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Questions of Political Correctness
Author: Elea Almazora  | Posted: 02-05-2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 11 | Rating: (53)  (?) 
Why does everything have to be held up to a standard of political correctness nowadays? Lately, it has pretty much become obvious that people are very careful about what they say to certain people, because they will be slapped with accusations of being politically incorrect – which, of course, includes words like “discrimination”. It's fascinating to note that linguistically, we had evolved in such a way that things that were either once admired or thought of as something that one isn't exactly a person's fault are now thought of as negative or something to be held against someone – just because we are, as a world, deathly afraid of offending what is perceived to be a minority that has become aware of its powers to claim certain rights.
Like what was previously mentioned, words like “discrimination” have been waved around by people as things to be shunned. In the past, “discrimination” meant discernment, a particular skill or ability to recognize the subtle differences or distinctions between two or more things. To have discrimination, in some senses, is to have a refined taste. But now, “to discriminate” is almost exclusively used to define anything that involves treating a person or a group of persons as if they were less than equal to one's self or one's peers.
Another favorite example would be the term “homophobia”. A comedian had once commented that “phobia” is a crippling fear of something, and as such, homophobic individuals (or homophobes, as they are colloquially known) really should have more sympathy for their plight. Other individuals with phobias were given the necessary support for their condition, while homophobic people are shunned, called “sick” and often berated by others by their so-called insensitivity. The entire spiel was funny, but what made it better is the fact that it made people think about the words used to describe how people react to each other, and about what words we use to identify prejudice.
It seems that in a world that is hell-bent on becoming politically correct, we had ended up with a language that is politically incorrect – or at the very least, a language that is sorely misused. Homophobia especially, is an obvious misnomer in that it is more like a hatred of homosexual individuals than a fear of them.
Another fascinating effect of this global culture of political correctness would be the fact that in our quest to expand the reach of rights to include everybody, other rights, such as the rights to expression, have been curtailed. Granted, certain expressions such as violence and the like could hardly be beneficial to an increasingly interconnected global society. Still, the fear of offending apparent minority groups have made us believe that tiptoeing around certain issues would be better than confronting it. It seems that rather than dealing with potential conflict, we simply fold to the apparent whims of these people. Furthermore, in an attempt to elevate the status of the minority, the double standards have been switched around.
An example of this pretty much relates to things like religion and race. Not too long ago, in London, a sixteen-year-old student had protested the fact that her expression of her Christian faith – a purity ring that symbolized her commitment to chastity before marriage – was deemed “against school policy” by her local school. The fact that Muslim students in that same educational establishment and area were supposedly allowed to wear their full-faced veils just made things worse – it seems that the majority is now expected to bend over backwards to make the minority uncomfortable. Why is it, one has to ask, that the Muslims are allowed to openly display their faith to the world while the Christians are not?
And it seems that any frustration that the majority has expressed over this obvious double-standard is currently viewed as a kind of bigotry. Why is no one allowed to be angry about this? Is this not also a kind of injustice? In the end, we are going back to a time of closed lips and silence, fostering inequality while at the same time claiming we are working for equality. It is truly, horribly, frustrating that the concept of political correctness has come to the fore, when at the end of the day all that really matters is honest and genuine kindness.
The problem may very well be that people are expected to be like everybody else, that people are expected to bow down to the norm. These days, the norm would be acceptance or, at the very least, tolerance. But one cannot expect everyone to feel the same way about women, men, homosexuals, different races, and different faiths. This is not to say that hatred should be fostered, but it begs the question of why discomfort with ideologies and lifestyles should not be understood and expressed. If we are indeed living in a world of tolerance, dislike of certain things should be tolerated as well as the acceptance of certain things.
We need not develop a new vocabulary to describe this state of affairs, for in the end, shouldn't this be a matter of the heart and soul?
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About the Author:Elea Almazora, contributor to Riling.Com
Elea Almazora currently works as a contributor to many information-based websites, writing about many subjects ranging from culture to sciences.
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