I know many good people. The good people in my area of the
rural South are usually self-professed Christians, go out of their way to help one another,
wouldn’t say an unkind word to your face for anything, will bring deviled eggs
and potato salad to a funeral gathering, and pick you up on the side of the
road after you’ve had a flat tire. Salt of the earth people, good people.
People who visit shut-ins, people who babysit in emergencies, people who wave
to you in town, people who will give you $1.60 when you’ve come up short in the
checkout line, people who go to church every Sunday and pay their tithing
without complaint, people who rescue stray dogs, people who hug you after a
loved one has died.
But these same good people sometimes have a problem with
tunnel vision. They are unable to see the world from anyone else’s perspective
from their own. They take their own experiences and their lives and superimpose
them over everyone else. This is especially true if they live in a very
homogeneous society. If you live and work, and go to church and school, and
socialize with people exactly like you, then there’s never any opportunity for
dialogue on how it might feel to look though the world though another set of
eyes.
If you aren’t a white woman, then you have no idea what it’s
like.
If you aren’t a young black male in an urban setting, then you
have no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t a Muslim man, then you have no idea what it’s
like.
If you aren’t a young teen with two children out of wedlock,
then you have no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t a family seeking political asylum in the USA
If you aren’t gay and had to struggle all of your life for
some kind of acceptance, from not only yourself but from society, then you have
no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t an older woman on a fixed income who lives in
an apartment in the city, then you have no idea what its like.
If you aren’t a victim of sexual abuse, then you have no
idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t a black woman, then you have no idea what it’s
like.
If you aren’t a teenager coming to age in 2018, then you
have no idea what its like.
If you aren’t afflicted with a serious illness or chronic
condition, you have no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t Asian, you have no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t a fifteen-year-old scared girl who has just
found out she’s pregnant, then you have no idea what it’s like..
If you aren’t a school age child who was in school during a
mass shooting, then you have no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t a young white male, then you have no idea what
it’s like.
If you’ve never experienced generational poverty, then you
have no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t handicapped, then you have no idea what it’s
like.
If you aren’t a person who has no health insurance, then you
have no idea what it’s like.
If you don’t have a mental illness, then you have no idea
what it’s like.
If you aren’t indigenous to this country, then you have no
idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t a young couple trying to raise children today,
then you have no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t confused about your sexual identity, you have
no idea what it’s like.
If you aren’t a member of a particular group of people, then
you have no idea what it’s like.
I’m going to go in another direction right now, but I assure
you that it ties in which the above narrative. Bear with me.
The term “politically correct” gets thrown around a lot, But
if we were break the term down, what does politically correct mean? Some
synonyms, words that mean the same as politically correct are: unbiased, neutral, appropriate, nonpartisan. So to be “politically incorrect”
is the opposite: biased, partial, inappropriate, and partisan. Those sound like negative
attributes to have. Wouldn’t it be more positive for everyone to want to be
unbiased and appropriate, and therefore actually want to be politically correct? To be politically incorrect is to be a person who doesn’t
care about who they offend in society. Which are you? Politically correct (unbiased
and appropriate) or politically incorrect (biased and inappropriate)? Believe
it or not I’ve actually heard people brag that there’s no way in hell they’d ever
be politically correct. They’re politically INCORRECT and damn proud of it. These
are the so-called “good” people I started this essay talking about. The salt of
the earth people. Is there juxtaposition
here? How can good people want to be inappropriate?
Why are some people going around yelling and complaining
that the country is just too politically correct? Do they think being unbiased is
a negative quality? I have a theory. The people stomping their feet and making snide
remarks about how awful it is that “everything has to be politically correct
nowadays” can’t get used to the fact that polite society no longer sees humor
in jokes or comments that are racist, homophobic, xenophobic, or sexist. If a joke
or comment or meme is mocking an entire group of people, then it is not appropriate
and should not be posted or said. In other words, just be polite. We don’t get
to tell people what they should and should not be offended over. It doesn’t
work that way.
As for the people who make fun of and deride the women
marchers or the football players who kneel, you have no right to say what is
right for that group of people either. You have no right to say how they choose
to make their voices heard. You have no right to tell them that their fears and
experiences are not real. The Civil Rights marchers of the 60s were beaten,
killed, mocked, cussed, and murdered.
History now teaches us that the rights the Civil Rights marchers were
fighting for, were the CORRECT rights to be fighting for. In other words, rights
that any human being should have. And just like the Civil Rights movement,
history will judge us for where we stood at this moment in time, but it will
judge us harsher, and some of us, through the magic of digital social media
footprints, will be found woefully lacking.
