# What's so bad about political correctness?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-political-correctness/366603>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 30, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-political-correctness/366603 "2006-07-30T21:18:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 7

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-political-correctness/366603/121 "2006-08-02T13:31:42Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Fiveyearlurker]  
So, it makes no difference to you that this is the preferred term among Indians (North American natives, as you have termed them).

That’s pretty arrogant.  
[/QUOTE]

Call it whatever you want, but I see a difference between calling a group by a term despite the fact that most of them believe is derogatory and not calling a group by a term based on my opinion that the term belongs to my group and not theirs.

I’ll give you that it’s a good guideline to lean towards calling people what they want to be called, but when it comes to use of “Indian,” I believe that that general guideline is legitimately trumped by my desire to push common usage towards a more unambiguous situation. I’m willing to use any term for Native Americans except “Indian.” If they don’t like “Native American,” I’d be happy to receive guidance on what their next choice is.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-political-correctness/366603/122 "2006-08-02T14:05:45Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=acsenray]

I’ll give you that it’s a good guideline to lean towards calling people what they want to be called, but when it comes to use of “Indian,” I believe that that general guideline is legitimately trumped by my desire to push common usage towards a more unambiguous situation.  
[/QUOTE]

The general wishes of a race of people is “legitimately trumped” by YOUR desires. I reassert the word arrogant.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-political-correctness/366603/123 "2006-08-02T14:12:47Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=acsenray]

I’ll give you that it’s a good guideline to lean towards calling people what they want to be called, but when it comes to use of “Indian,” I believe that that general guideline is legitimately trumped by my desire to push common usage towards a more unambiguous situation. I’m willing to use any term for Native Americans except “Indian.” If they don’t like “Native American,” I’d be happy to receive guidance on what their next choice is.  
[/QUOTE]

I don’t know, it seems to me that American Indian for one group and Indian-American for another would work. Its clear to me the meaning of each, but hey, what do I know.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-political-correctness/366603.md?page=6)