he wants the word “holiday” removed from any work-related correspondence, and instead, for December at least, the phrase “End of Year Celebration” should be used.

I’m totally serious. This actually happened.

Can someone tell me if this is actually what we want? One fucking asshole has “an issue” with the word “holiday” (which is now used because I guess jewish people and black people feel slighted if one says “Merry Christmas” instead of Happy Kwanzaa, or Happy hanukkah (please don’t bitch at me about the spelling of hanukkah, i know there are many ways to spell it, and I have no idea if I’m using the correct one), and the company stops, wheels are put in motion, and someone calls my wife in to discuss it and to request an apology? :confused: An aploogy for what?

My wife refused.

No immediate fallout for the refusal, since (I am guessing here) they had not anticipated someone to actually say “no”. But “no” was the right answer. I don’t care if you are jewish, muslim, catholic, protestant or martian, Holiday is NOT offensive.

I don’t think Christmas is offensive, since that IS the reason most Americans have Dec. 25th off. However, since it is tied to a religion, I really have no problem with the government pushing “Holidays” or “season’s Greetings” because i believe very strongly in the separation of church and state, even though the US has not exactly stuck to that tenet by the founding fathers (can we still say founding fathers? Or do we now need to include ALL life forms in existence at the time, including women, children, animals and plant-life?)

HOLIDAY is NOT OFFENSIVE, at least, not to my ears.

A couple of serious questions here. Is there any other place on this planet that has this sort of issue? For example, in Israel, do people even wish each other Merry Christmas around December 25th, or do Jews only recognize and say “Happy Hanukkah”, and nothing else? Do the people who live in Israel who are not Jewish, like say the Islamic folks, gripe and complain if one does not say “Happy Ramadan”?

*Disclaimer - this is a story which happened to include a jewish male. This in no way should be construed as an indictment on all jewish people, all males or all jewish males. However, I will say that this particular jewish male is an over-sensitive asshole who makes everyone’s life a bit less enjoyable for stirring up nonsensical shit because he can.

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It irritated you so much that you had to tell the same story twice in one post? It’s like deja vu all over again.

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For most people, “holiday” is a thin veneer of inclusivity, so that no-one can say that we are just talking about Christmas.

I’m an atheist who generally loathes Christmas, and I see nothing wrong with that. “Holiday” is not offensive to me. On the other hand:

Many Jewish people do not get Jewish holy days off (or they have to take them out of their vacation); this is also true in the US of other non-Christian religions and other sects (Greek and Russian Orthodox come to mind) who celebrate 13 days later.

Everyone with only a very few exceptions (having only to do with their specific jobs, not with their ethnicity or religion) gets Christmas Day off.

I agree with your better half’s refusal to apologize, since clearly no malice or slight was intended. But I also see nothing wrong with changing policy and calling it an end of year celebration in the future. Or, alternatively, having no celebration at all and just providing as good a working environment as they can. I don’t socialize with my co-workers and would not want to go to dinner with (most of) them. I think the feeling is mutual. So, since i have no desire to celebrate “holidays” at or associated with work, just let me go home early, or stuff a little something extra in my pay envelope, or something nice like that. No fuss, no muss, no blurring of lines between social and work functions.
Roddy

p.s. copy and paste is a dangerous tool, use it wisely.

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So first I thought this would be a lame thread in the “Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas Wars” where the OP was bitching about the use of the term “Happy Holidays.” But instead, it’s actually a personal story that happened at someone’s work. So that makes it a bit better, I fully agree your wife was correct to refuse to apologize. I would normally say at work you need to suck it up and apologize even when in the wrong when told to do so, but that situation is ridiculous enough I’d risk reprimand/worse. You’re 100% correct, using “holiday” to refer to the work dinner is not inappropriate. Since I’m sure like most office Christmas/holiday dinners it’ll be “some time in the month of December” it’s not intrinsically a “Christmas” dinner if you call it a “holiday” dinner and have it during the month of December.

Further, the Federal government and every company I’ve ever heard of talks about their official “holidays” which are days where employees get off and still get paid. There is no way to argue the term itself has any religious connotation in the 21st century American English usage.

That being said, you certainly did not need to duplicate your tale in your post.

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One guy got offended by something inoffensive? Yes, the country and the season have been ruined forever.

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In my experience about 50% of work place “holiday dinners” are held from like 11am-2pm or so (using the usage of dinner in which it’s the primary meal of the day, not necessarily the evening meal) and thus most people do like it because it’s 2-3 hours you don’t work in the middle of the work day. The other 50% of the time it might actually be a proper after-hours office dinner, sometimes held at the office but sometimes at a decent restaurant or something. In the latter case you obviously would have no reason to attend if you didn’t want the free meal because you dislike socializing with your coworkers.

Even the dinners during work hours you could opt-out of and no one would care, at least that I’ve seen.

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LOL ! :smack:

My holiday rage is lost because of my cut and paste error. I’ll see if I can get this corrected.

How embarassing.

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This. This is one jerkface jerk who doesn’t seem to realize he lives in a society. It doesn’t mean the downfall of Western civilization as we know it.

  • Mika, atheist who can’t wait to put up her [del]Christmas[/del] Holiday Tree.
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I never get what I want for the holidays.

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You could try banning Western civilization.

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Indeed. Cutting and pasting is dangerous, especially if you use it the way I did.

And yes, i agree with you that you shouldn’t have to go to dinner with co-workers if you don’t want to, whether it be for the end of quarter celebration, meeting a milestone, or a holiday dinner. These should always be optional. And FTR, my wife’s dinner is optional. She would not be going herself, but alas, it is her responsibility to go.

Hopefully a moderator or someone with magical powers could come in and help a brother out. In the spirit of the holidays, you know.

Like Marley! Maybe instead of making a strange comment about my obviously over-the-top declaration of the end of US holidays and Political Correctness gone haywire, you could take some time out to just fix the OP for me? Because it would help more than your comment.

Please?

I’ll wish you a Hapoy Festivus if you require.

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I’m offended on behalf of all particular Jewish males…

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I’m deeply, deeply offended. I fixed your OP, but I now think you’re worse than three Hitlers.

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It’s a plot, see. If people get offended at Happy Holidays then maybe Bill O and the other jerks will buy into it

As for me, another atheist Jew with no problem with that term.

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No, but when HR is called, and instead of them telling the sensitive employee to lighten up, they contact my wife. This is absurd.

I don’t necessarily need a holiday dinner at the end of the year, but they are something that has been done in her company since it was founded 50+ years ago. No one is required to go.

Why HR can’t get the balls to just stop the nonsense before sending the complaint onward is part of the reason this is so frustrating. Seriously, would a normal person call HR? I don’t even know how many defective people would call HR for something like this.

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Ah! Thanks, Marley! You are the best!

Only 3 Hitlers? That’s not too bad! :smiley:

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I’m working on it Marley, but TPTB need to let me do my valuable work in MPSIMS without lock-downs. :slight_smile:

You know, it’s tough being an outsider for whatever reason. But that’s life–everyone is an outside for some reason. At some point you just have to accept the fact this world wasn’t cast just for your every pleasure. Get over it and move on. I can’t imagine being such a whiny little bitch that I’d actually complain like the OP guy, but then again, I’m not Jewish. Not that there’s anything wrong with being Jewish. Some of my best friends are Jewish. And neither of them are whiny bitches. A bit vocal and opinionated now I think about it…

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I wonder how your wife’s co-worker is handling Hanukkah and Thanksgiving this year? Is he going to have Thanksgiving dinner as an eight-course meal for a week and a day?

I hear the greeting for this blended “holiday” is …
**
Gobble tov!**

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Why did the guy suggest End Of Year Celebration as an alternative? Doesn’t he celebrate Jewish New Year? And what about the Muslims? Or those who celebrate Lunar New Year?

Really, I find his suggestion offensive.

In today’s English language, “holiday” means a day off work. A thing we all enjoy. So use Holiday Dinner & be done with it…

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That’s more of a UK English thing. Normally in US English people would say “vacation” for a day off work (even if they aren’t actually going anywhere).