Political Correctness has Gone Too Far
The “Politically Correct” movement’s purpose is to bring historically condescending terms, offensive music and art, and controversial educational content to an end and replace them with more positive and less-offending references. Offensive and demoralizing efforts are wrong, but the censorship and deletion of words and phrases that do not contain the intention to demoralize are taking political correctness too far. Politically correct (or “PC”) antics have created a social decline that is growing worse with each generation, specifically regarding areas of art, education, language, and our right to freedom of speech; the degradation they have brought to the American psyche has even led to
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The word snowman is not offensive by any means. It was not created with an intension to offend, demean, or label any group. But the new term for snowman is snowperson. Frosty the Snowman, the children’s tale that familiarized America with the term snowman, was originally created as a Christmas song. (“Frosty the Snowman was a Tin Pan Alley novelty created by Jack Nelson and Steve Rollins in 1950.” Wikipedia online Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowman ) . It was not a story of a snow-woman. It was a story of a snowman. The name snowperson suggests that it is unisex, and to consider Frosty as unisex would numb the creative aspects of our holiday song and children’s stories of Frosty the Snowman. This is an overly sensitive effort to stop a word that has no offensive connotation and kill its creative and historical meaning.
However, many groups claim that political correctness in society is justified in its efforts to sanitize offensive material created though years of oppressing minorities. What was originally a noble idea, to remove blatant words of offensive meaning, has turned into an “over the top” effort to rid any words of possible controversy. We are regulating our ways of plain speaking, freedom of choice, and freedom of speech. Laws of restrictions on slander and public decency should be decided on the common law methodology and not by the interests of the liberal “mob”. If plain speaking is not allowed, clear thinking is
In this article the research I collected explains the use of political correctness at a University. The purpose of political correctness is to avoid or take extreme measures to desist any action or expression that may exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. It is clear that majority of the people in this article are not satisfied by the way issues were handled at the University. The author presented relevant information to answer the question; “Is political correctness an enemy of free speech?”. Some government officials that were brought into this situation, agreed with political correctness and what it means. While doing this research I learned that political correctness in not only this, but also is a tool used to control people's speech so that no one feels offended. I believe political correctness is barricade for anyone who wants a power of choice. Moreover, this article is useful for an analysis on limitations for societies in
Freedom of speech is a glorious thing and a privileges of living in the United States of America is being able to express one’s opinion. Segments of society are making an effort to stifle people’s opinions to do what is politically correct. Can people’s ideas of protection be too extreme? In the article, “The Coddling of the American Mind”, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt argue that there is a negative outcome when rules are given to stop people from being offended, and this statement is supported from real life examples, analogies, and reliable sources.
In an article from The Washington Post, Cathy Cuthbertson, a Trump supporter, said, ““You know, I couldn’t say ‘Merry Christmas.’ And when we wrote things, we couldn’t even say ‘he’ or ‘she,’ because we had transgender. People of color. I mean, we had to watch every word that came out of our mouth, because we were afraid of offending someone,”(Tumulty and Johnson). Cuthbertson’s feelings embody much of those who oppose political correctness. Most of the oppositions to political corrections stem from the argument
As seen from the text “On the Question of Nigga Authenticity”, the use of the word “nigger” can be offensive. The politically correct term would be African American. It is respectful to say African American. At the same time others may not have a problem being called a " nigger”. I this care political correctness would encourage hate speech because there is a connection between slavery and the word nigger. Generalizing a certain group can seen as hurtful, but then again it depends on how you spin it. This term is ued
The politically correct movement is made
As American people, we know that we are entitled to certain rights according to the constitution; one of which is freedom of speech. In Civility and Its Discontents, Leslie Epstein explores the limits and contradictions of this much cherished right when considering whether he would expel a student who wrote racial slurs in the dorm rooms of a University if it was up to him. He discusses this situation and topics that stem from it in an analytical yet somewhat emotionally involved tone and makes the reader reflect on the wide range of information presented about the issues of political correctness, freedom of speech, expulsion, and racism.
Political correctness has become increasingly obvious in our daily lives. For example, the other day I attended the first meeting of the Frisbee Club here on the State University campus. During the meeting, we were discussing the fact we wanted shirts for this year, but we did not know what slogan to use.
For one thing, in the op-ed “Can We Start Taking Political Correctness Seriously Now?” the author Chait summarizes that the protesters in the student demonstration at the University of Missouri besieged a photographer. Most supporters on the left think that young people want to keep themselves from any offense, and they believe that political correctness only occurs on campus; however, the truth is that political correctness will spread beyond the campuses. Next, Chait compares the Columbia event to the New Haven scene. Both of them express doubt in the “political democracy.” Finally, the author claims that the political correctness is excessive on campus, and leftists cannot escape the problem of political correctness. On the other hand, in the op-ed “The Delicate Little Flowers on Today’s College Campuses,” the author Goldberg explains that the Yale riot is due to the reply of a caution to stop wearing Halloween costumes. Also, as the scientist analyzes, current college students are so delicate that they always think they are offended. Then, Goldberg gives us the conclusion that it is the problem of education rather than political correctness itself. At last, he visualizes that these students flow into the society with “emotional cocoon” in the future. Although Chait’s Op-ed shows effective self-presentation in his claim about the leftist ideology of the political correctness, Goldberg does a better job by providing concrete evidence in logos and pathos in
In the past few years, during the holiday season, “happy holidays” can be heard instead of the traditional “merry Christmas.” This is because some people find the term merry Christmas offensive. As a result, the use of the term is frowned upon, unless it is within a religious setting. This is an example of political correctness encroaching on people’s first amendment rights. Even though it is still legal to say merry Christmas there is an aura of judgement that goes along with it. Over time it seems like the ban upon any speech that anyone finds offensive will be implemented. Not so fast, according to the USA today there is a resistance to outlandish political correctness. People seem to be bothered by the disingenuous salutation “happy holidays”: Ninety-five percent insist they are not offended by being greeted with a "Merry Christmas" while shopping, but greet them with a "Happy Holidays," and 46% claim to take offense.” (‘Merry Christmas’ Is Favored Greeting). In the past it has not been completely appropriate for people to use “merry Christmas”; however, now it appears that people find it better for a few to be slightly offended than for traditions to be broken. People’s resistance to political correctness protects their first amendment rights and continues American traditions.
Political correctness proposes that we should treat each other with unbiased views. Although this is a great idea, many people tend to take it too far causing a whirlwind of problems. The effects of political correctness and the impact on the majority of the population who follow this idea are controversial. In “Don’t Rewrite the Bible”, Michael Golden emphasizes the role that political correctness plays in our society today. He believes that society has taken the idea of impartialness too far, however, in some instances it is needed.
The idea that political correctness protects marginalized individuals is fallacious. The political left’s sharp focus on being politically correct has inhibited the potential for real conversations on race, gender, and other similar issues to take place. For fear of being labeled as racists or bigots, many are forced to tiptoe around certain subjects. Direct examples of this are the fear of using the word “black” to describe black people and the fear of discussing the complicated history of slavery in their presence. Another issue that is given the blanket term of “politically incorrect” is any discussion regarding the habits of obese people, whose critics are immediately labeled as bullies. In addition to prioritizing equality over hard work
Political correctness features prominently within the play. Political correctness was seen as a highly controversial issue in the late 1980s to the early 1990s and was argued within a 1992 essay collection, debating political correctness, that it was “The most important discussion in American education”. This was perhaps due to the numerous amounts of opinions on whether or not political correctness was right. Political correctness repressed people’s abilities to freedom of speech and therefore there were many differing
Companies are afraid. Very afraid. They are not offending anyone, catering to all ethnicities, cultures, and backgrounds, and being “politically correct” in every sense of the word. In fear of offending any potential customers they might have, companies adopt an “all-inclusive” approach to their image. Advertisements depicting groups of people of identical race have become an endangered species; all walks of life are being crammed into any group of people representing a logo. This practice may seem insignificant, but it has infiltrated everything, everywhere, and has reached an unrealistic level.
“Terms such as politically correct thus have a hidden history, uncovering which is dependent both on the accurate recollection of those who were there,” (Cameron, 1995,78).
It's not right to isolate children from the books, toys, and games that let them