Currently there seems to be a movement – a back lash if you will – against what is deemed the state of “political correctness” in our society. The fact that people now feel they need to be more sensitive and walk on egg shells around groups who may have been maligned in the past seems to be perceived as too much work. Why are “they” so sensitive? This question gets posed. Why can’t we go back to the way it used to be? Everybody is so quick to get their panties or boxers in a knot over the littlest things. From use of the word retarded (whether in satire or in reference to political foes), to the restriction of telling certain types of jokes in the workplace especially when the object of those jokes is a female or member of the non-majority.
The Hell You Say?
Thing about it is, if you don’t fall into the bell curve of what is acceptable in our society (WASP, married, skinny, etc.), you may have been the victim of something far worse than the lack of political correctness in the past. The reason why we need to be politically correct didn’t come out of nowhere. There is a history around the world of intolerance that still exists today in its many forms. From racial discrimination to the small slights people make when they form an assumption about someone’s lifestyle.
One minor and recent assumption I witnessed was someone make the suggestion that a single person working overtime and late hours has less of a strain on their life than one who has a mate and children at home. All of our time is valuable last time I checked and no one is more valuable than the next just because of the status on their tax returns. Or another major assumption someone made about the consumption of beverages by a certain ethnic group. Really? Seriously? It was mind boggling and sooo 1950s.
Again, those who have been part of the mainstream or the middle of that bell curve for so long may think it a burden to check their political incorrectness but really, think about the hurt that is spared the person on the outskirts – the outlier. For soon, as the census will foretell, those outliers will be outliers no more but the new mainstream. The bell curve will be flattened with more color on it and more single people too.
And then political correctness won’t be a choice, it will be the way we live – without a second thought or a need to correct ourselves.
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