How can we end political correctness?

D.P. said:
That is incorrect.
Yes, **** is short for pakistani, and orginially was an acceptable word. But during the 60s it was used as a racial insult against the former British colonies. Since then it is recognised as a racist and degoratory term which should not be used.


Thereby one must use the correct word Pakistani.

Yes, Brit is short for British. But he word Brit has not recieved derogratory status nor been used in insulting or racial means.
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you have said:
**** is equivalent to ******, permisssible in certain situations, most noticibly between people of those ethnicities, or those of close firendship.
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Now this is racism, you are saying some people can say certain words and other races cannot say the same words!
This is a classic example of PC. we allow all races to say ****** or we do not allow ALL races to ******.
 
PC is the politics of fear. You cant say this that or the other as Some groups may find it offensive. Basically taking offence on other peoples behalf. Although I do find some of the stories to be blown out of all proportion, it has to be acknowledged that there is an element of truth in the ideology of PC. If nothing else, PC has been one of the largest contributing factors to multi culturalism in this country

It's like the whole issue of health & safety gone mad. As much as its against my better judgement The Mail on saturday ran two stories on one school that had banned tig or tag as it could be dangerous. Another school banned snowballing and suspended some pupils because they were snowballing. Again this is because it may prove dangerous. For years and years kids have played these games yet schools dont want to get into the whole litigation thing because of the potential for an accident. That is the politics of fear

I echo Dolphs comments though that it isn't carte blanche to ignore common courtesy. What we all want is our leaders to lead with common sense and not try and be all things to all men.
 
D.P. said:
That is incorrect.
Yes, **** is short for pakistani, and orginially was an acceptable word. But during the 60s it was used as a racial insult against the former British colonies. Since then it is recognised as a racist and degoratory term which should not be used.
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Recognised as racist by whom? Who dictates that it should not be used?

This does not allow for perception, context or intent.
 
DavidMarq said:
Recognised as racist by whom? Who dictates that it should not be used?

This does not allow for perception, context or intent.
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exactly

its a bit like saying that you cant use the word gay as a descriptive word

because it is quite often used as a derregatory term.
 
I remember in secondary school the teachers would tell us to 'brain storm' ideas for our projects. Couple of years later on, in sixth form, we were told to do 'mind maps' instead. I asked the teacher why the term 'brain storm' wasn't used anymore - got sent to deputy head teacher's office for a swift explanation and lunchtime detention learning all about epileptics. Apparently it's government policy.

That was my first (and incredibly bitter) taste of political correctness. I'm sorry but it has gone much too far if crap like this happens to students because of the 'right intentions'.
 
Dolph said:
The big thing that needs addressing is the difference between Political correctness and simple common courtesy. Claiming you don't pander to political correctness is not carte blanche to ignore common courtesy or claim you have a right to say whatever the hell you like and people have no right to be offended by it.

We do certainly need restrictions on "PC gone Mad", although as Arcade Fire pointed out, it's nearly always the media that make a storm in a teacup where that's concerned, but that doesn't mean we have to forget courtesy and some consideration for the feelings of others when we speak.
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Couldn't have put it better myself.
 
Hi,

Not read the thread (just come off my dinner hour) but I read about the Campaign Against Political Correctness, and a quick Google turned this up

http://www.capc.co.uk/

They may have a FAQ or a how-to that answers this question precisely ?
 
DavidMarq said:
Recognised as racist by whom? Who dictates that it should not be used?

This does not allow for perception, context or intent.
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Both the general public and the UK Legal system, even international law dictates that **** is considered a racist derogatory term, as do numerous dictionaries.
 
Van_Dammesque said:
you have said:


Now this is racism, you are saying some people can say certain words and other races cannot say the same words!
This is a classic example of PC. we allow all races to say ****** or we do not allow ALL races to ******.
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This is not PC. This is called social conditioning. ****** and **** are racist words which the peoples of that background use as a tool to differentiate themselves and negate the negative connotations of the word. This is a psychological defense mechanism, an attempt to make a insulting word more positive via positive in-group affirmation.

besides which, It is common social policy to make fun of oneself or one's ingroup instead of making fun of other people.
 
Kaed said:
Hi,

Not read the thread (just come off my dinner hour) but I read about the Campaign Against Political Correctness, and a quick Google turned this up

http://www.capc.co.uk/

They may have a FAQ or a how-to that answers this question precisely ?
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I've bookmarked it next to mailwatch to kill an hour when I'm bored and in need of an entertaining read ;)
 
D.P. said:
Both the general public and the UK Legal system, even international law dictates that **** is considered a racist derogatory term, as do numerous dictionaries.
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General Public - Many members of the general public that use this forum would argue that that is not the case.

UK Legal System - Can you provide a link to UK law that specifically says the term "****" cannot be used.

International Law - See above.

Dictionaries - As I have stated previously I myself can see the racist connotations, but I can also understand that there are times and contexts where it can be used in a non-racial fashion. Do dictionaries encompass all these possibilities?
 
Van_Dammesque said:
[..]
Now here is a test I use to determine (if I was in doubt) if it were racism; to replace the above quote with the terms white with black, asian or orientals. (Notice I am still using the PC words, although I do not disagree with this terminology, as Dolph has said it is merely politeness).
[..]
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I think society would be a better place if everyone did this routinely. Not just for "race". The same things apply to sex, sexual orientation, etc. It's part of the way I cured myself of being a feminist, for example, using this "mentally change the group" technique to show myself that it's sexist and hypocritical. In that case, it makes more sense to swap "male" with "black", as the standard bigoted stereotyping (crude, bestial, less refined, prone to violence and deceit) is similar.

For the "race" thing, I think society would be better still if people didn't cling to an arbritrary and entirely pointless division of humanity based most often on nothing more than the amount of suntan a person has. How does that make any sense? I don't consider "race" to be a valid concept, hence my use of speechmarks. It becomes particularly silly when people start referring to nationality as race (e.g. the poster who referred to anti-Welsh sentiment as racism). We are talking about nothing more than different sides of an imaginary line drawn on a map.
 
Angilion said:
For the "race" thing, I think society would be better still if people didn't cling to an arbritrary and entirely pointless division of humanity based most often on nothing more than the amount of suntan a person has. How does that make any sense?
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Agreed.

Angilion said:
I don't consider "race" to be a valid concept, hence my use of speechmarks. It becomes particularly silly when people start referring to nationality as race (e.g. the poster who referred to anti-Welsh sentiment as racism). We are talking about nothing more than different sides of an imaginary line drawn on a map.
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In this case then "****" is not a racial slur as it also references nationality.
 
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