I actually spent some time working on an essay! Those of you that know me pretty well know that I'm not really one to do homework. So as proof of me doing it, you get to read it! Here it is:
Is Everything P.C.?
“-There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the suburbs.
- That’s better. But I have to seriously query this word poor.
- But she was poor!
- Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn’t she?
- Yes.
- Then socioeconomically speaking, she was not poor (Mararet Atwood, lns. 3-8).”
The short work that this excerpt comes from, “There Was Once,” could even be considered an essay on how political correctness has ruined our society, especially in the arts. It came at a time when being “P.C.” was necessary if one did not want to get sued for their life. It became a poor excuse for being tactful. Everyone was so afraid of offending another person that a lot of conversation and debate was watered down, sometimes enough to entirely lose its meaning. The point is being politically correct has stifled artistic creativity, created tension between beliefs/traditions/races, and has even made it difficult to hold a simple conversation with anyone on the street.
“- I wasn’t making fun! I was just describing –
- Skip the description. Description oppresses. But you can say what color she was.
- What color?
- You know. Black, white, red, brown, yellow. Those are the choices. And I’m telling you right now, I’ve had enough of white. Dominant culture this, dominant culture that — (Atwood, lns. 15-18).”
Tension between faiths, traditions, and race has been impossible to avoid since being politically correct became a way of life. Even a conversation about how well one is doing in the workplace could be a very difficult for a manager, boss, or overseer. When one has to watch what they say, not because they want to be polite but because they do not want to get sued, or lose their position, it makes for a very unfulfilling environment. Things become unable to get done as quickly or efficiently as it would have been with no underlying need to be politically correct.
This fear of not being P.C. also leads to watered down conversations; meaning that things spoken during these conversations will have a tendency to lose their significance or implications. These have the people speaking with each other saying “African-American” when they mean “Black” or “Caucasian” when they mean “White.” Sure, in some cases this conversation may have nothing wrong in the context of the person being spoken of, but if that said person being spoken about or spoken to is not an American from Africa, they are not African-American. They should, if talking of nationality, definitely be considered as an American, as that is what they would truly be. Another example of this watered down concept would be in the context of faith or religion. A lot of religious leaders have fallen into the trap of “we have to be politically correct” and have sacrificed their faith’s doctrines because of it. When a Christian tells a Satanist that “it is ok that you believe that Satan is god,” that God loves them, and that they can believe what they want because God will take them as they are, they are in fact compromising the one fact that there is only one God and that in order for them to be taken by Him, one must believe that he is the One and Only God. This sort of negotiation has made many things become quite skewed from their true meanings and has caused more controversy than there should ever have been concerning racial differences or religion.
Being tact is a very important part to learning how to properly converse with anyone one the street. There may be topics that are avoided when talking to someone that is wearing a suit in comparison to talking to a homeless person. Why is this? Why is it assumed that a homeless person (notice not bum, or hobo) would not want to talk about certain things? Is it incorrect to ask someone what happened to them? How did they get to this state of happiness or this state of discontent? “- Skip the description. Description oppresses (Atwood, ln. 16).” There is no reason why anyone person should be talked to any differently because they look differently than someone else. It seems that this has gotten into some civil rights-type issues, and in a way it has. The issue of being tactful is much different from being P.C. In tactfulness, you are putting things in the best context possible, not diluting the content at all. Being P.C. has unfortunately quickly become a way of being tactful by replacing that complete content with a conversation, debate, etc. with blank spots as to not hurt any ones feelings.
“-There —
- So?
- So, what?
- So, why not here? (Atwood, lns. 39-42)”
Political correctness is a political ploy to please everyone. With it instated, you hear no true opinion due to fear of hurting anyone. Honestly, if anyone is that worried about being hurt or about hurting another, why talk at all? There is a reason why each individual in the human race can think for themselves. They all need to take advantage of it by knowing when to take an opinion for what it is and know that a chosen form of expression is expression is exactly that: chosen by the one expressing it. So in art, in faith, and in conversation one must remember their beliefs and be cognizant of others, knowing that their expression will be different than their own.
Well, that's what I spent hours on. Those are pretty much my thoughts on the night. I know that most of it is BS but hey, it'll work for a paper. Tell me what you think...please? I kinda want to know before I get a verdict back from my instructor with all the grammar corrections, etc. I know it's gonna suck, so if I hear it from my friends it'll make it easier! Well that is all for today. Until then---