Viajero,

You are right about the sensitive labels. I was wrong to ignore that aspect of "political correctness".

I was thinking of the other side of the swamp, the "you can't express this idea because it hurts this favored group's feelings" side.

I don't want to go back to the days when rednecks made fun of cripples and niggers with impunity. Because:

"Yo soy un hombre sincero" even if I /do/ suffer from melanin deficiency! :-)

Your redneck friend, Uncle Ed

-----Original Message----- From: Viajero [mailto:viajero@quilombo.nl] Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 3:15 PM To: English Wikipedia Subject: [WikiEN-l] Primer on PC (for Ed) (was: Re: Relativism and PC)

On 02/12/04 at 12:33 PM, "Poor, Edmund W" Edmund.W.Poor@abc.com said:

Liberals mostly deny that PC even exists, so it might be tricky

Whoa, let's get a few things straight. "Political correctness" evolved in the 1960s among progressive-minded people who sought culturally more sensitive labels for people, ie "Afro-Americans" instead of "negroes", "Native Americans" instead of "Indians", "disabled" instead of "crippled" or "handicapped", and a bunch more.

No sensible person can argue that this a bad idea. In civilized circles, this thought of as PROGRESS.

Now in the 1980s and 90s, when the Left splintered into identity politics, US conservatives complained "political correctness" went too far; they claimed that leftists had become obsessed with creating euphemisms for avoiding uncomfortable realities. Maybe conservatives have/had a point, maybe not. Whether or not you agree with "political correctness" is up to you. However, if you don't, it implies you would prefer to refer to Blacks as "negroes" or "colored people" again.

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