The USA and its Political correctness

[Denur]

It was a bit awkward to hear the local news last June, after [wikipedia]Lewis Hamilton[/wikipedia] won the Canadian Grand Prix, proclaimed by the sports reporter as "...the first Formula One win by an African-American...": Ten seconds of research would have pointed out that he is actually neither one of those.

My point exactly, Lewis is a colored person who happens to be from the the UK. And an amazing racing talent he is too, did you see the Top Gear eposide where did his lap in the Leana? 👍

To be honest, I've rarely heard the term used by actual live people, both white or black (or anything else), except in media.

The first time I heard it was in Massachusetts way back in 1986 (NMRHS). There was this one black boy in school (the only one to my knowledge) who corrected another person who talked about black people. He said: "it's african american people". My guess is, that being the odd one out, does make a difference, but on the whole...

 

[Gil]

IMHO we are all ONE race: Human.
Some of us have different levels of pigment.
But being a medical professional, I can tell you a CT scan, X-ray, MRI will see pretty much the same stuff inside all of us.

No one is inferior or superior to anyone from a purely physiological standpoint.

I can't fault the purpose of "political correctness", but the implementation blows.

 

[Denur]

I can't fault the purpose of "political correctness.

Inlighten me, what is the purpose?

 

[Giancarlo]

There are many words with a negative historical context. That's why we don't use them. For example, you just used the term "colored person." That's extremely offensive because during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, many white people referred to black people as "colored" in an attempt to belittle them. White is a color too, you know.

That's why political correctness is certainly not "stupid." If you're too ignorant to learn where words originated from, outside of just the n-word, then you're just using laziness as a cop-out to consider all people as equals.

If you call people "foreigners," as was mentioned before, it's not ok just because they're not from here. You're using a term in order to bunch a large group of people so that it is easier to discriminate against them. Foreign is the same thing you call an object. You may not think that people from other countries have fewer rights than you do, but that is still what the term was created to accomplish.

 

[YSSMAN]

Inlighten me, what is the purpose?

The point is to be nice and not offend people. You've got to remember its a fairly new thing after our little struggle with civil rights 40 years ago. Racism is still alive and well in the US, you just don't see it as much anymore...

 

[Denur]

That's extremely offensive because during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, many white people referred to black people as "colored" in an attempt to belittle them.

That, I did not know. Was it really their intent to belittle them? Or just to state a difference based on race, which is not belitteling, but just plain racist.
I highligthed "many" because that term in itself is a good use of PC, one that I appreciate.

 

[Denur]

The point is to be nice and not offend people.

To me that is just good manners.

 

[Giancarlo]

That, I did not know. Was it really their intent to belittle them? Or just to state a difference based on race, which is not belitteling, but just plain racist.

Both. By making up differences between them, they created the illusion that white people are better citizens than black people.

 

[TopHat]

You can't print "a chink in his armor" anymore, because some over-sensitive person might find that as belittling to Asian people.

 

[Gil]

See, and some people used the term "colored" to be polite, as Negro was too close to the N-word.

But the purpose of political correctness is indeed, to attempt to be non-offensive.
And as there are so many terms that are considered to be offensive, that coming up with non-offensive terms became "neccessary".

 

[Sniffs]

it's an American thing to do this. as it was to automatically give "minorities" the majority of the privileges and access (IE title ix)

 

[Giancarlo]

as it was to automatically give "minorities" the majority of the privileges and access (IE title ix)

R...really?

 

[Denur]

it's an American thing to do this. as it was to automatically give "minorities" the majority of the privileges and access (IE title ix)

From Wikipedia:

Title IX, is a United States law enacted on June 23, 1972 that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

I would think that in the USA women and men are present in an about 50-50 ratio.

 

[frestkd]

no comment on being kinky ... Living in Arizona, and going through it's public school system I can tell you that "Japanese Camps" were in our history books. So were other POW Camps for that matter.

So, you're not mainstream and maybe even a bit kinky. 👍

It took me a while to understand why the term "Japanese" could be offensive to anyone, but I think I understand now. In WW2 we used to refer to japanese prisoner of war camps as "Japanese camps" or rather "jappen kampen" in dutch. Those were not very happy days and I can understand that japanese people could be offended by those choise of words, more so, because that part of their recent history is conveniently left -out in their history books.

Well I got another warning that's 2 I think ... oh well ... I thought freedom of speech is welcome here, but I could be wrong.

 

[TopHat]

it's an American thing to do this. as it was to automatically give "minorities" the majority of the privileges and access (IE title ix)

Way to totally not know what Title IX is about.

 

[Sniffs]

I was giving an example, and remembering one of the "outragous" gripes I heard of ling ago concerning title IX, that huge amounts of men's sports on some college campuses were deliberatly discarded to bring the male- female ratios to fifty-fifty on the nose.

frestkd just gave a perfect example of political incorrectness, which he was warned for. the one he used is classified with the N word, so is "dwarf" for little people, and they WILL still raise a stink about it!

don't forget, this is a lawsuit and lawyer happy country, and ANYONE will sue at the drop of a hat.

Denur: a lot of automaic descent rerefrencing in a innofensive way is becoming ingrained into American thought

 

[Danoff]

I don't think people, by their nature, are politically correct.

I disagree. People naturally adjust their dialog with people that they don't want to offend (for various reasons) in order to achieve the desired outcome. If your friend has been putting on a lot of weight, do you tell him? Probably not. If your wife's cooking is horrific, you might let her know about a few dishes, but you'll probably stomach some of it - especially if she likes to cook. If your boss is a bad manager, do you tell him? Maybe you hint at it, maybe you make suggestions, but you don't bluntly hit him over the head with it.

And that's the point. That's where all of this comes from. It's an attempt to be polite run amok. People are naturally polite with friends, loved-ones, authority figures, and, depending on the person, even strangers.

 

[Omnis]

I don't think people, by their nature, are politically correct.

Perhaps, but it just depends on the "politics" of the moment. In other words, I think people by their nature are inclined to be as polite/respectful as necessary for fear of social or even physical repercussions.

 

[Pupik]

I disagree. People naturally adjust their dialog with people that they don't want to offend (for various reasons) in order to achieve the desired outcome.

Perhaps, but it just depends on the "politics" of the moment. In other words, I think people by their nature are inclined to be as polite/respectful as necessary for fear of social or even physical repercussions.

People aren't politically correct inasmuch as they carefully weed out dialogue or test new words out to see what type of response they get (children do that). People tend to search for, and use simpler and more convenient words in their language to describe things.

But there is a kernel of truth to what you are saying: I tend on the side of PC when handling a touchy or vague subject/issue, usually much more so at work (try explaining to someone that they "drive like a fool" and thus owe you $1000...), but in most everyday speech, it falls away for simplicity.