1 definition by notreallyanythingpolitically
A phenomena perpetuated by politicians, mainly liberals, with the purpose of eliminating stereotypes. This stems from the fact that words now become occasionally associated with negative images. For example: Mexican denotes an illegal immigrant who works for below-minimum wage and doesn't speak English; Black means that a person is on welfare and is a gang member; White conjures the image of someone who is rich, uppity, fake, and wimpy; Southern describes a person as a stupid racist redneck; and Crippled is associated with someone who is old and cannot contribute to society. Ultimately it is a well-intentioned, but nonetheless bad, idea. It is a bad idea because if we start referring to people as "Caucasian" or "African American" then those words will begin to be associated with the same images that "White" and "Black" were. Another reason it will not work is because it tries to change people's thought processes and people generally don't like it when their heads are messed with. It treats people like they are children who don't understand. The third reason it is a terrible idea which will fail is because it is nonsensical: I know several black people who were born in Africa and should be called African Americans. But if a black person is born in England and moves to America would they be called African Americans? Or what about a white person born in Africa? Black Americans or simply Black should be what they are called. In short, Poltical Correctness is an unintelligent idea taken too far.
Boss utilizing Political Correctness: "Hello its nice to meet you Mr. Clancy. It's good to have an African-American on the team here at our store."
Mr. Clancy: "Sir I was born and raised in England, I'm not African and I'm not American you can just call me black."
10 Years into the future: "Okay class now lets read about the United Statesian Revolution and how the Amer- I mean United Statesians defeated the British."
Mr. Clancy: "Sir I was born and raised in England, I'm not African and I'm not American you can just call me black."
10 Years into the future: "Okay class now lets read about the United Statesian Revolution and how the Amer- I mean United Statesians defeated the British."
by notreallyanythingpolitically June 6, 2006