Election seasons always amplify the disagreements people of differing political views have with each other. One of these debates is over political correctness, or language designed to avoid offending disadvantaged social groups.
Those who use the term "politically correct" negatively usually view it as a form of censorship, an encroachment on their freedom of speech. However, there is some misunderstanding here about what exactly freedom of speech is.
Freedom of speech means you can say what you want and the government can't censor you or lock you up.
Freedom of speech does not mean you can say whatever you want without consequences, or without other citizens asking you to please stop.
Freedom of speech does not mean people cannot get upset when you use slurs, tell distasteful jokes, or say something else insulting just because “it's a free country.” Freedom of speech does not mean that saying whatever you want to say will not reveal what kind of a person you are and what kind of thoughts you carry around in your brain.
Freedom of speech does not mean that you will not hurt someone when you speak about a group—liberals, conservatives, women, men, immigrants, Muslims, members of the LGBT community, or others—and assume that there is no one present who fits that description or knows and loves someone who does.
Yes, everyone has the ability to speak their mind. But when you say something derogatory about another human being, it is not that human being's fault for being hurt by your words.
I often hear people complain that others—millennials, society, whoever—are too sensitive, too politically correct, too easily offended these days. That it is the responsibility of those offended to toughen up. And maybe it's true that a thick skin can be a useful attribute, and that focusing too much on your own victimization can be paralyzing.
At the same time, most of the language that has changed in the past decades to become more PC has been done for the sake of marginalized groups: women, people of color, LGBT individuals, and so on. In other words, groups of people to whom American society has given the short end of the stick (to say the very least) for over 200 years. In my mind, the slow progress we have made as a country—since before basic human rights were allowed to any but a very small percentage of humans—is reflected in the way we speak. PC language is a reflection of progress, a sign of the wider population viewing marginalized and historically oppressed groups as humans and respecting their agency to decide the language used to describe them.
It's not that people are too sensitive or too easily offended. It's that, as a society, we've learned from our mistakes. We know that pejorative language is wrong, and we're trying to do better by our neighbors.
Like everything, political correctness has its limits. But it isn't a bad thing. It isn't oppression or censorship, but rather a decision to treat other human beings with kindness and respect and to seek to avoid using language that others have said is insulting or hurtful to them.
It can be a frustrating learning curve, for sure. But “freedom of speech” or “too easily offended” simply aren't good enough excuses.
Americans have always been obsessed with freedom. But can we focus on the right of marginalized groups to live a life without harassment, rather than the freedom to say rude and dehumanizing things?
In short, words have power. Let's choose words that show kindness, good will and understanding. Maybe we can make our fellow Americans' lives a little bit easier, a little bit freer.
