A Politically Incorrect Defense of Political Correctness
The word “political correctness” saw it’s modern use begin with the right wing, and it should come as no surprise that the word inherently supports a white, male, upper/middle class, able, ethnocentric and imperialist worldview. I’m going to talk a little about how deriding left-wing efforts to change mainstream behavior towards marginalized groups as “political correctness” is itself a subtle and politically correct way of supporting racism, sexism, and other forms of marginalization. I’m going to talk about what “political correctness” really means, and the extent of misunderstandings and misguided zealousness within the “political correctness movement”. And I’m not going to be politically correct about it.
P.S. You tired of hearing the words political and correct yet?
Political correctness, to many, is just that. It is elitist, acceptable, “correct” to not make racist jokes. To make a racist joke is to challenge the status quo, to bravely breach manners and etiquette and correctness. It is to be the maverick that the mainstream loves to se itself as. At the far end of the right wing, it’s standing up against those fascist liberals. But in reality, those who fight what they deride as “political correctness” are doing the very opposite. They are the status quo. They see themselves as defenders against an oppressive takeover of the public sphere. Yet all that is asked of them is that they not insult marginalized people. By their refusal to stop, they are demanding that marginalized people put up with more oppression.
Political correctness, real “political correctness”, demands an end to the continued marginalization of those peoples. It is not a matter of what is offensive, distasteful, or “correct”. Therein lies the major misunderstanding, even among those who advocate for political correctness. I don’t give a damn if something is offensive, distasteful, or what. It is not about that. It is about marginalized people, and not kicking them when we’ve already stabbed them, stolen their lunch, knocked them over, and punched their kids in the face a few times.
When people get upset and get sand up their neither regions over criticism of, gasp, themselves, that’s one thing. When people start standing up and demanding that they not be treated like animal mascots, butts of jokes, or nonexistent individuals, that’s something else. They are not asking for “correctness”. They are asking like everyone stop acting like they are not in the (figurative) room.
And you know what? We have a right to demand an end to a culture of marginalization, an end to rape culture, an end to celebrating indigenous genocide. And so on. This is not the same as demanding that someone change how they think, or act. But culture works through social pressure, and the only way we can change our culture is through exerting some.
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Overall, I like the piece, Yvette, except for one or two odd mistakes.
First of all, “political correctness” is a PHRASE composed of TWO words, not one.
Secondly, its modern use did not originate with the Right Wing. They stole it from the Red Chinese. Mao’s spokesmen described speech that would get citizens sent to reeducation camps as “politically incorrect.”
It was in common use in the ’80s, which still counts as modern times, I think.
Have you seen the “Politically Incorrect Guide” (P.I.G.) series? These people exhibit all the traits you talked about: http://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Bible-Guides/dp/1596985208
I’m against political correctness not because I’m against some sort of invader, I just think it’s insincere. Making euphemisms for the same word doesn’t change the meaning, it just makes it prettier to say. Take Black and African American. African American has nothing to do with nationality- Black people in America are generally born in America. Black people can come from anywhere in the world other than Africa and still be African American. White people from South Africa who have lived there for generations are NOT African American. So African American refers to skin color. it’s saying black, but in a longer, more polite way. It’s insincere and pointless. It’s a euphemism. Take a seven syllable substitute for “n*gger” and leave the meaning alone. We’ll buy it.
Leave it to Wolf, The White Male to throw around a word that degrades and humiliates blacks. I agree that simply changing the words for “black” or “Asian” is silly, however, I think that once again you have missed my point. My problem is with this pointless word management in the name of “offensiveness”. What should be happening is that privileged folks like yourself stop throwing around language that further marginalized oppressed peoples–you know, exactly like you did just there.