What's so bad about political correctness?

Great Debates
1

Having recently been subjected to another generic rant against the evils of political correctness, I want to try understanding what the problem is. The claim is that those nasty politically correct people are trying to “introduce ambiguity” and “rearrange the language to avoid solid fact”. I would agree, without question, that those are bad things. We want the language to be accurate and precise.

Consider what would have to be the prototypical example of political correctness: replacing “black” with “African American”. The term black is not accurate; the people in question have skin tones ranging from dark brown to light tan. Trying to label by skin color inherently causes ambiguity, because other ethnic groups overlap the same range of skin colors. “African American”, on the other hand, is right on the money. We’re trying to describe people of African heritage who currently live in America.

An even clearer example is replacing “Indian” with “Native American”. “Indian” was a horrible misnomer to begin with, the result of utter confusion and nothing more. Centuries ago it might have been usable, but only because no one from India was moving to America. Nowadays we have a sizeable population of the group that’s correctly labeled “Indian”, so we’re at risk of having two contradictory meanings for the term. “Native American”, on the other hand, is exactly accurate and erases the ambiguity.

The most common example of political correctness, though, is simply changing the suffix “-man” to “-person”. Postmen are now postpeople, salesmen are salespeople, and so forth. Why? Well, back in the day, these professions were entirely male, or close enough. Not anymore. Now that we have sizeable numbers of women in the workforce at all levels, the change makes sense. It’s extremely awkward when you have to give a woman the “Businessman of the Year Award” or something of that nature.

2

To be politically correct is to say things the way OTHER people want you to say them…To be politically correct is to say things thay YOU really feel is true or at least observable in your experience. I prefer the latter.

3

I’m not completely unsympathetic to your view, but I think when people say “African-American” they mostly are trying to communicate “black”. As a white South African I fall under the “people of African heritage who currently live in America” category, but I have a hunch that I am not what people mean when they say “African-American”.

It seems more consistent in this case to refer to Americans as black or white if you need to talk about race. Then you could refer to people who are distinctly American culturewise seperately from recent immigrants, who you could call “Irish-American” or “Nigerian-American” as appropriate. Recent immigrants would have more cultural ties to their country of birth and would be very seperate people from people who have longer ties to America.

Otherwise, I don’t feel very strongly about the matter. People shmeaple. Postperson sounds clumsy to me, if it catches on, fine, but in the meantime I am perfectly happy to use the word postman to refer to somebody who delivers the mail.

4

I think your discussion might be fruitful, but you started off with some horrible examples:
As noted in myriad threads, African-American is no more inherently descriptive than black (as Egyptian immgrants, Algerian immigrants, and Charlize Theron (if she has a green card or has been naturalized) all fit the description of the words used. Now, as a coined phrase, African-American has a specific meaning that its users (and everyone else who is not being a jerk) understands, but it is simply not accurate to claim that African-Ameriacn is more accurate that black, given that black has been in the language for over four hundred years and that European descended persons are identified by the equally inaccurate term, white.

Beyond that, black is not anti-PC with a (small) plurality of persons in the U.S. so described (including every single such person I know in real life) preferring black to African-American.

On the other hand, “Native American” appears to have been coined by some white folks who seem to have ignored the fact that the overwhelming majority of persons whose ancestors lived in North America prior to 1492 would, (following their first preference of Lakota, or Oneida, or Lenape, or whatever was appropriate) much prefer “Indian” to"Native American."

5

Hm, I was born in the US , as were my parents, and my ancesters back to the earliest on my father’s side [1640s] and my mother’s side [1650s]. Am I not native born to these lands? I know damn sure that I am not an immigrant, nor have any in my lineage other than the odd person married in here and there for over 200 years.

I object to ‘native american’ I would tolerate american aborigine [barely] though I find ‘american’ perfectly acceptable.

I object to ‘african american’ unless they happen to have dual citizenship, and to black, negro, nigger or darkie. I find ‘american’ and ‘human’ to be perfectly acceptable.

I also object to jap, kike, chink, wog, wop, greaser. I find ‘human’ to be acceptable.

I will admit that I will use black if someone absolutely needs a color modifier to the phrase ‘that really cute really tall guy that just started working in the compliance department last week’ as I really don’t care what color your skin is.

American? Yup. Human? Yup. Female <checks down front of pants> Yup.

6

Mel Gibson when arrested for driving under the influence the other day was profane in his statement about the fucking Jews started all the wars .

when he was sober he apologized and said he doesn’t really feel that way…If you believe that I have 2 long bridges in San Francisco for sale…He is an anti-semite through and through and though politically incorrect, he said how he feels…To later retract the truth is what is disgusting…If that is political correctness, give me political incorrectness anytime.

7

I’m not out to hurt people’s feelings, so I try to be PC. But PC terms tend to be many more syllables than they need to be, and that’s what I resent. It feels like I’m being manipulated, to make someone else feel somehow superior. Black, White, Gay, Straight, these are all one-syllable words.

Af-ri-can A-mer-i-can. Eu-ro-pe-an A-mer-i-can. I’m being forced through extra verbal hoops for others’ PC delight.

Ooh, I’m Gay. But I’ll be offended if you don’t call me a non-he-ter-o-sex-u-al A-mer-i-can!

And God forbid you try to shorten it, even with the best of intentions. If someone’s African American, try shortening it to “Affy.” Gah! Offensive! Racist! You must take the time to pronounce all the syllables!

8

I get annoyed when someone gets their panties in a bunch because I used an outdated term - and they get so annoyed that they ignore my point because of it.

Is the guy with the low IQ working at Burger King “retarded”, “developmentally delayed”, “disabled” or “differently abled”? Who cares? All that matters is that you know that he’s one of those for the story I want to tell. Getting all hung up because I use a term that you find politically incorrect frustrates me.

Political correctness is not always more precise. Not all “African-Americans” are from Africa, and not all Americans from Africa have dark skin. Frankly, the most accurate and precise term would have to be “negros” or “darkies”, but good luck getting either of those to fly! (They aren’t “black”, we aren’t “colorless” to their “colored”, etc.) OTOH, we all knew what we all meant when we used the term “black”, and I don’t really see why it can’t be used metaphorically. “Blue plate specials” haven’t been served on blue plates in 50 years.

Finally, political correctness has overtones of bullshit in many cases. “Differently abled”? What the hell does that even mean? Does he shoot webbing out of his forearm? Fly? “Retard” means to delay or stunt the growth of. In the case of mental retardation, the person’s mental development is retarded. Why is it an insult now?

9

[QUOTE=WhyNot]

Finally, political correctness has overtones of bullshit in many cases. “Differently abled”? What the hell does that even mean? Does he shoot webbing out of his forearm? Fly?
[/QUOTE]

I totally agree, and I am one of those that some people call “differently abled” (I’m paraplegic); that has to be one of the most idiotic terms anyone has so far come up with. If I could see into the deep ultraviolet I’d be differently abled. If I could hear up to 100 khz I’d be differently abled. If I could sense magnetic fields I’d be differently abled. “Disabled” is quite a satisfactory term for my present state of being, thank you, although I’m of the somewhat less strong opinion that “handicapped” is more descriptive - consider what disabled means when it refers to a machine.

10

[QUOTE=ITR champion]
It’s extremely awkward when you have to give a woman the “Businessman of the Year Award” or something of that nature.
[/QUOTE]

It’s only awkward if you make it awkward, and it’s this unnecessary emotional investment that makes displays of correctness annoying.

11

There is certain presumption that people who use the politically correct word are somehow more enlightened, more caring, all round better people than those who may use the standard or more basic word. When I use what some may think of as an unpolitically correct term, they love to jump on that, as if my choice of using the long known standard version of the word has revealed my dark, prejudiced side. My politically correct friends are constantly pointing out what they consider better choices, and it gets on my nerves.

When I refer to spending time with a “mentally retarded” neighbor, they cringe. “You should say, “mentally challenged.” If I use the term “horsemen,” to refer to a group a trainers that may include women, they shake their head. “Don’t forget Mary, she is a horsewoman.” When I mentioned I had a friend who is going blind, I was told she is not going blind, she is, “Becoming sight impaired.”

And the most annoying thing of all is that the people who are telling me to change my vocabulary because I might possibly offend someone, are telling me to use labels that the people I would be labeling don’t even use. My black friends refer to themselves as black, not African American, but for some reason when I use the word black it shows I am using it to be mean and hurt their feelings? My friend often speaks of her of working with people who are already blind, to help her prepare. But if I say blind, I am being rude? And the mother of my mentally retarded neighbor would definately roll her eyes if anyone told her to start referring to him as mentally handi-capable, as someone recently suggested I do.

12

Totally agree with you WhyNot, and I wish everyone held those views aruvqan. The world would be a much happier place if they did.

13

Political correctness is not about (or at least should not be about) the fabrication of new fangled terms for its own sake. We use black and African American instead of “nigger” for good reason, the word has become associated with racist attitudes. I use the term mentally challenged or mentally handicapped instead of retard because (A) the term has a history of being used as a perjorative (have you ever used the word to describe someone who was not mentally challenged? Did you mean anything good by it when you called someone a retard? Have you ever called a straight guy a faggot? Did you mean anything good by it?). The word retard also tends to define people by their handicap rather than explain one facet of who they are.

It should be noted that some of the most venerable black groups the United Negro College Fund and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People still use the terms “Negro” and “Colored.” As far as I can tell, the problem with the use of the term “Black” has been because the term has been used as a perjorative in other cultures and languages. Heck the Congressional Black Caucus still uses the term.

The use of other terms like “Oriental” are no longer used because it hearkens back to the days of European colonialism and is not particularly descriptive. If homosexuals want to be referred to as gay, lesbian and transgender rather than faggot, dike or tranny because they find those terms offensive, then I don’t see why I would not accomodatre them.

Of course the problem is that you have a small group of hyper-politically correct people who insist on virtually creating a new language to describe just about everything.

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
I get annoyed when someone gets their panties in a bunch because I used an outdated term - and they get so annoyed that they ignore my point because of it.

Is the guy with the low IQ working at Burger King “retarded”, “developmentally delayed”, “disabled” or “differently abled”? Who cares? All that matters is that you know that he’s one of those for the story I want to tell. Getting all hung up because I use a term that you find politically incorrect frustrates me.

Political correctness is not always more precise. Not all “African-Americans” are from Africa, and not all Americans from Africa have dark skin. Frankly, the most accurate and precise term would have to be “negros” or “darkies”, but good luck getting either of those to fly! (They aren’t “black”, we aren’t “colorless” to their “colored”, etc.) OTOH, we all knew what we all meant when we used the term “black”, and I don’t really see why it can’t be used metaphorically. “Blue plate specials” haven’t been served on blue plates in 50 years.

Finally, political correctness has overtones of bullshit in many cases. “Differently abled”? What the hell does that even mean? Does he shoot webbing out of his forearm? Fly? “Retard” means to delay or stunt the growth of. In the case of mental retardation, the person’s mental development is retarded. Why is it an insult now?
[/QUOTE]

14

[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
It’s only awkward if you make it awkward, and it’s this unnecessary emotional investment that makes displays of correctness annoying.
[/QUOTE]
I agree with you. I have always liked the fact that here in Chicago, no one ever tries to call female aldermen “alderwomen.” This kind of thing sounds so contrived to me.

I think the main problem with political correctness is that it implies that everyone in a particular group likes to be referred to the same way…that they don’t have any opinions of their own. I have heard it said that the term that Little People/Midgets/Dwarves prefer is “Little People.” That always makes me cringe, because my first thought is that there is no way that every single person in that group prefers that term. Was there some memo that came out that said…“OK, guys…united front! Gotta make sure the tall people all call us the same thing!” Come on…people have different personalities and preferences, so no matter what you say, there’s a chance you are offending someone.

I can completely understand why you don’t like the term “differently abled,” Canadjun. To me, it sounds very condescending…like if people call you that, you won’t realize you are handicapped.

15

[QUOTE=ITR champion]

“African American”, on the other hand, is right on the money. We’re trying to describe people of African heritage who currently live in America.

[/quote]

Is it really right on the money? How much African blood do you need to have before you’re classified as African American? Lot’s of African Americans living in the United States have plenty of European ancestors are they still African American? What about people who came from Egypt, are they African American, or do we only count people from sub-sahara Africa? I’m not trying to be a jerk but it’s extremely difficult to classify people based on looks. Well, it’s easy to classify people based on looks, but it’s difficult to classify people based on looks without being completely arbitrary. If I look white to most people but my grandfather was black what does that make me?

You’re right, but many Anthropologist and even the native population continues to use both Native American and Indian.

I find businessperson, postalperson, fireperson, etc. to be awkward so I just use
-men when talking about them as a whole.

Marc

16

I rarely have occasion to use either politically correct phrases or their politically incorrect counterparts, simply because I rarely refer to people by their ethnic group, handicap, or whatever. I recognize that everyone is an individual, and I try to avoid categorizing people. I try not to make generalizations about this or that group of people, because I know there are always exceptions. As a result, I find that political correctness is not an issue for me.

If I wanted to tell someone about my neighbor whose skin is a darker color than mine, I would not for example say “my black neighbor” nor even “my African American neighbor.” Rather I would probably say “my next-door neighbor” or “my new neighbor.” Heck, on a good day, I might even refer to him by his name.

I have no reason to say anything about groups of people, unless I were referring to scientifically collected statistical data. If, for example, a survey reported that “65% of black voters are Democrat,” I would know that of those who responded to the survey, 65% of those who identified themselves as black also identified themselves as Democrat. Beyond that, I will not engage in discussions or debates regarding characteristics of certain groups of people.

As for the original question in the OP, what’s wrong with political correctness is that it assumes a connotation to a word that is most likely meant only in a denotative fashion. When someone is offended at the use of a politically incorrect term, it is usually more because the listener is unreasonably and easily offended than because the speaker is intending to offend. It would be easier to tell the overly sensitive person (temperament impaired person? Heh heh) to lighten up than it would be to recreate the English language.

17

If PC was just about using words that were deemed inoffensive, it would be annoying and amusing but it wouldn’t be terrible. But Political Correctness is more than that. It’s about seeing men as oppressors of women and whites as oppressors of blacks. It’s also about seeing all people as equal, even in situations where they are clearly not. It’s also about intimidating and silencing those who dare to question the tenets of PC.

Real people can get hurt in tangible ways by the blindness and dogmatism of the politically correct.

18

[QUOTE=voltz]
If I wanted to tell someone about my neighbor whose skin is a darker color than mine, I would not for example say “my black neighbor” nor even “my African American neighbor.” Rather I would probably say “my next-door neighbor” or “my new neighbor.” Heck, on a good day, I might even refer to him by his name.
[/QUOTE]

Sure, but this isn’t being politically correct. Politically correct would be if I was at a block party and you asked me to take a beer to your neighbor. When I ask what he looks like, you say. “Well, he’s about 6 foot 4, dark hair, dark eyes…I think he’s wearing red shorts?” Yet you never, ever allow yourself to say he’s African-American or black. WTF? It’s a category like any other, and will often help me exclude half the people there from my search. If I’m looking for a tall black dude, just say he’s a tall black dude - it’s really ok, I won’t think you’re a bigot for noticing and commenting that he’s black!

19

[QUOTE=MGibson]
Is it really right on the money? How much African blood do you need to have before you’re classified as African American? Lot’s of African Americans living in the United States have plenty of European ancestors are they still African American?
[/quote]

The same questions could very be asked for black people. I find it amazing that A-A is seen as so gosh darn confusing and inaccurate, when the very same problems and more exist with respect to “black”.

20

[QUOTE=ITR champion]

An even clearer example is replacing “Indian” with “Native American”. “Indian” was a horrible misnomer to begin with, the result of utter confusion and nothing more. Centuries ago it might have been usable, but only because no one from India was moving to America. Nowadays we have a sizeable population of the group that’s correctly labeled “Indian”, so we’re at risk of having two contradictory meanings for the term. “Native American”, on the other hand, is exactly accurate and erases the ambiguity.

[/QUOTE]

This typifies part of the problem. You are forcing your descriptors upon everyone esle, and labeling detractors as (by definition) incorrect.

My wife is Indian (Native American). Her family, obviously is as well. You know what they call themselves? Indians. 99% of the time. The other 1% is “Native”. Never “Native American”.

Indian was fine. It wasn’t insulting until someone, all of a sudden for no apparent reason, and without consulting actual Indians, decided that it was.

Political correctness is thinly veiled arogance.