Has political correctness gone way too far in the UK?

Question

This question is politely asked of anyone who is living in the UK and is not of english origin.

Do you really find the following examples offensive, and if so, why?

1. The wearing of england football shirts during the World Cup and the use of the St. George flag

2. When I was at school, it was a "blackboard", now it has to be called a "chalkboard" because apparently the aforemetioned is offensive.

3. The nursery rhyme "Baa Baa Black Sheep" has had the word "black" changed to all sorts of weird combinations because that too can be seen as offensive.

This is just a small example of all sorts of areas of our lifestyle and culture that have been changed / banned as it may offend foreign individuals.

This question is asked without predjudice and I would respect polite, constructive answers please, wether they are in the negative or positive. Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, you have a point. I am a foreigner living in England and I find nothing offensive that you mentioned. My wife is of Indian origin and she too finds nothing offensive. What on earth could be offensive about the St. George,s flag! It is the flag of England.
What I object to is racism and not nationalism! During the world cup English fans crossed all limits of racism in England as well as Germany. I saw Portugese people being racially abused, by drunken louts. Houses of Portugese families were targets of bottles and eggs. There is nothing wrong in wearing England shirts or rooting for England, it is the accompanied racism and prejudice that is the problem. The present political set up if it tackles racism in the right way it can go a long way in improving relations between different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. Banning nursery rhymies and calling a black board a chalkboard are not going to tackle racism just increase it. Tackle the root cause of racial prejudice I say not make useless gestures.

Answer 2

I agree the most racist are the minorities and the government.

How can some one form the eastern bloke or nigeria get benefit straight off when i have been paying tax's for 12 years and have to wait 26 weeks. when/if i come out of work.

if i want a black coffee i ask for a black coffee if i want to sing baa baa black sheep I will sing it. There is also now a section in hmv for black artists i find this racist wheres the section for the white artists.

and the music of black origin awards. i gt a music for the white person award and no one coloured or mixed race will ever win it.


Also doodydude i am middleclass and you can poke that comment up your ***.

Answer 3

Black, black black black , black! who gives a ****,political Correctness is for the fanatical political *** wipers who would sell there mother if it made them look good!
Freedom of speech is not a subject approached anymore! Everything is walking on eggshells or else get your face slapped by the tabloid media. The problem is the system and only the people true to their Heritage and beliefs should stand up and be counted!
I say no more to hell with it..God gave me intelligence and no fuckwitt politician is gonna make me stop using it! So if I wanna open my mouth and speak my mind I will...
if I get called a racist in the progress well all I can say is " You can kiss my Lilly white politically incorrect ***!"

Answer 4

I am from the UK, but don't live there anymore, but yes, PC has gone way too far. It seems that everything is considered offensive to everybody nowadays. It is generally utterly impossible to please every offended minority. On the other hand, by being so PC, we are actually discriminating more. The term discrimination actually means to point out differences, not to hate. Therefore by pointing out that "this blackboard is black, and so is Johnny." we are actually becomming in literal terms more racist, even though we are trying to avoid it.
I've never been a big fan of PC and people need to start their b*tchin'.
Hope this makes sense mate :-)

Answer 5

The so called do gooders are the racists, some of the things they come up with wouldn't enter my mind as racist or offencive, they must have racist minds to come up with it so it upsets the rest of the population, I am Irish descendant and they still tell Irish jokes, so what. There is something wrong with our society.
Employment rights are the same you have to have a percentage of ethnic minorities working at you business, not the best qualified.
The pend alum did need to swing, my father told me when he came over looking for work the sign would read vacancy's no Irish need apply. That wouldn't happen now but the pend alum needs to come back a little bit and common sense prevail.

Answer 6

I think political correctness has caused the racist society we live in today. Your example of the blackboard is a classic. What about the whiteboard?........Nobody has decided to change the name of that!......Why? The use of the St George flag?.......Hello, are we not in England? I can't see this going on in other countries, there would be an uproar!

Answer 7

The worst thing is, it's the white middle class lefties that instigate political correctness who are the real racists. They are always shocked/offended on someone else's behalf. And so they patronisingly think they have to stand up for black people because because they think they're so stupid they can't stand up for themselves. Makes me sick.

Answer 8

It's sad that us Brits are like this. What really makes my blood boil is the politically correct things that go on in our schools these days - I edit the newspaper for my school and I put the headline to the story as "Are you are Drama Queen?" and it had to be edited out because the Headmaster thought that it referred to homosexuality!

Dear me!!!

Answer 9

It's utterly ridiculous.

It's radicals and politicians trying to get a name for themselves.

This used to be a free country, with free speech. That is no longer the case.

Answer 10

You just cottoned on to this??? Bloody hell!