It's only words

Forgive me if I ramble in this. I apologise in advance if I offend anyone with this, but the fact that I feel the need to say that only proves the veracity of what I say. It’s some of my thoughts on one of the greatest evils of the late 20th century, Political Correctness.

Political Correctness, that’s supposed to bring about unity and harmony amongst all the citizens of this once great and wonderful country, does nothing of the kind. It doesn’t encourage acceptance and integration. On the contrary, people who’ve been brought up to be polite have become so fearful of potentially causing offence that they avoid different groups entirely. People who haven’t been raised correctly don’t change, and everyone becomes tarred with the same brush (all football supporters are hooligans, all teenage boys are muggers, etc). Integration and tolerance goes out of the window and segregation, isolation and mistrust are nurtured. It has replaced basic good manners, where people aren’t deliberately rude to anyone, with a climate of fear. The ethos is one where people actively seek out possible causes of offence, rather than accept that difference is not only acceptable, it's positively desirable. To ignore differences is to deny tolerance. But of course tolerance is something that only ‘they’ - the PC Thought Police - are qualified to decide upon. The worst is when people search for what might possibly, in their opinion, offend others. The arrogance in assuming people are too stupid to know what offends them and need a keeper-of-morals to tell them how they should be feeling is utterly breathtaking!

It was that petty mindset that lead to letters of complaint being written to the BBC because Lenny Henry was telling jokes about black people! He was telling jokes about his own family!!! Unbelievable but true. Personally I feel that only a blind person (and the one such person I know finds being called ‘visually impaired’ insulting) has the right to say what offends someone in that situation. The PC nursemaiding well-intentioned do-gooders scurry about organising denies her her adulthood. In fact she, and people in her condition, are the only true egalitarians. Because they physically can’t see differences between races they meet everyone with the same open mind.

The way I see it, PC has replaced good manners and tolerance with a doctrine of fear. Pre-PC differences between races, religions, genders etc were accepted (by polite people) as just that – merely differences, neither better nor worse than one another. There were rude names for ‘different’ people by all groups – no one section of society is any worse than the others, after all! You should hear what a Sikh friend of mine calls Chinese people – and again, polite people didn’t use them in public, just as polite people didn’t blaspheme or swear in public. But – and it’s a big but – these same names are used within a group to refer to themselves. I’m particularly thinking of the recent scandal when Ron Atkinson used the word ‘nigger’. He was thoughtless, but remember, when he was a boy that’s how POACE (I’m informed by those ‘in the know’ that that’s the correct PC terminology) referred to themselves – in fact there was recently a rap band called Niggas With Attitude (my spelling might be dodgy there). Why is a particular word acceptable when one person uses it but a heinous crime when said by another? There’s no logic. Either a word is offensive or it isn’t. Full stop.

The double standards get right up my nose as well. For instance, if it's offensive to call a black person (and there's a potential minefield! In this area POACE prefer to be called black and consider 'coloured' to be an offensive term, but it's a reverse situation where my brother lives) by the n-word, then fair enough, nobody should use it. But how come it's perfectly legal to call a white person 'honky', even though that's just as offensive? Because, in law, racism only works one way.

The evils of Political Correctness lead, a couple of years ago in America, to a man famously losing his job because he used the word ‘niggardly’ and his ignorant co-worker (white, by the way) took offence. Even after the meaning of the word had been explained at the tribunal, the dismissal was upheld. Outrageous. To top it all, we’re officially informed that it’s not possible for a white person (even though I’m actually pink, and only white when I’m unwell) to be racially insulted. I find that insulting. And if anyone calls me racist for writing this, I’ll refer them to my Chinese relations, who know me well and know I’m not. So ner.

PC is also responsible for the fear many men have of showing gallantry and manners towards women. When I lived in London and ravelled a lot on public transport I used to see men being rounded upon for being polite enough to offer their seat to a woman. And heaven forbid they should actually hold open a door for someone! Shocked gasps all round, yes? Or have you all got the courage to stand up and say how rude it is not to accept the gesture in the spirit in which it’s offered? Whether or not a woman needs or wants that seat she doesn’t have the right to throw the poor man’s manners back in his face. But that’s more Feminism, another branch of PC, and a whole other topic. Let’s save that for another day.

The Political Correctness Thought Police are the enemies of freedom, fairness, tolerance and good manners.

I bet I cop some flak for this one. :(