Have you ever been in a situation where you've introduced yourself to someone and then they call you the wrong name? I'm Jordyn, but often, people think my name is spelled Jordan. It's pronounced the same so the first time it's whatever. But when you don't correct someone, they just keep calling you the wrong name. And after a certain amount of time it's just frustrating.
People Facebook message me where my name is legitimately inches from where they are typing and they still spell it wrong! I want to shake them and say "you've known me for weeks- months- sometimes even years and you still do this! My name literally isn't Jordan! Why can't you care enough to learn my name?!"
When you don't care enough to learn a huge part of what someone's identity is, it's frustrating and offensive. To consistently call someone the wrong thing shows a lack of respect. Now if it's genuinely an accident, that's one thing, but if it's just that you don't care enough or maybe you know and purposely are using the wrong term—it's just a jerk move.
So why do so many people just want to criticize the world for being politically correct? Saying politically correct is really just a synonym for "not being offensive"
I get it, sometimes it gets complicated to have to learn all the non-offensive terms to use, but a little complicated is the price we pay for making people feel safe and comfortable.
It seems to me that the same people who complain of the world working too hard to correctly represent people are the same people that don't get misrepresented.
Why should you care that a majority of people use a derogatory term for black people, or even still say African American even though that's a complete misrepresentation because not all black people are from Africa, if you personally aren't black?
Why should you care that a majority of people use derogatory terms or don't care to learn—or purposely don't call people within the LGBTQIA community the correct term or pronouns that they want to use, when you aren't in that community?
Why would you care about any one single community of people that is being made to feel uncomfortable (at best) by the way we allocate terms for them, if you are not a part of the discomfort?
You're a part of this world that we all have to live in. You could just cruise by unnoticed and refuse to acknowledge the pain and suffering, by doing so contributing to that pain and suffering. Or you could stand up and actively help to make the world a safe home for everyone. The only way being PC would affect your life here would be to make the people around you happier, therefore making your environment happier. There are no negative repercussions.
If you were in a position where someone could help you to feel safe and comfortable and happy by doing something so incredibly simple like learning your name, you would want them to do it, right? Well, you could do that for so many people. Isn't the extra minute of time and energy worth making the world for all of those people a better, safer place to live?
