Politically-correctedness out of hand?

Question

I was speaking with a friend of mine and was referring to a person she was acquainted was, and her name slipping my mind, I asked my friend "so does she have class on that day, your friend?". She not knowing who I was referring to and asking me what she looks like, I replied "the black girl who rides our bus".

To which she replied, "you mean the girl with brown eyes?", looking at me as if I had said something horribly wrong.

I think this is silly, calling blacks 'African-Americans', calling orientals 'Oriental Americans', and so on and so forth,

And the white race, we don't refer to them as 'European American', do we?

Answer 1

PC has been way out of line for years

Answer 2

P.C. monsters are absolutely absurd.
Is there anything wrong with having black or brown, yellow or white skin? Well we all know, of course not. So when we mention it as an identifying characteristic we shouldn't get dirty looks.
We have entered a new era. I don't know anyone who owns black slaves, I don't know anyone who hates black people because they are black, and personally, I am tired of carrying the cultural guilt for it. White Americans need to forgive themselves for the (granted, truly horrible) crimes they committed against black Americans and move on!
Morgan Freeman pointed out in his criticism of Black History Month that it is actually more racist to give one race special treatment. What a breath of fresh air, coming from a smart, talented, respectable, and--I'll be damned if he's not, black-- man.

Answer 3

Excellent! We will never grow beyond the diversity of our species, until we learn that describing each other should not be offensive when not intended. If a person is "black" (by social understanding) it shouldnt offend to say it. No one is offended by being called white!

The problem is when we segregate people by color. For example, saying you have friends that are black, or saying you have black friends shouldnt be offensive if you dont segregate them. If you are talking to a friend and saying "my black friend jack and I went out Saturday" that is racist, because there was no need to describe Jack by anything other than "friend"- you should have said my friend Jack and I went out saturday.

A friend is a friend no matter what color they are. But if you say my friend Jack is black- thats ok, because you are describing his skin tone. If you say I have many black friends, that should be ok too- but if you seperate your friends by color or race or whatever- you are a bigot- sometimes people dont know any better, but if they try- they can learn that we are all the same color on the inside.

I think we can get over racism, when we are no longer afraid to discuss it. If we want to kick a bad habit like drinking, we have to admit we have a problem, right!? This is no different. AND racism burns from both ends!

dead mike- I agree with you. more white people want to cover up for their own prejudice instead of admitting they have it- prejudice is not the same as racist. By bashing other white people for being honest, they are merely overcompensating for their own prejudice. Malcolm X didnt want help from whites in the beginning because he knew they were only doing it so people wouldnt THINK they were prejudice. He didnt want white people to help his cause simply because they were black and needed help- he wanted people to help his cause because PEOPLE needed help (without race having anything to do with it)- but he knew that wouldnt be the case (mostly)

Answer 4

You see, you should have referred to her as the girl with the enormous tit's. Or if otherwise blessed, the fried eggs under the jumper! There, I hope this has given you some help in being a little more politically correct?

Answer 5

Blacks wanted to be called black - they used to prefer it to *****, which they wanted to be called instead of "colored" which they preferred to the N word - I don't dare even type it anymore. When I refer to somebody as "that black guy" - there is no negative connotation that goes with it - I think more white people freak out over it than black (oops - take that white pc people) people.

Answer 6

You are so right. The political correctness has run amuck in this country. You did not say anything wrong with referring to the friend as black.

Answer 7

You are, of course, quite correct. I just use whatever descriptive
term I feel like using, and if someone takes offense, then I ask
them to be specific and tell me what I have said that they think is offensive. I then defend my word-choice and attempt to school them in the realities of converstaional English. If that doesn't work, then I resort to those two wonderful "L"-words. I "LOVE" the way you "LIBERALS" want to tell everyone what we mean
by what we say, even when you have no cLue! LOL" Sincerely, Eagle(you see)Steve.

Answer 8

I see your point, but you did choose her skin color as one of only two attributes to identify her. Next time add something else in, like "the black girl with braids that carries a pink backpack". Or point out something about her personality, like she's really funny or shy.

Answer 9

yes it is out of hand, you were stating an obvious way to identify who you were trying to identify. Just so happens, its easy to tell black from white, there is nothing wrong with that, people need to get over themselves.

Answer 10

if they're the only black person on the bus, i don't see anything wrong with it. i don't think very many people still use the term, "oriental", though

Answer 11

Political correctness is nothing more than subtle brainwashing us, and trying to make us conform to the politico's point of view. It is a censoring and eroding our rights little by little.