Going Beyond Stupid

Politically correct speech was invented a couple of decades at Duke, according to one academic legend, by bored English faculty who were looking for a way to razz the Duke bureaucrats. (If you have time to be bored, you're either not assigning enough writing or not teaching enough classes, but I digress) Howling Latina has a post up that set to me thinking about a recent incident and the evolution of politically correct speech. After thirty seconds or so of diligent searching, I found the article and dove into politically correct speech again.

I really hated it when I was younger and people called me "fatso" so I understand the issues associated with politically correct speech; however, I am just as insulted when someone says something like "You're fat. You're stupid." Would I feel any better if the insult were "You're horizontally enhanced. You're stupid." Uh, no.

My most irksome insult is the ever popular line of reasoning that goes: you're from the South, you're talk slow (should be "slowly" but go with me); therefore, you're stupid. Anyway, I get it.

A friend of my from years ago said something to effect of "... you're white, you don't think about race. I'm black. I think about it every day." I get that, too. Since, at the time, I was the only white face in a barracks of about 200 black guys. That made me think about race every day. I get it. What I don't get is thinking about race or anything every second of every hour of every day and looking for trouble everywhere. The victim card is worn out.

It becomes especially frayed when the way racism is treated is compared to sexism. I'll paraphrase one of my favorite presidential candidates (yep, I did vote for her) here. Shirley Chisholm said she had experienced far more discrimination as a woman than as a black. So what is the excuse for the over-the-top exploitation of women in various urban music styles? MoTown it ain't. What about that repulsive Obama shirt "Bros Not Hos"? Rather than using the more common metaphor of pot and kettle here and getting called a racist-- how about isn't that like vanilla ice cream calling snowcream white? This campaign has been full of the worse sort of rhetoric directed at women but the obvious sexism is not really getting much notice. Over at The Confluence, I read a comment that encouraged women to go "Full Metal Lyistrata." I fully endorse that sentiment. At least 52% of all men are like 83% of all Republicans-- you cannot get their attention until you grab them by the gonads. So do you think o'Precious will be doing any gonad grabbing? Women. Do what that other 48% of us can't get done and that is force gender equality, including the hateful politically correct speech, on the populace. Don't let anyone, even jokingly, call you a whore and get away with it. Using a known, historical racial or sexual slur is speech that should be condemned. Looking for monsters in every metaphor undermines the very real struggle for equality and should not be encouraged.

With the above rant in mind, consider the snippet below and stake out your position.

FOXNews.com - Texas County Official Sees Race in Term 'Black Hole' - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum: "DALLAS — What do 'black hole,' 'angel food cake,' and 'devil's food cake' have in common?

They're all racist terms, says a Dallas County, Texas, official.

A county commissioners' meeting this week over traffic tickets turned into a tense discussion over race when one commissioner said the county's collections office was like a certain astronomical phenomenon.

'It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole,' Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said during the Monday meeting.

One black official demanded an apology, and Commissioner John Wiley Price, who also is black, said that type of language is unacceptable.

At the meeting, Mayfield said he intended his comments to be taken in the context of the scientific meaning, and became upset that he was being misunderstood..."