Sadly, in today's society, most things tend to become polarized or pushed to extremes. Whether on the political spectrum, or in terms of ideas — people tend to get hung up on a specific topic and fight until their metaphorical war is won. This same issue has created a debate over the so-called "PC Culture."
If you are unfamiliar with this term, PC is an acronym for Political Correctness — which is the act of censoring language, jokes and policies so as to not offend a specific person, race, gender, orientation, creed or any number of ways that a person identifies, or things that make a person who they are.
People often complain that as a society, America has become embarrassingly easy to offend, or that everyone is just looking for something to be offended by. However, even though one of the top Google suggestions for political correctness auto-fills in "is bad"... is being "PC" really all that bad?
The term "politically correct" started to gain traction in the late 80s and early 90s when books such as Closing the American Mind by Allan Bloom and Illiberal Education by Dinesh D'Souza condemned practices such as affirmative action and laws demanding changes in school curriculum. This began not only a war between the far-left and the far-right, but a unilateral sort of argument over what is "right" and what is "wrong."
Now, the argument for or against political correctness has far surpassed any political agenda. Often it has become a rift between generations. Where on one side, we have the (usually but not always) more socially liberal, millennial generation who "doesn't want to offend anyone." Millennials grew up in a time where people started to recognize that using derogatory, pejorative and racist/ableist language was not okay. Plus, all millennials have either been witness to or have been alive since the the end of Jim Crow Laws, the Civil Rights Movement, the start of the Special Olympics, the legalization of Gay Marriage and are currently witnesses to the Glass Ceiling being pushed to its breaking point. These human rights are often what have pushed political correctness to be the norm.
But for most Pro-PC people, that's just it; the recognition that another person is a human being. Not a joke or an outdated and/or racist stereotype. This recognition also has some other synonyms: kindness, understanding and empathy. In my opinion, while political correctness can often be taken too far, I do believe it is important to never perpetuate hatred.
However, I am not saying that all people who don't believe in being "politically correct" are inherently bigoted or racist. Often times jokes and humor based out of stereotypes and potential triggers are not meant to harm — they are just rooted deep in upbringing, or societal norms that tell them that these stereotypes, racist comments, rape jokes and so many more things are okay (when really, they are definitely not).
Sure, it was once socially acceptable to say the N-word, but that was because black people were viewed as less than human. Same difference with how rape jokes were often seen as fine because a woman's word didn't matter in any situation. Or how it was once acceptable to call someone a faggot — I mean, being gay was considered a mental illness until 1973. But none of those conditions are still true... So why are so many people fighting to keep this shameful history in the present?
This is why political correctness matters: being PC teaches our kids and the next generation what it means to be a human being, and how to treat people with respect. It is a constant lesson to people of all ages, how to live by the golden rule (treat others as you want to be treated).
If this article can teach you one thing, it would be to see both sides, and to try and take a more moderate stance. What we need as a country is a little less hate, and a little more love toward everyone whether you are black or white, gay or straight, Christian, Muslim or Atheist, cisgender or trans, able or not, or somewhere in between... sometimes a little kindness is all we need.
