Does being Politically Correct restrict free speech...

[Todd]

Re: God damn no wonder you are so ignorant

It was taught to you by your own mother,

Slaves were freed 100 years before you heard that politician. To refer to blacks as slaves shows just how ignorant you family was.

Now, I understand you so much better.

DEEP Breath Todd, Post in clear sentences, use small words so they can't be misunderstood.


I was 11 years old, I knew slavery did not exist. that it had be over with.

I heard a white politician say "A-A" to me at 11 years old and still now, saw it as a term of segregation rather than celebratioan of heritage.

My mother knowing I was 11 years old, wasn't going to goin into a diatribe of the whims and follies of slavery and how in 1986 slavery no longer existed and why it wouldn't be brought back into existence. Instead she opted to use simple terms of Stopping slavery of r oppression of Blacks by the then "in" word nigger.

But that was wrong of her she should of read me the supreme court act of Whoomever vs whomever, something over my head and confused me an 11 year old. I am going to call her up tonight and tell her off for treating me like such a child when I was a child.

Again you win. I lose

Siren 693,714,9833,731,004 Todd 0

 

[Angel]

Todd, you've lived one fucked up life up until today. I really don't have much else to say at the moment, I think I've actually been shocked into silence.

 

[Siren]

No excuse for what your mother said

 

[Siren]

Todd, you best stop while you are behind here

 

[Todd]

Jesse Jackson not a politician that is a laugh riot.

 

[Siren]

He's an African American that uses the term

 

[Cheyenne]

Okay, everyone who has been trying to be PC using the term Native American or American Indian, hold out your hands for ruler swats.
The politically correct term for those people who are descended from the people inhabiting the area now known as the US when Columbus arrived is NOW --- Nations' First Peoples.

Come on, you're kidding, right?
Native American or American Indian actually make sense to me to use. If someone just says "Indian" you don't know if they mean Indian from America or Indian from India. The designation clears that up.

 

[Cheyenne]

A favorite school memory

Back in 7th grade, I was in a math class of all white kids and one black girl, who was a friend of mine. I don't remember the topic of discussion, but our teacher used the term "colored" instead of black (this would have been in late 1969 or early 1970.) Emily raised her hand and calmly asked him "what color was she?" Back then, the accepted label was "black" and it took guts for her to stand up for the label she wanted to be known by. She got everyone's attention, and she wasn't mean while doing it. The teacher never forgot to use the word "black" after that, either. Neither did I.

It all comes down to calling people by the term they want to be known as. If blacks want to be known as African-American (the term Emily now uses), that's fine with me. I still use the term "black" unless I know someone prefers otherwise though. Force of habit, I guess.

 

[morninggirl5]

Come on, you're kidding, right?
Native American or American Indian actually make sense to me to use. If someone just says "Indian" you don't know if they mean Indian from America or Indian from India. The designation clears that up.

I wish I was kidding. I sat through a lecture about it during a class on multiculturalism. Nation's First Peoples is now the correct term.

 

[Laurel]

Re: A favorite school memory

It all comes down to calling people by the term they want to be known as. If blacks want to be known as African-American (the term Emily now uses), that's fine with me. I still use the term "black" unless I know someone prefers otherwise though. Force of habit, I guess.

Exactly. If someone wants to be called Chartreuse, I'll call em Chartreuse. Hell if I care. Of course, per morninggirl5's earlier post, if people are getting fired for saying Green instead of Chartreuse, then that's silly.

I dunno...maybe I live a weird life, but this subject doesn't come up much. I've talked to Blacks and Asians and lots of Hispanics of all countries and I just call em by their names...and they call me by mine. Maybe if I were a reporter or a teacher, these distinctions may matter more and I might get annoyed with them. As is it, whether he's Hispanic or Hispanic-American or Mexican is beyond me. He's Paco, and he's funny, and he's my friend.

 

[Never]

Todd:
"Its Impolitically correct to say the truth, like, the Baptists murdered millions of lives in the crusades and the inquisition."

Todd, the Catholics started the Spanish Inquisition, not the Baptists.

Oh, about political correctness, I prefer common sense and politeness.

 

[The_old_man]

My observations on PC is that a few demigods were being ignored. This pissed them off, as well as cut into their income. Since they needed some way to increase their importance, they started the Politicaly Correct designations so they could make a lot of noise in the media. Once they were in the media's eye they started "correcting the slanders" against X groupe and collectind donations.

My grandfather told me "Never trust a man in a $300 dollar suit who is trying to do you a favor."

His father was a German who became an American. He started a business and when the union went out on a 'sympathy' strike he fired them all. He hired women to replace them, AT THE SAME WAGES. This was in the1880's.

When WW1 started he did not simpathise with Germany because he was no longer German, he was American.

I am with Tod in this, Political Corectness is just a way for rabble rousers to get rich.

 

[faith]

German-American or...

Okay maybe I'm missing the point here but why is PC seen as being devisive....this nation is grounded in diversity...If I say I'm Germany-American, ALL I'm saying is that I'm an American of German decent...No more no less...If I say I am Italian- American ALL I am saying is that I am an American of Italian decent and I can honestly say both. What does this say about me the person?Actually very little but it does give you an Idea of where I come from. What traditions I celebrate. Of where my family started... not where we are going. To me it's like listing the ingredience to the dish...Italian...German...French....African....Polish.... (and the list goes on and on and on).... the unifying word is AMERICAN. So no matter where we started with respect and mutual understanding of our diffences maybe we can end up in a better place than we started...but heh this is just my opinion.... pc or not...

 

[Starfish]

I can't believe I am going to tone in on a thread of substance.

I am pretty sure that most PC terms (not ones like... handicapable) originated from intellectual necessity.... for example...... African American Studies courses teach about the history of the role of Black Africans through the history of the United states, and about the literary and artistic accomplishments of Blacks through the centuries, thus being named African American Studies. Some how the term became used as a "PC" term through the later part of the 80's and into the 90's, but is really only used by those who feel uncomfortable about race issues and people who are wanting to further spread around a differentiation between Blacks and Whites. This will, I agree, perpetuates racial anxiousness in the states while disabling true racial differentation.

I think the term retarted became offensive when people started doing vile impersonations of handicapped people, and then snottily calling them retards. It has been turned into a nasty word, so it isn't that the word is the problem, but the context people use it in.

Now, It is my humble opinion that the original inhabitants should be respectfully refered to by who they are.....

Abenaki
Accohannock
Acjachemen
Alabama-Coushatta
Aleut
Alutiiq
Apache
Arapaho
Blackfoot
Cabazon
Caddo
Cayuse
Cherokee
Cheyenne
Chickasaw
Chippewa
Chitimacha
Choctaw
Chumash
Coeur d' Alene
Colville
Comanche
Siletz
Umatilla
Cayuse
Umatilla
Walla Walla
Warm Springs
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua
Cowlitz
Delaware (Lenape)
Eyak
Fallon Paiute-Shoshone
Fernandeno/Tataviam
Golden Hill Indians of the Paugussett Nation
Sioux
Gros Ventre
Hidatsa
Ho-Chunk
Hopi
Hupa
Inupiat
Ioway
Iroquois
Jamestown S'Klallam
Kaw
Kiowa
Klamath
KonKow Maidu
Kumeyaay
Lakota
Leisnoi
Lower Elwha Klallam
Lumbee
Makah
Menominee
Metis
Mi'kmaq
Miami
Miccosukee Tribe
Miwok
Mohawk Nation
Mohegan Tribe
Mohican Nation
Muscogee Creek
Nansemond
Nanticoke
Narragansett
Navajo Nation
Nez Perce
Occaneechi Band of the Saponi
Ohlone
Ojibwe
Oneida
Osage
Ottawa
Passamaquoddy
Paugussett
Pawnee
Penobscot
Poarch Band Creek
Pomo
Potawatomi
Powhatan Renape
Pueblo of Santa Ana
Pyramid Lake Paiute
Quapaw
Sac
Fox
Salish
Kootenai
Pent d'Orielle
Seminole
Seneca
Shawnee
Suquamish
Taino
Titskanwatitch
Tonkawa
Chanas
Lipan Apache
Karankawa
Tlingit
Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
Tohono O'odham
Tongva (Gabrielino)
Tonkawa
Tsnungwe
Tulalip
Tuscaroras
Ute
Wichita
Waco
Tawakoni
Keechi
Wiyot
Wyandot
Yakama
Yurok
Zuni



Last I checked... Indians came from the continent of India.


I am an United Statesian of the Ohio tribe.

 

[Pyper]

I'm part Ute.

No really, I am.

 

[Starfish]

Pyper gets to flute.... with the Ute.....

 

[p_p_man]

My observations on PC is that a few demigods were being ignored. This pissed them off, as well as cut into their income. Since they needed some way to increase their importance, they started the Politicaly Correct designations so they could make a lot of noise in the media. Once they were in the media's eye they started "correcting the slanders" against X groupe and collectind donations.

I am with Tod in this, Political Corectness is just a way for rabble rousers to get rich.

The_old_man has hit the nail on the head and has surmised correctly the origins of the term Political Correctness". Language is a naturally growing beast. As my old Russian teacher used to tell us (I don't mean he was Russian, he taught us Russian), language comes from the street and progresses upwards until eventualy it is incorporated into the dictonary. The French through their Academie Francaise create a word, discussed by a committee, hand it down to the people in the street who then, for the most part completely ignore it. Which explains the extraordinary amount of slang that is used in the French language.

The same is true of America. You have a phrase "Politically Correct" which you have bequeathed to the world but which in itself did not have a normal language growth developoment. It was handed down to you by various organisations which had differing interests to promote. Through judiciial promotion the phrase is now so firmly entrenched into the American language no-one can actually agree on when or where it is "politically correct" to use a "politically correct" word or phrase. You have become restricted in your speech and in your thought processes.

Much of this thread has been about describing the origins of various ethnic groups. In the UK we of course have our adherents to the "politically correct" way of speaking (again though it's usually an expert or an organisation that makes a great show of all this) whereas the rest of us tend to say things like, "I met a black bloke last night. What? No I don't know where he's from, probably Africa or Jamaica or somewhere like that". Or "there's this woman I know from South America". Or "An Indian or Pakistani family, I don't which, have just bought the old house at the end of the road".

We don't use African-Anglo, Chinese-Anglo or Anything else-Anglo, the term is alien to us. Our way maybe is a bit more long winded but it seems more natural to us than trying desparately to think of the correct term to use when describing a group of people, or individuals within that group.

We tend to make fun of the phrase "polically correct" itself. There's a chap I know, What?, no I don't know where he's from probably Wales or Scotland or Somewhere like that... any way this chap has got MS and is confined to a wheelchair. Many is the time I've heard him take the piss out of the phrase by shouting out in a crowd, "Out the way! out the way! A mobility-challenged person coming through!". After the initial startled looks the people around him usually break out into smiles or even laughter. Now before you say he can get away with it because he his disabled. Not true. The majority of people over here make fun of the phrase.

American-talk has an extraordinary amount of slang embedded in it, just like the French. A couple of years ago I read in a magazine for commercial airline pilots that they consider the North America routes the most dangerous precisely because of the slang they have to interpret scattered among the normal, acceptable standard. How true that is I don't know, but to me it makes sense. Even reading some of the more uncontrolled posts on Lit I sometimes have difficulty interpreting what the hell they're talking about.

So like Political Correctness and your Constitution, (yes I've even slipped that one in! ), Americans give the impression of being hog-tied by convention. Convention which is handed down from the top with the people having very little say in the matter...

 

[Mensa]

.Being PC (ugh!) can only mean being placed in a mental straight-jacket.

So, basically, you're saying you're used to it. Nothing, for you, has changed all that much?

 

[Mensa]

Re: Re: A favorite school memory

Exactly. If someone wants to be called Chartreuse, I'll call em Chartreuse. Hell if I care.

Your "Imperial Eminence" would be nice.

 

[p_p_man]

Keep your Bs in...

and your quotes will forever reamain bold...

I have nothing further to say except that I'm trying to think of something politically correct to reply to your first post about straight-jackets!

 

[Laurel]

Re: Re: Re: A favorite school memory

Your "Imperial Eminence" would be nice.

Oh, Imperial Eminence, Sir.

*kneels*

And you can call me "All Knowing, All Powerful, Gorgeous Webmistress".

 

[Problem Child]

Can I be "Ye Olde Douchebagge"?

 

[p_p_man]

Re: Re: Re: Re: A favorite school memory

And you can call me "All Knowing, All Powerful, Gorgeous Webmistress".

HAIL LAUREL!

HAIL LAUREL!