Political Correctness Has Gone Too Far

Richard Kennedy
Editorial Page Editor

It’s the second half of a soccer game, the score is 0-0, and the opposing team has two extra players on the field; yet your team scored five points in the first period of the game. In Edinborough, Scotland, this has become the reality after a school board there, in an attempt to help students avoid any humiliation from large defeats, initiated a policy where if a team is up more than five at half time, the score is reset and the other team gets two extra players on the field for the second half. This is the state of political correctness in our world, when even the centuries old competitions of sport have to be dulled down so that no student gets hurt. Political correctness has its uses in our society for avoiding such things as blatant racism, but in recent years it has gone way too far.

Political correctness is as entrenched in American society as fast food or baseball. Every American constantly worries that what they say may be scrutinized and their innocent phase misconstrued as a derogatory term. Every bit of American society has been challenged and changed so that it is minimally offensive to anyone. Take disabled people, for instance; at one point in history, calling someone with a mental disability “retarded” was the accepted way of referring to this group. However, in the interest of trying to keep any feeling from getting hurt, this has been morphed from retarded to “mentally handicapped’ to “mentally challenged.” It seems as though people in our society are always on the lookout for some new way to make sure that no one is offended by words that in themselves often have the exact same meaning.

It is easy for Americans to get lost in this sea of political correctness. While political correctness is supposed to prevent anyone from getting hurt, it often causes more harm than good. The best example of this is when referring to “people of color”. Not too long ago, calling an African-American a “Negro” was accepted both in general society and within the black culture. But this phrase may offend a small number of African-Americans, so the phrase changed to “black.” Naturally, a select few complained that their skin wasn’t truly black, and therefore it might hurt someone’s feelings to call them black. So once again the phrase morphed into something new: this time “African-American.” Now even this ultra-PC saying is now drawing scrutiny as the phrase “people of color” has now come to be the epitome of political correctness as newscasters begin to do away with the word “minorities” in favor of this newer term. With so many possible names for the African race, it is easy for an American to become scared that they may be construed as racist for not using the newest, most politically correct phrase.

Another part of society unexpectedly hit by this wave of political correctness is forensic artists. As victims of crimes go to tell their stories to the forensic artist who creates a composite sketch, the artists are more often pressured to avoid attaching labels to their pictures. Labeling a composite sketch as “Hispanic” may offend an extremely small number who do not like to think that their race is different from anyone else. The fact is however, every race on earth, has some difference when it comes to their physical being, whether it be skin color or facial shape. However, anyone who dares point out these differences is labeled as a racist because in this new politically correct world, everyone has to be the same, regardless of whether or not everyone knows we have differences.

At what point do we draw the line? The best answer to this question is when political correctness prevents our speech, either by law, or when our general populace agrees to this loss of speech in practice. For example, in Britain, where political correctness has hit new extremes, a music group was banned from naming themselves ”The Freak Show” because it might offend freaks. However, this form of political correctness clearly violated the 1st amendment in the United States so it is the de jure freedom of speech we must worry about; when a term becomes so hated by the general populace that one may bring serious harm to their reputation for simply speaking a certain word. The American political system is based on an open exchange of ideas, not one where every thought must fit into some prescribed category.