“Political correctness filters speech.”
“I’m just saying what I think.”
“Those people are just playing victim.”
These are things I hear a lot lately.
Except, people feel left out or even attacked by such language. Speech is something easy that people can monitor for themselves. Homophobic, racist, ableist, transphobic, and sexist language is really easy to avoid actually.
These aren’t just simple words.
Exclusion and words that make others feel attacked are not necessary just because someone doesn’t feel like monitoring their mouth. People who are part of LGBT+ Community, disabled, or even just women can be attacked by simple languages. These problems aren’t something that have just sprung up and most people aren't "playing" victims.
The idea that people are playing victim is ridiculous because these are groups of people that have been attacked in the past by people that used those words. They have a reason to be worried that people could still be ready to attack them if they’re using language like that.
When there’s precedent for it, you can’t blame people for being worried about history repeating.
The idea of being politically correct doesn’t filter people’s speech. It’s trying to make the equality we strive for in society obvious in the way we talk. How can we make our society equal when we can’t even make our speech reflect equality? There’s a simple answer to that.
We can’t.
You can say what you think without making people uncomfortable or contributing to century old oppression. Not thinking of white, straight, cisgender, able bodied male as the norm is a good start. Just including people in your speech is an easy start to being politically correct.
Use "they" instead of "he" when referring to someone if you either don’t know their gender or are just referring to a general position. Don’t assume everyone is straight just because more people are straight then not. Keep in mind that people can have disabilities that aren’t always visible. Avoid using words that have been used in the past against a race that was used to attack them.
It’s not a hard change for people’s vocabulary to be inclusive, and it will make a lot of people feel better than they currently do. If you can’t be polite enough to not bring up terms used to oppress others, then you can’t get mad when people call you out on it. Freedom of speech doesn’t keep you free from the consequences of your speech.
Maybe things weren’t like this in the past, but our situations were much different in the past. Just 100 years ago, women couldn’t vote. Segregation still existed until 1964 in America. We have always had freedom of religion, but we’ve never had a non-Christian president in America. There’s so much more to this than just the past.
However, we don’t live 100 years ago or even 50 years ago. We live in a time where we are still working to make sure everyone is equal, and the very least we can do is start with our language.
So what is wrong with being politically correct?
Absolutely nothing.
