Is the use of 'political correctness' as a derogatory intended to remove human rights?

Question

The media make a great deal about extreme cases of bizarre 'politically correct' decisions, which outrage and offend people.

But then, very serious issues are dismissed as 'political correctness'.

Is the idea to make racist and sexist people feel righteous?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there will always be a large number of people who want to dismiss issues which are unimportant to themselves as being trivial. It is easier to dismiss it as political correctness than to try to understand the real issues which affect real people. Does this reflect a kind of institutional racism in the popular media? To some degree I think it does. Thanks for an interesting question, nice to do a bit of thinking fir a change. To anyone posting an example of PC gone mad- the question isn't trying to justify these, it's asking whether these examples have been used to weaken the term PC so much that it can now be used to dismiss genuine problems, so don't get on your high horse.

Answer 2

i think the term political correctness has been hijacked by right wing papers and politicians to dismiss anything which they dont like the sound of. although i agree that there are some cases where people are over zealous, and when carefulness not to offend people goes a little bit too far, however these cases are few and far between - the rightwing media simply blows them out of proportion. the real good things which have been done by the PC movement since the 1970's are forgotten, but are very important. sexist and racist words should no longer be acceptable and a lot of that has to do with pc, which is surely a good thing.

Answer 3

The idea of political correctness, of avoiding labelling and discrimination of minorities is a worthy ideal. People should not be disadvantaged because they are different to others.

Problems seem to arise when people other than the minorities make extreme efforts to avoid the appearance of discrimination. We are currently in a situation where airport security officials are searching for islamic terrorists, and wasting time searching white pensioners. We have councils calling Christmas a winter festival, despite a lack of complaints from minorities about Christmas. We have British rail refusing to allow train carriages to be used because the infomation screens cannot be viewd by the partially sighted, so now rather than not being able to see the screens, they dont get to travel at all.

Political correctness is not the problem. The terror of being viewd as politically incorrect is.

Answer 4

I think the problem is that initial intentions were good, but people are now getting frustrated and fed up with how far reaching it has become - for example, you can't call it a black board anymore, it is a chalk board (maybe I am wrong and saying black board is racist and offensive). Due to such minor things there has been a backlash, hence major incidents get overlooked because people are focused on how daft some of the things done under the banner of "political correctness" are.

Answer 5

Political correctness is a term used by people in order to justify their racist/ bigoted/ Small minded/ old fashioned views. If they can label them and then they can use that label as a blame mechanism in order to divert it from them.

Tabloid newspapers love this term because there papers are targeted at a certain demographic, namely the politically ignorant and the right wing. These people want to latch on to excuses that will help justify their behaviour and enable them to continue it guilt free.

Will this change? Definitely not. And I would suggest that maybe, no matter how mad these people can make us the world needs a balance of views.

Answer 6

Political correctness often gets hijacked as does Health and Safety.
In fact the Health and Safety Executive recently released a statement saying that they did not require schoolkids to wear protective glasses when playing conkers and that they felt that the media and other groups were undermining their work by reporting such trivia.
Same goes for PC.
However, when you see such terms as Positive Discrimination it does make you wonder what the hell is going on.
To discriminate or to not discriminate? That is the question.

Answer 7

No it's not! So you think it's okay to ban the nursery song "ba ba black sheep" and call it "ba ba rainbow sheep"? (My friend works in a school and they aren't allowed to sing the traditional way that has been done for a hundred years). I'm not racist or sexist (I have friends who are black and asian) and it's not just the media because I don't read newspapers or watch the news but I see it for myself in other ways (via previous jobs). I think many people use the term "racist" as an excuse to criticise people who want to stand up for the way they have lived all their lives in the country their love. I know a family of muslims who couldn't give a damn that we fly the English flag and think it shouldn't be an issue. After all this is Great Britain!

Answer 8

No, it's an attempt to return to more sensible approach - a middle ground.

True, we should not refer to other cultures in a derogatory term or put labels that segregate.

But since when did 'housewife' mean 'female domestic engineer', or 'short' mean 'vertically challenged', or any number of stupid legislations - like the banning of cartoons (enjoyed by MILLIONS) because ONE ANNOYMOUS complainer too 'real world impaired' to teach their child that painted TV characters are not real. Or having TV programs soley for 'black music and comedy' but no allowance for eg. 'only white' as that would be racist, having 'gay pride' but no 'hetro pride' because it's discriminatory.

Get a grip on life and stop giving the politicians MORE reasons to slap our wrists for the use of free speech.

Answer 9

neither, there is a huge difference. The PC movement has led to mistrust and fear leading to more racism. I know a few bosses who won't employ blacks because they are scared one of their employees will fall foul of PC and get the company in trouble. eg one of my employees used the term "lets get down to the nitty gritty" (meaning small details)and a black guy complained it was racist as it refers to the slave trade. People feel they are walking on eggshells with PC and so come to the conclusion play it safe and simply avoid contact with other races.

Answer 10

Politically correct answers are a perfect way to keep people from saying what they really mean. The ACLU using it to suppress free speech while telling people that they are the champions of peoples rights.