Political Correctness

One of the prime targets in the current Presidential campaign is “political correctness” or “PC” (caps intentional).

The aspiring politician will assert: “I am certainly not bound by the constraints of political correctness…” This declaration is met with raucous applause. What then follows will be some outrageous comment or observation sure to offend outsiders – but inside, the pronouncement unleashes the gung-ho cheers of all those feckless groupies gathered around the candidate. It’s the same explosion of celebration as a game winning three pointer swished through the net just as the buzzer sounds. Politically incorrect statements are premium vote-getters for these folks.

Since that first announcement for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, Donald Trump has amassed an enthusiastic crowd of supporters who agree, “Finally we have SOMEONE who TELLS IT LIKE IT IS.” He says what we’re thinking, but no one has the guts to say out loud – until Mr. Trump. He’s one of us.

Ben Carson (now deceased, er, politically, that is) said it most directly in an interview with Bill O’Reilly, “Political correctness is destroying our nation.”

Huh?

In what possible way is political correctness destroying our nation?

Why is it that the candidate who is least concerned about living by the standards of political correctness has dominated our national conversation since the day he announced his candidacy (June 16, 2016)?

Renouncing PC has been a bonanza for these candidates.

It causes me to wonder, how did “political correctness” become a pejorative? For many, just the mention of the phrase causes a roll of the eyes, a click of the tongue, a wag of the head, all in disgust. To disdain PC becomes a litmus test for in and out. If you show revulsion at the mention of the phrase, you are one of us. If you don’t, if you somehow believe there is some sort of merit in political correctness, then you must be one of them.

I’ve been a Christian most all my life. For some, that admission means that I’m not PC. The “PC crowd” will crucify you, some of my brothers and sisters warn. They are out to get us. To destroy our freedoms. To keep us quiet. To confess that I am a Christian to a hostile PC world means that I am a bigot, a theocrat, a killjoy moralist and a hardened creedalist.

Truth be told, I haven’t really experienced all that supposed persecution in America. There certainly is a caricature of “Christian” out there – much of it well earned. For the record, I don’t identify with many of those who call themselves by that same name.

For that reason, the term “Christian” is troubling to me. I prefer “follower of the Jesus way.” I’m not at all confused about how “Christian” became identified with hardcore conservatism in America. But I am deeply confused about how Jesus got labeled a Fox News (Roger Ailes), fire breathing advocate of the religious right. How did THAT happen?

For some, PC means that the inclination to discriminate by race, religion or political persuasion, to use hateful language, to affirm stereotypes, to profile strangers, to built a wall, to refuse to do business, to choose my neighbors, or exclude from my country club, a public restroom, my house of worship – all of this is threatened. Apparently, these are the “freedoms” that PC takes away.

They shout, “We’re gunna take our country back!”

“Back from whom?” I ask.

“The PC crowd, that’s whom!” Apparently, the “PC crowd” holds the country hostage.

That is a commonly held but misguided fantasy.

To counter this popular misconception, think about it. Political correctness stems from an impulse toward sensitivity. Toward fairness. Toward civility. Toward respect. In the marketplace of my country, we defer to each other. We trust. We do business. We engage in transactions on a daily basis. We go about our business. We celebrate cultural diversity. We welcome the foreigner, the stranger. We wish each other well. We do our best to avoid stereotyping. We sidestep offensive language. My mother taught me, “You can’t tell a book by its cover.”

We look past appearances to find the real person.

So it’s not so much a need to be free from political correctness.

Rather, we need a lesson in it.