For Every Sniveling Whiteboy Who Ever Whined About Political Correctness
Good God! - how I needed to read this essay recommended by Yolanda Carrington of The Primary Contradiction on the use of the term "political correctness" in undermining attempts to call librul-boy whitemales on their shit. As ever, they try to position themselves as the victims to avoid responsibility for treating the rest of us with basic human decency.
Kai Chang's so dead on with this critique, his writing goes off like a bomb:
The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"
Kai Chang's so dead on with this critique, his writing goes off like a bomb:
The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"
...Read the rest...
As it's commonly used, "PC" is a deliberately imprecise expression (just try finding or writing a terse, precise definition) because its objective isn't to communicate a substantive idea, but simply to sneer and snivel about the linguistic and cultural burdens of treating all people with the respect and sensitivity with which they wish to be treated. Thus, the Herculean effort required to call me "Asian American" rather than "chink" is seen as a concession to "the PC police", an unsettling infringement on the free-wheeling conversation of, I suppose, "non-chinks". Having to refer to black folks as "African Americans" rather than various historically-prevalent epithets surely strikes some red-blooded blue-balled white-men as a form of cultural oppression. Having to refer to "women" rather than "bitches" lays a violent buzzkill on the bar-room banter of men preoccupied with beating on their chests and off other body parts.
Obviously these examples fall on the simplistic side of things, but I think they illustrate the shaky philosophical foundation of today's usage. Underlying every complaint of "PC" is the absurd notion that members of dominant mainstream society have been victimized by an arbitrarily hypersensitive prohibition against linguistic and cultural constructions that are considered historical manifestations of bigotry. It's no coincidence that "PC"-snivelers are for the most part white men who are essentially saying, "Who the hell do these marginalized groups think they are to tell me how I should or shouldn't portray them? I'm not going to say 'mentally challenged' when it's my right to say 'retard', goshdarnit there's only so much abuse I'll take!"
...
Labels: Kai Chang, Political Correctness, Yolanda Carrington


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