Opinion: Can We Be Too Politically Correct?
The millennial generation considers itself the most progressive and forward-thinking. Truthfully, we are making the same mistakes the generations before us made. Instead of promoting equality, all we have done is further divided ourselves.
Social media has played a big part in the recent “social justice” movement. While this movement has shined a light on important topics such as racial and LGBT equality, it has also oversensitized people and created double standards.
According to social justice warriors, a pejorative term that has been used to describe hostile activist bloggers, but has been adopted by them as their official name, if you don’t know what LGBTTIQQ2SA stands for, you are a gay-hating bigot. If you are a male, you can never experience rape or sexual harassment.
The campaign started on the blog site Tumblr. The primary points of interest in this campaign are women’s rights and LGBT equality, but it has expanded to promoting oversensitivity and inaccurate information on these subjects.
It is quite a hypocritical movement, as they have isolated certain demographics in order to reach “equality.” If you want to achieve social justice, a good way to start is by being open-minded to all demographics and backgrounds.
There is a privilege fallacy in today’s world: we believe that social advantages are created by race, sex, gender and sexuality, while in reality, they are created by wealth and class.
America has one of the highest GDPs and living standards in the world. Ninety-nine percent of Americans have access to running water, electricity and sanitation, according to World Health Organization annual water sanitation report.
We live in a society where people are not executed or castrated for suspicions of homosexual activity such as Uganda, or arrested for promoting “homosexual propaganda” such as Russia. Not quite the same as dealing with high school bullies.
The organization Black Lives Matter is a good example of what a successful social movement looks like. They took racial profiling by police, an important issue that needed to be addressed, and brought it to the spotlight. Have they stopped racial profiling? No. But Black Lives Matter has made it an issue that Americans now care about.
The issue is that people are so afraid of being politically incorrect they cannot state their opinion without the fear of being shamed by their peers. For example, a theater in Leicester, England renamed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Snow White and Her Friends. Why? Because they thought using the word dwarfs would be offensive to little people. Bigotry doesn’t go away just by switching a word.
As many young people complain about the ignorance of their parents, the adults laugh at our own. Political correctness has now turned into a euphemism for over-sensitivity and close-mindedness.
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About The Author
Charlie Goddyn
Charlie Goddyn is a sophomore at Northwest Academy, with this being his second year in the iJournalism class. When he's not rushing to finish his articles, he enjoys playing keys and video games.
Charlie,
I think you have some relevant ideas but the way they are communicated is very bigoted. You say, “we believe that social advantages are created by race, sex, gender and sexuality, when in reality, they are created by wealth and class” as if that is fact. But that statement is false, because these factors DO create social advantages. It erases the struggles of marginalized communities (such as people who identify with non-binary genders, people of color, and women) and makes it seem as if they have it easier than others, which is completely incorrect. You also say that the Black Lives Matter was started because of racial profiling by police, when it was because of police brutality against people of color. You have greatly simplified a large issue by saying this. I also find fault in you saying that LGBTGIA people do not face a struggle comparable to that in Russia. The LGBTGIA community is faced with homelessness in America every day, as well as job discrimination, and police brutality. More trans women were murdered in 2015 than in any other year. This article erases real struggles and makes social justice seem like a petty movement.
The definition of “bigoted.”
-Having or revealing an obstinate belief in the superiority of one’s own opinions and a prejudiced intolerance of the opinions of others.
While Charlie’s article certaintly scales by the issue of LGBT discrimination, he doesn’t in fact discount the idea of “social justice,” whether it be addressing LGBT discrimination or otherwise, and rather points to what he sees as a flaw in the movement’s development that has overshadowed its original message.
It is an opinion piece, and therefore, he does have the right to display his view on what he sees as the extrapolation of social justice issues in the form of overt political correctness. That does not make his points bigoted.
Rather, when he addresses women’s rights, Black Lives Matter, and the LGBT movement, he doesn’t discount the message or the people being represented as much as he criticizes the over-sensitizing of an issue that can therefore isolate or alienate those not as “in-tune” with the exact terminology of said movement. He does not ever imply in his article that marginalized communities have it easier than the rest of us.
Elle,
I appreciate your points on the Black Lives Matter movement. While they (BLM) do also focus on racial profiling, you are correct that their primary focus is on police brutality. Thank you for the correction. But your statements on me being bigoted is incorrect and is a prime example of a point I was making in this opinion piece. This point is that the SJW movement slanders people with terms such as racist, homophobic, and bigoted when they are not. How is it bigoted to say that the LGBTQ community in Russia faces much more hardship than the American LGBTQ community? It is a fact. In the United States, gay marriage is a constitutional right. In Russia, if you promote “propaganda of non-traditional relationships to minors,” you may end up in jail for five years. Also, while I should have stated the privilege fallacy more clearly, as I do believe race, sex, gender, and sexuality do play roles in privilege, the point of the privilege fallacy is that people pretend that wealth and class do not play a role in privilege. They do. If an upper middle-class transgender person wanted to become a doctor, they would have a much easier time than a poor straight person, as they could afford to go to medical school. Now, if the transgender person and the straight person were on equal terms on class or wealth, the transgender person could potentially face discrimination while applying for a job, while the straight person would not. Finally, I would like to clarify something: I do believe in LGBTQ equality and believe it is a large social issue. The point of the article however is that people are becoming extremely over sensitized and are pressuring people to conform to their ideas, not their own. That in my opinion, is a flawed approach to achieving equality. Instead, we should focus on making LGBTQ equality a social norm. Again, I truly appreciate the feedback, and let me know if any of my statements are incorrect or flawed.
Thanks,
-Charlie
Thanks Charlie,
Your point is much clearer now, and I do agree! I just think the article in general doesn’t communicate that point in a way that you say is being “open-minded” and in that way is a little bit hypocritical. I also find it offensive that you inserted a made up acronym for the LGBTQIA movement, as it makes the movement more like a joke and less like a legitimate cause.
I do see your point clearly after reading your comment. Thank you for clarifying!
Gay marriage is not a constitutional right, because it is not explicitly mentioned in the constitution.
However, it was legalized because it is unconstitutional to deny equal protection.
Elle,
LGBTQQIAAP:
http://www.gayexplained.com/lgbtqqiaap-community/
This is the source I found for that acronym, if it isn’t legitimate, let me know. I wasn’t intending for it to be a joke.