Not quite.Taking offense at someone referring to a person with a mental disability as a “fruitcake” is not political correctness. Political correctness is demanding that we avoid using ‘fruitcake’ to describe a “brandied confection containing candied fruit, nuts, and spices, commonly given as a gift at Christmastime”, because of the other usage.
For what it’s worth, I think “African-American” is a stupid term and I decline to use it.
As someone who has studied linguistics and communication, I am well aware that the words we use have an effect on how we perceive things. The words which got changed that had to do with professions and careers made sense, especially if it specified gender. For a very, very long time, these were “men’s jobs” so that was who got hired.
Fireman, postman, and chairman, were mainly men’s jobs. And definitely Congressman. Did it hurt all that much to change those words to “firefighter,” “mailcarrier,” and “chair”? And when we get still more women in the House of Representatives, “Congresswoman” will be used with ease.
I’ve watched much of the change over my lifetime.
BTW, I think that the word “feminist” perhaps should be changed. Both men and women can be feminists.
Look at the definition: One who believes in the economic, social, and political equality of the genders. Not many people object to those standards, I would think. But so many associate “feminists” with "femi-Nazis’ or militant women. Time to change, IMHO.
Of course, there are other areas of “PI.” There is plenty of room to differ on usage.
But in a US context it is in the same vein as Italian American, Polish American etc. Of course it becomes amusing when people visit the UK and remark on the large number of African Americans here when referring to our Caribbean and African descended or settled Brits!
Or when Charlize Theron described herself as African-American on SNL…
I think that “Afro-Brit” is a cool term!
I’d sure like to see of an example of something like this.
“Black” is okay. I tend to use “African-American” in formal settings, myself.
Mostly what I think you are missing is that the word political can have two meanings. We think of political as being the actions of specific groups in government or trying to influence government. However, that usage of the term actually arose from the older meaning that referred to any activity that had an influence on the members of society, (the Greek polis, ([symbol]poli[/symbol]s), the city-state). While the phrase arose in a political context in the 1970s, it still refers to actions (or words) that affect the lives of the members of society.
So, sometimes it means “societal correctness”?
I consider this to be Politically Incorrect. I’m using the word politically with more of it’s diplomatic connotation. If we were trying to reach an agreement, then this statement is a non-starter. “For what it’s worth, I think “African-American” isn’t the best term to use and I wonder if it’s a problem to not use it.”
I think that Politically Correct is the new politically correct term for calling someone an asshole.
Well, there’s the case not too long ago where one of the white aides to the mayor of Washington DC was fired because he said that a budget which had been cut was “niggardly”, which people took as a racial slur, although, of course, in reality, it wasn’t.
To be fair, the Mayor almost immediately realized he made a huge mistake and rehired her after she was forced to resign.
I have found that how vocal a person is about their feeling regarding “African American” communicates more about their politics than their actual preference does.
If it doesn’t flow off the tongue very well, no one will go insane with rage if you use “black”. But “black”, depending on context, is ambiguous enough to lead to confusion. I was once in a conversation with a guy who, when referring to the descendents of African slaves born in North America, used the term “regular blacks”. As opposed to black people from the Caribbean or Africa. Say what you will about “African American”, but it’s a whole lot better than “regular blacks”.
My experience is also that African American has gravitas that “black” doesn’t. Whenever I mention my black identity around white people, sometimes they have an annoying reaction. They laugh and say something about my skin color not being black. “African American” skirts around this by reminding people that I’m talking about an ethnicity rather than physical appearance.
Exactly. That’s what the word has come to mean colloquially, with the implication of there being “thought police” involved and the speaker who is using the language they describe as “non-PC” is a free thinker, not one of the “sheeple” and won’t be told by anyone how to talk. In fact, 99% of the time, they’re just being ignorant, rude jackasses.
nm
Its real meaning is the exercise of power. (Reference Duverger) The method of concentrating power, real or created on the goals set by a society or part of society.
I always see this form of ‘Politically’ in politically correct- the liberals are using the power of particular language to support their model of society and the conservatives are trying to deny this to them by disparaging things as merely poltically correct and not a real argument.
“African-American” has plusses and minuses. It does, as monstro said, take the emphasis off skin color since many blacks do not have anything close to black skin. (And that’s true of “white” as well wrt to white skin.) But “African-American” can distinguish the experience of someone growing up black in the US, as opposed to an African diplomat visiting the country. Both might be called “black”, but their experience is going to have significant differences.
The problem is when there is a quibble about whether someone like Obama qualifies as “African-American” because he’s not descendant from American slaves. If someone doesn’t know Obama in advance, and just meets him, how is that person supposed to know that he’s not descendant from American slaves, especially since the number of blacks in the US who are not is tiny compared to those who are?
At any rate, any label we come up with is going to have drawbacks, but “African-American” probably has fewer problems than most. The only problem I have with it, to paraphrase a certain king in Amadeus… too many syllables.
Him. And it was about two weeks later. Howard didn’t take his old job back, actually, but took a new one. And of course, the particular incident is tied up with a lot of Anthony Williams and DC stuff…the perception beforehand that Williams wasn’t “black enough” or didn’t really care much about the African-American population of the city, the fact that Howard was the only prominent gay member of the administration and his firing was seen as an attack by gay rights groups, and so on.
The way I tend to use it is “African-American” as a cultural identifier, and “black” as a simple physical identifier. Just like I am “white,” but there is a Polish-American culture that I share with fellow Polish-Americans (more specifically, Chicago Polish-Americans). Although, as John Mace notes, there can be some problems with that, too.
At any rate, I’ve never been chastised for saying “black” vs “African-American” in describing someone. Is that really common, or is that some anti-PC strawman?