What do people think of PC names for certain demographic groups?

Question

For instance, I usually say "black" instead of "African American" or "person of color." I don't like to sound like one of those white people that always goes out of their way to prove they aren't racist. I always wondered how many people find "black" offensive.

As a woman, I find it really annoying when people make a point of changing the neuter noun "he" into "she" when writing about normal stuff, like "If a person wanted to go to the store, she could." It's like, "hey, look at me! I'm totally into equality, aren't I awesome!" In my mind, you should show your commitment to equality by treating me well and not calling a grown woman "girl."

Also, as a person with a disability, I can tell you the quickest way to get a beat down from me is to call me "differently abled."

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

It makes no sense and PC has certainly gone overboard.  

Here's an excellent quote from yesteryear:

"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation of all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities." [Teddy Roosevelt in a speech before the Knights of Columbus]  

Answer 2

It seems to me that PC terms are justified under the guise of promoting "equality".  

We promote this equality by banning names for particular groups, and then we permit the leaders of those same groups to use what is clearly "hate speech" toward other groups.  

For example, it's fine for Jesse Jackson to call NYC "Hymietown".  The term "ni-gg-ard-ly" won't get past the Yahoo censor, even though it has nothing to do with race, and using the scientific term "black hole" will have one cited for Contempt by a black Judge, but It's fine  for Obama to use the phrase "typical white person".

Where's the equality in being aware of the feelings of one group but not another? Where's the benefit for racial harmony to ban racial slurs against one group, but no others?  For that matter, where's the benefit to racial harmony to silence what people are thinking, and thereby concealing the thoughts, where they can't be addressed and debated? What I mean by that is, if we started going after blacks for even saying the word "whitey", would that make them any less racist?

PC is pointless, especially in a "free" society.  

Answer 3

Political Correctness has gone overboard. Unfortunately, kids in school are not educated enough to make distinctions without "hurting" someones feelings.  

Answer 4

"Black" is not offensive. It is standard. African-American is also standard and is fine. Many people actually dislike "person of color" because many Latinos and even African-Americans LOOK white, not "colored," and it also seems to suggest that European-descended Americans are almost invariably white. They are not. Many European-descended Americans are dark (e.g., Italian, Spanish), and many non-European people look white. So it is misleading and inaccurate to say "person of color."

Why would you find it annoying to use gender-neutral pronouns? If men and women are supposedly so "equal" in the language, why do people still look upon it as weird when people use gender-neutral pronouns? We're "equal," right? So what does it matter? What you say is just further evidence that people actually are NOT comfortable with women being a default universal in language, in the way men have been the default universal for thousands of years. And you rather contradict yourself by saying you'd prefer people didn't "make a big deal" out of gender-neutral pronouns, but then saying you dislike being called "girl." This latter is a legitimate concern, since women are in fact NOT girls, or chicks, or honeys. Is it really that hard not to call someone by a disrespectful name? I'm sorry, but it just does not take that big of an effort to use decent language, only some habit-breaking. I would like to think most people are intelligent enough that they could handle teaching themselves to write "s/he" instead of "he," but I'm afraid I greatly overestimate people's intelligence.

Anyway, "PC" is a buzzword popularized by conservatives to brush real racism and discrimination under the rug, pretend like it was never a big deal and doesn't happen that much. Well, I'm sorry, but as I'm sure you can attest as a disabled person, it still happens all the time, even in language.

The best thing is, in the case of publishing something, e.g., in a newspaper, to ask others what word they would use, or to use an industry standard (Associated Press), and to call people by the most respectful name possible when you first meet them, since you haven't yet had time to ask them or figure out what they themselves prefer. Not that hard. Bottom line: BE RESPECTFUL, not stupid. And don't act like you already know everything about everyone, especially other minorities.

Answer 5

As a card carrying Jew, they stamped my religion on a hospital ID card once, I guess to make sure I got kosher meals, and to send a rabbi instead instead of a voodoo witch doctor in case I dropped dead, I call a Jew a Jew, a black a black, and any person who has to lean heavily on a walker, like myself, a cripple. I'll call any person who appears under 30 a kid, for all I know they might be mine.

I may not be liked, but I'm at the age where I don't give a rat's behind.

Answer 6

Political correctness is ridiculous.  When someone hears the phrase "physically challenged" their brain makes the automatic connection to "handicapped".  It is purely a waste of time dreamed up by hand-wringing liberals who live in fear of possibly offending someone.

Answer 7

Being PC is a form of mind control. By policing your thoughts, the liberals can control the debate and make you look like the bad guy.

Too many times I see people that do things just to get attention. Millionaire celebrities spend an evening eating soup on the street, to bring attention to the homeless, but then stop off at Prago's for dinner, before going to their 20 bedroom homes to sleep for 2 days. But they make sure everyone knows what they did, while there are tons of people actually feeding and housing the poor without any recognition at all.