Listen For Meaning, Not Just The Words

First, the bad news: Everything you hear is not what appears to be. In fact, it probably would be close to say that a full third of what you hear each day could be some form of a prejudiced statement. To combat this growing problem of radical prejudice, we’ve got to take a stand, and make sure that we define exactly everything we say and mean so there can be no possibility of offending other human beings. Right?

WRONG.

Thanks to viewpoints like the one above, I could be writing to you as an Anglo-American, vertically challenged, verbally enhanced person. Terms like that have become some of the buzzwords of a concept known as “political correctness.”

The people who believe in this and support it, however, are living a rather desperate life. Political correctness in almost any form used today is not correctness. Instead, it is a form of prejudice that is even harsher than what went before it.

Our language has always been unique, to say the least. Expressed in poetry, whether in the form of a sonnet by Shakespeare, or the lyrics of a group like U2, the English language has always had a life of its own. Political correctness, on the other hand, removes the soul from our words and leaves us with compartmentalized little office-shaped cubicles of words that essentially have no meaning. Certainly, phrases like “AfricanAmerican” have meaning, if taken literally; they show we’re talking about a person from Africa who happens to be an American.

But that’s not what it really means; we’re actually talking about an American of African descent. It could be confusing to somebody who has never seen an “AfricanAmerican” before.

Would it be better to describe this person as a former resident of Africa? Or to use words that capture more of a personal description? Political correctness, as I said before, is a form of prejudice.

The people who support the idea, however, will say it protects against racism and discrimination and lets us have freedom of speech. The idea of discrimination is the separation of people by race, color, creed or some other factor.

The terms we consider to be politically correct separate people just as much as anything language has ever come up with.

As an American, I feel I’ve got the right to state my opinions and be what I want to be. I don’t want to be considered CaucasianAmerican or Anglo-American.

I’d rather be white. I’m willing to face up to being short, but don’t call me vertically challenged. And we already know I’m a loud mouth, so can it with the “verbally enhanced” line!

Ultimately though, it comes down to one line: “words are words” (said by Brannon Zahand). It doesn’t matter what it was a person said, it’s how it was said or what a person meant by it.

It seems like half of the PC arguments going around today are caused by mistaken meaning, not actual insult.

We live in the “age of offense.” People are willing to cry out “I’ll sue!” at the drop of a word, and we call it progress?

Perhaps you’d like a solution? Maybe before we scream a reply, we should stop and hear what’s being said.

xxxx

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Dmitri Arbacauskas Central Valley