PC be damned

I distain political correctness. It’s not because I’m getting old, it’s because it inhibits give-and-take social intercourse among human beings. You know, talking.

I try and be politically correct because I really don’t want to offend anyone. Now, that is a condition of growing older. It’s not that I run from a hassle, I just have developed different “druthers”; I’d druther watch “My Name is Earl” reruns that verbally banter with someone trying to pick a spit-fight.

Being PC became fashionable about 25 years ago. I was doing my newspaper thing in Marshall, TX when I received a letter from the company CEO who said we were to scan our “work environs” for any types of material (cartoon, photo, saying, labels, etc.) that were politically incorrect.

I did just that and noticed the Association Press photos hanging back in the newspaper’s composition area of scantily clad models – both male and female -- cavorting in the surf somewhere. Male? Female? We were apparently equal opportunity political incorrecters. Down they came.

It was in the accounting department that I stopped and started laughing at a poster I had never noticed. “Sexual harassment will be tolerated. However, be warned, it will also be graded.”

It has always been my opinion that poster would do far more to deter sexual harassment in any workplace than some corporate edicts or government pamphlet.

Nowadays people can’t speak freely for fear of inadvertently hurting some person’s feelings about something.

I ask myself: Do Hispanics mind being called Mexican, if, in fact, they are of Mexican descent? Are my Italian friends Italian-Americans? Then, are acquaintances from Rwanda, Rwandan-Americans? Are my pigment-enhanced friends black, Black, African-American? I admit to being confused at times. Can one truly be African-American if the last time any of their relatives set foot on the continent was prior to 1800?

The name of the organization The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People just confuses me further.

I don’t understand the need for a Miss Black America Pageant since blacks (forgive me if that term is offensive) have entered and won the Miss America Pageant. After performing an internet search for “black associations,” I was fluxmottled! Who knew there’s a Black MBA Association with 8,000 members, Black Nurses Association, Association of Black Psychologists, American Association of Blacks in Higher Education, and even a Black Scuba Divers Association?

‘Black” seems to the term of acceptance, but on TV, “African American” is used more often. What term should I use? I don’t want to say the wrong thing but the problem is I don’t know what the wrong thing is.

I have a black friend (I checked with him, and in his case “black” is A-OK) who delights in calling me “pink toes” and “white bread.” I don’t find that offensive in any way; I have pink toes and I am as “white bread” as they come.

I have decided that it’s not necessarily the word or name that one is called that is politically incorrect. It’s the tone and intent that makes it non-PC.

What really matters is what is in one’s heart and mind and making your feelings clear to everyone who truly matters in your life.