Political correctness, standing for being just and fairness. A term intended to bring the avoidance of offense and insult towards people. This phenomenon of political correctness was formed to aim at being fair, broad-minded and sensible. People didn’t want to be offended by specific terms that marginalized a society. Neutrality is the preferred standpoint.
This is arguably, quite admirable. Most people would agree that it’s a harmless goal in life so that we could have less underlying derogatory comments.
Here’s an example of political correctness: “Jamie Foxx is an African-American singer.” The term African-American is used in preference for the word black and, the now considered offensive term, coloured.
Another famous example of political correctness is in regards to gender: “The meeting will start once the chairperson arrives.” Is it a woman or a man? We wouldn’t know, but it promotes equality and fairness after having deemed the original word of chairman as sexist. Manholes, mankind, firemen, policemen – all deemed sexist.
Political correctness and its initial intentions are thoughtful and has no ill-will. The concept of understanding the sensitivity of people’s race, gender, culture and religion is important. It’s genuinely nice to see a foreigner trying to be respectful of another person’s religion. It’s an ideal way to live life.
Yet in recent times, it has been blown out of proportions that we sometimes have to apologize for every single thing that comes out of our mouth. This concept of political correctness is often misused to suppress opposing viewpoints that absolutely have no ill intentions in the first place.
It has gone to that point where we have to revise the English dictionary to better suit the more politically correctness inclined society. Have you ever stopped to think that the word brainstorming is offensive? Well, a UK council has banned said term and replaced it with “thought showers” as the term brainstorming may offend epileptics.
Brown University performed a debate about campus sexual assaults. Attendees witnessing the debate who might find the topic upsetting and offensive were provided with “a safe space room” equipped with cookies, calming music, pillows, blankets, colouring books and puppy videos.
It’s 2017; we are all tiptoeing around “politically incorrect” land mines, having a higher probability to be called out by a political correctness police patrolling the area than any other years in the past.
Of course, no one should ever be deliberately offended. But being politically correct has been warped and is being misapplied so much that it has been doing more harm than good. We need to understand that there is a time and a place for everything, and that includes being able to be politically correct, and knowing when it’s time to just be frank and straightforward about a particular issue.