In today’s society, with the very diverse population of the United States, you would expect to see tensions between different groups of people. To combat these tensions, people have taken to using different language, that is politically correct language, so as not to offend people of different ethnic, racial or religious backgrounds.
While being politically correct is good for certain situations like official meetings, in the media, et cetera, it shouldn’t dominate one’s life. In my opinion, a person shouldn’t have to think about being politically correct in his or her everyday life.
Don’t misconstrue that to mean they shouldn’t care about what they say at any given time, I’m just saying a person should be free to speak his or her mind without worrying about how every single word is being heard.
Not to sound like a broken record, but a person should be able to say what he or she wants. They should be able to do this in no uncertain terms, and they shouldn’t have to suffer reprisal for the things they have said.
The exception to this would be a person is purposely trying to offend. Those types are not uncommon in life, so expect to encounter them. For the people who are outright racist and mean to offend, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
We live in a world where people are increasingly better able to communicate with other people and globalization is bringing people together. The world is better because of it. Great thinkers from around the world are now able to share their ideas, and it’s because of this that things like technology and medicine are advancing at an amazing rate.
It’s for those types of communications that being respectful and even politically correct is necessary. One would not want to accidentally offend someone they were working with by simply using the wrong turn of phrase because they are unfamiliar with other cultures.
However, the people who are offended really need to lighten up. It’s not very often people mean for their words to be hostile or offensive. Generally, I feel like it’s usually an honest mistake, or something said in jest.
The offended need to be less vulnerable; they should be proud to be part of whatever ethnic, racial or religious group might accidentally have been offended.
With confidence and pride, anything someone might say won’t be able to offend you anyway.
So, is being politically correct right or wrong? I say it depends on the context of a situation. In the context of a fairly official setting, I would say choose your words carefully.
In a less-formal situation, say the liberal arts, I would say express yourself. So long as one isn’t trying to be outwardly offensive, I would say that person should be safe from reprisal. All in all people, just use your heads, and think before you speak.
