The Tyranny of Political Correctness

newsmax ^ | June 8, 2003 | Barry Farber

[aristeides]

As SARS shows, PC kills. Why do we allow it to tyrannize over us?

[xrp]

Or how about a white kid playing a rap song on a jew harp.

[per loin]

I once watched an audience participation TV talk show in which a black college girl spoke up about how horrible conditions had been for the African-Americans of South Africa before Mandela freed them from aparthied. The moderator was either too stupid or too PC to correct her garbled language.

[headsonpikes]

A whitewash.

[TLBSHOW]

Because we have allow spoiled brats free reign over words.

[TLBSHOW]

Ps:

The penalties will grow and grow as PC takes over this country but Good~

[whereasandsoforth]

It takes a hardcore racist to read something like that and then assume it compares blacks to apes. It would never occur to me to connect the two. Wow, are there some sick puppies out there!

[aristeides]

The civil rights grievance artists make a career out of seeing racism everywhere.

[longtermmemmory]

urban pulic school threaten to expell students who call anyone a "homo" or "fag". There is no penalty for homoseuxal practitioners calling straight people "breeders"

[longtermmemmory]

just adding:

Homosexual pc demands tollerance of their sexual behavior which has no ablity to produce babies and converse tollerance of their insulting normal people's ability to have sex which produces babies.

Currenly searching for relatives in africa, this will allow me access to african-american status and government sanctioned quotas and preferences.

[gitmo]

PC can only be used against Conservatives. Look at the large number of Democrats who have used "inflammatory" language and are given passes. But let a Republican admire a 100 year old senator, or say "you people" and he will be crucified.

[TheCrusader]

Your point is well taken. I wonder why we even allow ourselves to accept the term "political correctness"? This is truly a whitewash of what is really happening, namely, we are being forced through cultural shame, federal and state legislation, and corrupt Court decisions to accept wrong as being right, evil as being good. "Political correctness" is infinitely too tame a definition for what is happening in our country. "Government imposed thought" is more accurate, is it not?

[kaylar]

I have in my collection a book called The Victorian Homefront, by Professor Lois Tilton. This hardbound book , published by a university press, contains the following sentence:

"He [the author Richard Wright ] felt proud when he learned the ancient Egyptians were African-American."

Ignoring the greater quibble as to whether the ancient Egyptians were identical to subnilotic and west African peoples (which is what is meant by "African American") and which is contradicted by their own pyramid paintings-they apparently saw themselves as distinctly different-think of the literal meaning of the word.

And there's the case of the Jamaiccan man of African descent and a British subject, who was referred to as "African American" (two lies in one) in the front page articles describing the horrific racial attack he suffered in Florida in the early 1990s . The idiot newspaper editor refused to let that story run unless the man was so described, even after the victim's nationality and citizenship was carefuully explained to him, probably several times, slowly, and using only words of two sylables and smaller.

[per loin]

Is that the Tilton who writes sci-fi? Or might it be this book?

The Victorian Homefront. American Thought and Culture1860-1880.
By: Louise L. Stevenson.

[Epasonic]

I am unsure where I stand on this issue. Is it that we as a culture have just become more hypersensitive, or perhaps that as descrimination becomes less and less of a problem we look for it in more places?

I have also noticed that the negative conotation is typically accepted before the positive. If the person interpreting understands the background behind the statement however, often times the positive will be selected. As said above though, people are faster to the picket line than the dictionary. This means that one must carefully watch his/her words, as criticism is easier then understanding.

On one final note, I do not believe "Government imposed thought" is the correct term. "Government limited freedom of speech" is probably more accurate.

[kaylar]

Yep, that's the book... Had her name mixed up with someone else . (I do NOT recommend the book BTW ; that piece of authorial or editorial stupidity was not the only one-it was just the one that made me snap and throw the book across the room.) And THAT'S what's teaching students at today's colleges! .

[arasina]

My sister told me that a few years ago she overheard some black women talking, in response to something in the news about Nelson Mandela. One cried out "Nelson Mandela is one of the finest African-Americans on earth!" My sister just shook her head in disbelief and now she loves to recount this story.

[gcruse]

Because we have allow spoiled brats free reign over words.

'We' are part of the problem ourselves.  Note the perfectly
good word for a female dog now consigned to acronym only,
the 'b' word.  I've remarked before to a chorus of haughty
indignation on this forum that no grown up adult, in speaking
to other adults, should use the term 'potty mouth.'  But I
suppose objecting to the kindergartenization of language is
anti-PC, or just PC in the other direction.  We are doing this
to ourselves because freedom of speech is just as dangerous
as freedom of thought and all the other liberties being drained
away.  We just can't handle it.

[arasina]

It takes a hardcore racist to read something like that and then assume it compares blacks to apes. It would never occur to me to connect the two.

Did you forget your [/sarcasm]?

I think the author is stretching it when he says he doesn't know why anyone would make that connection with his weird made-up word, "chimpanzify." I certainly didn't draw up the same imagery he says he did ("comic haplessness bopping around snorting and making no sense"). I'm old enough to remember when racists disparaged the Negro race by calling them "apes" as if they were subhuman. He needs to admit his use of that word was wrong instead of attempting to justify it. (And he must not have a very long memory, so I'll remind him: Trent Lott.)