The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Public is divided today over political correctness

By Candace Murphy, STAFF WRITER

insidebayarea.com

{Excerpted}

“What might seem like ancient history at this point is that the politically correct movement was born of good intentions. The practice of being more conscious of how we treat and refer to people who look or act differently from the “majority” was meant to compensate for hundreds of years of politically incorrect behavior.

“The historical value of being politically correct goes back to, well, the origin of politics,” says Cameron Wilson, an Oakland resident who found the Stanford video to be a series of racist comments masked as modern “comedy.” “When you greet a foreign dignitary, it’s important to respect their culture. This is a fundamental aspect of forming a positive, agreeable relationship. How can you possibly show any respect to anyone if you make fun of their features, accent, language or clothing?”

With that in mind, the politically correct movement of the late’80s and early’90s marked a distinct effort to refer to and treat disadvantaged people and minorities more diplomatically.

The theory was that language hurts as much as sticks and stones, so change the language. “Midgets” became “little people.” “Bums” became the “homeless.” The “handicapped” became “challenged,” then “inconvenienced,” because challenged implied they couldn’t do something. Black people came to be called “African-American” because it implied a connection with a home continent, in addition to the pervasive symbolism, according to linguistics expert Robert B. Moore, where white is regarded as positive and black as negative.

Jokes about race, especially about the black community, were no longer considered standard party fare. After all, the civil rights movement of the’60s was hardly ancient history.

But things have shifted.

“Today, as long as you mask your racist comment in a sitcom, a stand-up routine or a clever pop song, you will avoid the tag of ‘racist,’” says Wilson, 30. “Some of the stuff I hear on ‘South Park’ would have had several groups ready to riot 15 or 20 years ago.” (more…)

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Political correctiveness is largely a 9 to 5 phenomena here in America. Beyond that, if it makes you laugh, everything is fair game.