Yes

by Jerry Curtis

Created on: June 19, 2007

Political correctness undermines free speech in the United States in a number of insidious ways. It stifles confrontation and allows undercurrents of tension to build up when people do not say what they are really thinking. It sustains a climate of below-the-surface feelings of victimization that can erupt in a volcano of rage and law suits. Finally, political correctness results in absolutely ridiculous practices, such as frisking 80-year-old ladies at the airport so that swarthy young guys from lands where there are likely to be a lot of sand and camels don't feel profiled.

Name a minority, and one can find a politically correct attitude to accommodate them. Take American Indians, for example. The howling savages of my boyhood cowboy flicks are now known as "Native Americans." I was born here, too, can't I be called a "native"? Now that the NCAA has asked colleges to rid itself of Indian names and mascots in the name of political correctness, have Native Americans somehow benefited? Fortunately, that group didn't have the clout to force the Atlanta Braves or Cleveland Indians to change their team name. The owners just ignored the activists, who seem to have lost interest.

Then there are our African-/Afro-/Black American friends. That particular minority owns the equivalent of the nuclear option of political incorrectness - the N-word. It is a word so politically incorrect that if uttered in the work environment, classroom, in a public interview, or anywhere where more than one person can hear it, it results in immediate ostracism, firing, public opprobrium, and all sorts of bad, bad things (unless, one happens to be a member of the African-(etc.) race, in which case, one can utter it in stand-up comedy routines, rap music, or casual street conversation with friends of the same racial background.) One almost gets the impression that White people's inability to utter the N-Word is our legacy of the slavery years. Fair enough. Just don't ask us for reparations, okay?

One only needs to Google the words "political correctness run amok" to discover countless columns, articles, and blogs decrying political correctness in American universities. In some universities, Freshmen must undergo "sensitivity" indoctrination classes so that they can learn the politically correct behavior towards minorities that they may never have encountered before arriving on campus. Many colleges have published guides for political correctness (called "student handbooks") with appropriate warnings that insensitive speech can result from anything from a visit to the Dean to suspension or expulsion.

And there is an emerging group in our nation, who are handled with the kid gloves of political correctness, despite the dictates of common sense. That group, of course, is the Muslim community. American Muslims are beginning to continue the tradition of our American Indians (who have quieted somewhat because of all those casinos) and our African-(etc.) friends (whose growing middle class is becoming an embarrassment to the likes of Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton).

A group of American Muslims made the news recently as they began to throw down their prayer rugs in an airport, dispersed in the airplane seating in the manner of the 9-11 terrorists and began to behave in an overall disturbing manner to the extent they had to be thrown off the plane. Unfortunately, the memory of 9-11 is still too fresh in our memories to extend that level of political correctness to men shouting "Allah," which was probably the last word many of the dead on 9-11 heard. Nevertheless, the Mullahs are suing. One day soon, they might even have their own "M-Word."

So, yes, political correctness stifles free speech, creates tension and conflict, and causes illogical and stupid behavior. But it does save hurt feelings, I suppose.

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