Sunday, April 16, 2006

Conscientious Awareness vs. Politically Correct

Before we had "politically correct," we had "conscientious awareness." We should've stuck with the original phrase.

Being aware meant nothing more than that. If you're going to say nigger, be aware that that word carries a lot of baggage for some people. If you have something positive to say, people in your audience might not listen if you're going to use hurtful language; other people might not give appropriate credence to your comments if it's peppered with language which is virtually guaranteed to make people stop listening and start reacting.

Of course by now, politically correct has lost any value. It has been used to justify behavior equally as onerous as intemperate language. Who makes the determination about what is "correct?" If we're all "correct," aren't we all in lock-step?

All government agencies should use language which is as culturally neutral as possible. The rest of us should be able to be as offensive as we wish, as long as we know what we're doing. (And if we don't know, then it's OK for someone to point it out--as inoffensively as possible, of course.)

It's time to do away with pc and return to ca.

Sphere: Related Content

No comments:

Post a Comment