Memo To All Biggots Every Where: Stop Blaming "Political Correctness" For Your Inability To Adjust

We all live in a globalized, multi-cultural world, and those who harbor hatred of their fellow man based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. will be left behind. It's not "political correctness" that's your problem. Your problem is the fact that your personal biggotries are no longer accepted by the mainstream, and instead of working on correcting yourself, you want to blame the outside world. Instead of understanding that your biggotry makes you ignorant and working on overcoming it, you cling to the notion that it's the outside world that is to blame. It's everyone else's fault that your views are no longer accepted.

Now, am I saying that you don't have a constitutional right to be a biggot? No, I am not. There are still people who are openly members of the KKK, but you don't see them in positions of importance, do you? There's a reason for that. You can't be a KKK member and be able to do business in China or India.

There are whole threads going right now with people whining about being confronted about their racism. It's sick and sad they don't own it because until you acknowledge it you cannot change it.
K&R for you.
Lee

That question seems to have very little to do with Don Imus. It seems to have everything to do with establishing a social protocol that maintains white privilege. Yes, yes, they say. We can hash over these issues in the symbolic realm, but that should be the limit of it. It shouldn't affect my real conditions. This is, in fact, the state of race in America since the waning of the great civil rights struggles: change at the symbolic level, grinding repetition of racial power at the level of real conditions.

This is why the issue of the "apology" has taken on such power. An apology should be enough because these disputes are waged purely at the level of the symbolic. The gasping horror that white America seems to feel about Imus actually getting - Oh MY! - fired over this tells us everything we need to know. That would be a consequence at the level of real conditions, not merely a symbolic consequence. And for a white America that maintains white privilege at the level of the real, that's utterly unacceptable and horrifying.

This should be clear enough: every attempt to institute change at the level of the symbolic is heartily applauded (for instance, that asinine movie Crash). On the other hand, any attempt to institute change at the level of the real is fought tooth and nail (say, school funding, or affirmative action programs). The first can be assimilated. The second actually threatens white privilege ("But if there are 2 million more qualified applicants...! Gasp gasp gasp!"). This context is wrapped up in the "apology" issue.

I had no idea people were still so clueless.

no one told you to have an abortion. You chose to do so. That is your PERSONAL responsibility. Remember? Reagan told you to have responsibility for yourselves! Well, then....just do that, O.K!

Regreting an action and taking responsibility for an action is NOT mutually exclusive.

be overturned. They want a "nanny-state" government! It's quite hypocritical for these people to want this when they preach about the need for less government.

no one told you to have an abortion. You chose to do so. That is your PERSONAL responsibility. Remember? Reagan told you to have responsibility for yourselves! Well, then....just do that, O.K!

Al Sharpton answered it in some way, I don't really remember. But my wife gave the answer that Sharpton should have given:

"If we left it to the marketplace, we'd still be in the marketplace."

In other words (I imagine her telling Matt Lauer), the market has necver solved primary ethical problems, like racism. The market responds to changing conditions, but on ethical matters, it does not drive them. If African Americans left their life possibilities to the market, they still be, literally on the market, on the auction block. So, I agree with you for the most part. But there has to be an ethics of this. It can't be a market driven operation, pure and simple.

Great quote from your wife. Hope more people see it now. Tell her she's an excellent sloganeer.

Rock on, it-getters!

Viewing people and Reality as merely physical objects and as mere physical objects, their worth to the Marketplace resides in their physical attributes only. And that attitude influences the rest of us since it's so pervasive.

Of course the Market is expert at manipulating people by using emotional and psychic cues to drive demand, but ultimately the Marketplace confronts us with a physical object or event.

But you are correct, the Marketplace does not solve ethical problems like racism.

And I admire your post a great deal. Great insight. Thanks!

does that make it right?

to do business in China or India."

International business is conducted all the time between parties who hate each other, e.g. Iran sells oil to the U.S.

Perhaps a KKK member wouldn't be doing business for an American firm internationally because of our own social norms.

Norms that seem to be rapidly falling by the wayside (sadly)

learned to separate business from personal beliefs including hating others for various reasons.

You talked about doing business in China and India and I merely pointed out that doing business had nothing to do with personal feelings between two parties to a business deal.

So far, I fail to see how you refute my assertion.

A KKK member would have to suppress their hatred of all things non-white in order to do business internationally. That KKK member couldn't walk into a meeting with Japenese businessmen yelling, "White Power!", and expect to be taken seriously.

I thought that was the point ... the outward expression ... and to me affiliation with a hate group is an outward expression. Sadly, I think the world is still choc'ful'o bigots, but memberships in hate groups are filled by people on the fringes of society (not as in the past when politicians, business people ...proudly joined) because membership is an outward expression.

All I see are people whining about not being to discuss "things" in terms that are disparaging to others.

Its called civility ... something we need more of, not less.

For the biggots, all of their lives their biggotry and ignorance of other people have been reaffirmed by family and friends, and they were never told that what they think about other people, other cultures, etc. is wrong and ignorant.

Now, as adults, they take their biggoted views into a multi-cultural world, and they find themselves not fitting in. They've become pariahs. So, instead of learning a new way of thinking and changing, they blame the "PC" crowd.

Think of it this way, if you've been raised all of your life that farting at the dinner table was okay, then when you fart at the dinner table when you're an adult and you're not with your family, people look at you in horror. Instead of learning not to fart at the dinner table, you blame others for not accepting your farts.

Political correctness is not about bigotry. It's not about hatred. It's about placing individual sensitivities over individual expression.

It's not politically incorrect to say that all black people are lazy. It is RACIST. Period.

It is politically correct for Bill Cosby to suggest inner city black communites need to take a hard look at their leaders and influences.

the most corrupt administration and worst President ever in the history of our country. The GOP played to the prejudices of the electorate like a fine violin to get them to vote for the officials we are now stuck with.

We have a war that no sane person on the planet supports, and we have the most unpopular leader in recent U.S. history.

:dem:

....because I'm in the mood to kick something right now...
Lee

so they don't have to defend an indefensible position.

k/r

:kick:

They don't blame it, they generally dismiss it. PC is a way to remain civil, a way not to offend. And most of the time, civility is just what we need. But if we're debating serious issues, it can also be a hinderance to the truth. There's a balance, but I think most of the time, it's a balance that most reasonable people can hash out.

I think it's very clear in what camp name calling falls. It obviously does not promote the debate so it's just meant to be hateful and rude.

Great post...and I'm stealing what you wrote in the subject line.

In fact by using the term in such a disparaging way the right-wing is not only trying to make racism acceptable, they are trying to make it admirable. They tell us that being politically correct is bad, we need to say negative things about minorities or we are being taken in by political correctness.

I try to turn the term around on them though by agreeing with them that they are not politically correct, in fact they are politically wrong.

I am sorry but I missed the death of humor, when did that happen? Laughter only dies if you allow it to die.

PC is killing comedy shows like South Park, The Mind of Mencia, Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, etc., etc. There are tons of hack comics who can only recycle racist jokes to be funny.

:eyes:



Just in case anyone missed it, my post is :sarcasm:

but you articulated it in a far better way than I could have. :thumbsup:

Go ahead, tell that obscene/sexist/racist, etc joke at the party--but don't get pissed off at me when I call BS on it.

And don't wonder why I haven't invited you back to my home afterward.

Yes, such a situation really happened with me.

Altho I don't believe the Constitution grants anyone the right to be a bigot. I just don't see it.

Is exactly why the Constitution doesn't disallow it.

With the exception of the mispelling of the word 'bigot' I'm dead on in agreement with you.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard our local sports talk right winger bitching about "political correctness" as if it were some form of oppression. It's 2007 not 1950. America is suppose to have changed for the better. They need to deal with it.

It is like the "taking responsibility" toss away lines from the Bush Administration. It means absolutely nothing. It means, oh we're sorry we were caught or called to the carpet, not that we did anything wrong.

When they shout "PC" they want the offended to not register their protest. "Political Correctness" is a RRR W tool.