Political Correctness gone mad

[Fleur De Guerre]

I agree that Political correctness can be a very good thing, but then you hear of stuff like schools being banned from using the term "blackboard" and changing nursery rhymes like "Baa baa black sheep" (which is about 18th century wool taxes) because they're deemed offensive. I mean I am not black, but I am really struggling to see how these things are offensive to those who are. [huh]

 

[Feraud]

I was in a Whole Foods today, and in their baked goods section they were selling man-shaped cookies labeled "Gingerbread Person."

Puh-leze.

How dare they?? They prefer Gingerbread-Americans.

 

[Girl Friday]

I always think it is funny when someone prefaces something they say with "Not to sound racist" hmmm...it just seems like you should say, "I am going to say something racist, but I don't want YOU to think I AM racist"

Or they will mention the immigration thing and apologize to me. lol
Then I have to explain that my grandmother came here in 1910, and she actually got her green card in the 1970.

Sincerely,
Your Beaner

 

[Mr. Lucky]

I agree that Political correctness can be a very good thing, but then you hear of stuff like schools being banned from using the term "blackboard" and changing nursery rhymes like "Baa baa black sheep" (which is about 18th century wool taxes) because they're deemed offensive. I mean I am not black, but I am really struggling to see how these things are offensive to those who are. [huh]

The problem is that those things that you describe above are exceptionally rare occurances. But there are those who, to advance their agenda, have you believe that they happen everyday! That's just not so. Passing of the rare as the regular has become the norm for some. THAT is where the backlash lies and THAT is where the PC manipulation occurs.

 

[scotrace]

.

Personally, I just kind of chafe at ANY thought control of the individual by The Group.

 

[Story]

Well, unless somebody on this Board works for Whole Foods and can set the record straight, we'll never know for sure if it was a joke or not. I just think it's silly to call them "persons" when the cookies on display were CLEARLY men -- they were wearing no frilly bows nor skirts (and if you think that's un-PC, consider the symbols found on most restroom doors: skirts on the ladies and... well, nothing on the men).

Strike a blow for semantic freedom and leave an anatomically correct Gingerman behind.

 

[Twitch]

Political correctness is ruining the world as we know it. When we are in a WAR with extremists who despise all modern western cilivilization and commit terror acts in these countries and yet we do NOT profile them by their physical appearances so as not to offend, we are in seriously flocked up shape.:rage:

 

[Terry Lennox]

Political correctness is ruining the world as we know it. When we are in a WAR with extremists who despise all modern western cilivilization and commit terror acts in these countries and yet we do NOT profile them by their physical appearances so as not to offend, we are in seriously flocked up shape.:rage:

Idea's like this make me wonder just how free a country we are?

For a group that talks so much about how great personal freedoms are and how the government should stay out of your lives, you sure like to take that right away from anyone who "looks" different than you.

Being PC has no connection to the "War" on Terror.... or what ever catch phrase is in vogue at the moment.

 

[Lincsong]

I'm going to see Don Rickles in Vegas on September 16.lol He is definetley not PC and that's why I'm going.

 

[Mr. Sable]

...you hear of stuff like schools being banned from using the term "blackboard"...

When I was in elementary school they'd just started replacing blackboards with green ones and it sounded funny to call them greenboards. They weren't being 'PC' about it; 'chalkboards' made more sense. Now they use 'white boards'... or some might call them Dry-Erase-Marker-Boards to be all PC.

As long as you're being polite and respectful, there's no need at all for this PC nonsense. Agreed.

I also agree with Terry Lennox in that 'being PC has no connection to a war on terror'. Racial profiling, however, is fundamentally stupid. I'm proud to live in a country where that is the official policy of our Security Intelligence Service(though... I can't say that for many municipal police departments up here; some can be a heinous lot).

If you're simply respectful of other people, they're going to have a whole lot less reason to hate you, aren't they?

 

[Roger]

I also agree with Terry Lennox in that 'being PC has no connection to a war on terror'. Racial profiling, however, is fundamentally stupid. I'm proud to live in a country where that is the official policy of our Security Intelligence Service(though... I can't say that for many municipal police departments up here; some can be a heinous lot).

If you're simply respectful of other people, they're going to have a whole lot less reason to hate you, aren't they?

[/QUOTE]

There is nothing fundamentally stupid about racial profiling. What is fundamentally stupid is to look at everyone in the population as a potential terrorist. To let young Middle Eastern men between the ages of 16-36 to bypass scrutiny while checking the bra's of 80 year old women is fundamentally stupid. Are some people going to be inconvenienced? Yes, but it is better than everyone being put under the radar. I'm an American of Madeiran birth and a Roman Catholic. If I or my boys (ages 14-16) grow a beard and lay out in the sun I look North African or Middle Eastern. Will that mean I'll be put to a little more scrutiny? Sure, but I'm willing to be unselfish so that others who bear no resemblance to the terrorists threat are unconvenienced.

 

[Mr. Sable]

That's the flaw right there. With that kind of thinking, terror has totally won - because you're terrified of your own neighbours. Remember the very caucasian US army deserter who defected to fight for bin Laden? Or the "Monsters on Maple Street" Twilight Zone epsiode? Maybe the terrorists are going to start recruiting those radical types, and nutjobs like the easily led Aryan Nations flakes, or terminally ill old Irish ladies who'll get a nice bank deposit for their families if they end their own misery with some C-4 in a crowded market... all the while they have everyone paranoid and looking for the brown guys with facial hair. Terrorists are counting on people being fundamentally stupid.

Ask Rodney King whether racial profiling is fundamentally stupid. I'm sure he's got an opionion on it.

I'm done. On to the original PC topic again.

 

[Twitch]

Remember Terry, when the LAPD gets a call about a crime the description of race, age height/weight and clothing appearances are paramount in the bad guys' apprehension.

What would enhance the probability of finding the perpetrator-

1. "a white male juvenille 5'7"-5'9" 120 lbs. wearing white shirt and black baggy pants"

2. "a male..."

I'm not sure if we can specify male. Isn't that sexist?

 

[Senator Jack]

As an American of Italian descent, I'm calling for the ban of:

1. Guinea Pig
2. Guinea Hen
3. New Guinea
4. The British Guinea
5. The use of the phrase 'They go...' (sounds to much like 'dago' for my liking)

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[scotrace]

Mr. Potter's term for George Bailey's home buyers wasn't so flattering either.

 

[Senator Jack]

I never understood how garlic-eater could be taken offensively - till I started traveling around a bit and realized that whitebread America thought garlic was some sort of exotic food. (like bagels and shish-ke-bob)

 

[Terry Lennox]

Remember Terry, when the LAPD gets a call about a crime the description of race, age height/weight and clothing appearances are paramount in the bad guys' apprehension.

What would enhance the probability of finding the perpetrator-

1. "a white male juvenille 5'7"-5'9" 120 lbs. wearing white shirt and black baggy pants"

2. "a male..."

I'm not sure if we can specify male. Isn't that sexist?

I'm a bit confussed if you're serious here or not?

 

[Haversack]

The Honourable Senator wrote:
"I never understood how garlic-eater could be taken offensively - till I started traveling around a bit and realized that whitebread"

You've got to remember that settlement patterns in the US was heavily influenced by 19th C. Anglo-German culture, and that includes cuisine. In both of those cultures, garlic is definitely exotic. Consider the line from Kipling's Mandalay about "those spicy garlic smells". There is also one of George Macdonald Fraser's Angry Old Man rants about how the increasing use of garlic and chili peppers in English cooking makes places smell like a Patagonian Whorehouse on a busy Saturday night. Heck, I can remember the looks my own father made when my mother used garlic in cooking dinner at home. (Father - raised by Anglo/Scottish parents, Mother - 19th C. Californian Ranching Family).

Large scale immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, (where garlic use is standard), didn't begin until the late 19th C. and then largely settled in the big industrial cities. This left a lot of the country ungarlicked until relatively recently.

As I noted elsewhere, the use of stereotypical/unfamiliar foodstuffs as a derogatory name for foreigners is a very common practice. For instance, "Garlic-eater" is also a derogatory name used by the Japanese for Koreans. I understand that there are also some similar Japanese terms for Occidentals which refer to the practice of eating dairy products.

Haversack.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

They were just jealous of garlic's effect on male potency.

.

 

[Senator Jack]

Mille grazia, Marc.