Preview

Political Correctness Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
925 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Political Correctness Essay Example
Political Correctness The term "Political Correct" has been in the nation's vocabulary for only a short period of time but has changed the way that we view life and communicate with one another. Political correctness, politically correct, and P.C. are terms that refer, to a social idea that is characterized by efforts to redress, mainly by the use of language, real or supposed discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, nationality, disability or any other criteria that could offended a particular group .The main goal behind political correctness is to prevent the exclusion or the offending of people based upon differences or handicaps.
In an essay written by Michiko Kakutani entitled The Word Police , she examines the idea of political correctness and questions society for taking a good idea and making a mockery of it. Kakutani is quick to point out in her story that know one can argue that the moral idea's behind being political correct are wrong but that those in potions of authority have gone completely out of control trying to rewrite the view of the world in a rigid unyielding style that forces words and phrases into the minds of ever person in America. Groups like the MLA (Modern Language Association) have taken words that have been used for centuries and have created new ones overnight that are political correct and non offensive, the problem is that society is not prepared to be political correct overnight and who is to judge what should be changed and where the line for all this change should be drawn.

Kakutani points out many obscured changes that have occurred since the word police have begun enforcing changes to the terms we use. Phrase such as "charley horse", "lazy Susan", "bull market" and "Kaiser Roll" have all come under fire because they are now considered to be politically incorrect. When going to a restaurant you will no longer be using the term "Waiter" or Waitress" to address the person who serves your food since this is a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Satire: Pc Hyperbole

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages

    With the content in the video Satire: PC, the video basically illustrates the topic of politically correctness through quotidian conversations between two high-school students. One of the students gets shackled by a shock collar from the third student, who performs a supervisor. The supervisor makes the shock collar beep whenever the student discusses something politically incorrectly; for example, the supervisor says “You can’t say ugly. You have to say visually challenging.” (Satire: PC) Utilizing “visually challenging” instead of “ugly” becomes politically correct. In fact, Horatian Satire shows up throughout the video, which proves that the producer would like to criticize political correctness in a gentle, humorous way. Through the use of hyperbole and situational irony, the producer of Satire: PC wants to decline or eliminate the situation of political correctness in the contemporary community due to the…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fairman argues that if the history of offensive terms in America is used as a…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kakutani's "Word Police".

    • 1178 Words
    • 4 Pages

    "Political correctness" defined by Kakutani as "a vision of a more just, inclusive society in which racism, sexism and prejudice of all sorts have been erased," (421) has good intent, but the methods used by politically correct activists to achieve their goals are too extreme. This, in turn, will just lead to the "scorn of conservative opponents and the mockery of cartoonists and late-night television hosts" (421). To validate her claim, Kakutani uses the example of a woman changing "testimony" to "ovarimony" at a Modern Language Association. This illustration supports her claim…

    • 1178 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the essay, Goodman discusses the modern misuse of words that evoke Hitler and the Nazis. He suggests that those who are desensitized to hate words are introduced as being too readily used in many environments. In addition, the essay also brings out the fact that hate words are being loosely used by many politicians tells us that desensitization of hate words are prevalent can extend even to important social figures as well.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Well political correctness is all your opinion- not his or not hers nor the guy down the street. Just your opinion. When researching about political correctness the results concluded to be very odd. There are no facts about political correctness. And all those quotes were telling you what has happened and they are the different point of views of others in the world. Some people actually did something about the rise in political correctness, but some people took a “call to action” way. You don't always have you be highly known to have people listen to you, but in Obama`s speech about Trump, he…

    • 1730 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The English only movement is a movement aimed to make English the official language of the United States. There are many pros and cons of making English the official language of the United States and there are many people who support this and many people who oppose of it. When making a decision to support or to oppose of the English only movement one must be aware of the pros and cons and how it will affect everyone involved.…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In his essay, Civilization and Its Discontents, Gary Kamiya writes about the presence of Political Correctness in society. P.C. teaches proper societal conduct and determines social status, which are necessary ethics when promoted within private domains. The principles are encroaching on the public grounds of the university where they should not be advocated. The university exists to promote liberal education by giving free space for analysis and tolerance; it does not exist to dictate proper conduct. This free space results in citizens that can handle real life problems, while P.C. concerns itself with the abstract. When P.C. hinders liberal education, society achieves nothing practical.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nicholas Barber believes that we have become too politically correct. He argues that we have become too sensitive and that we censor our right to speak our minds, most commonly known as freedom of speech. I agree with Barber that we have become too politically correct,…

    • 107 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Being politically correct is incredibly important to society, because a lot of it is just not being offensive towards other people. The term politically correct originated from Communists and Socialist in the mid 20th century to insultingly to language that was in the party line. At the start of the 1990’s being politically correct became a huge deal to people in America and the UK , it sort of showed the rejection of racism, homophobia and everything else offensive(It’s Time to Get Real About). Although there seems to be quite an unclear line between stating an opinion and being downright offensive.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the wake of school shootings, cracking down on potential threats has become priority. Not only are there threats of mass violence, but racist speech and sexist speech, that some would define as fighting words. A question to ask is when does speech become a fighting word. Having to decide what speech is protected by the first amendment, worthwhile, and what speech has no social value and is not protected, worthless, is controversial. Speech that is defined as worthless include: lewd, obscene, profane, libelous, and fighting words. Focusing on fighting words and the ever developing world of technology, we will examine a present-day situation of words that wound and compare them to past cases.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Example Of Racism Essay

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages

    As children, we were taught to treat others as we wished to be treated. We were taught to love and value one another, we were taught morals. However, as time passed, a growing hatred consumed us. We as a nation lost our empathy amongst each other and began to dehumanize our own neighbors. We as a whole began to discriminate on the basis of skin color, religion, and race. Racism is an injustice act that has been around for centuries, affecting millions of people all throughout the world, and can still be found in present day. Although I believe this to be true, there is a growing opposition that believes that racism is not an injustice but rather the reality of life. Racism is instilled in people through various influences and as a result, they have shaped…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Adrian feels “uncomfortable ” expressing opposing opinions to those he is talking to in stark contrast to 73% of generation Z that feels comfortable expressing opinions opposed to that of the person they are speaking to . This relates to by definition of first wave political correctness in which what was PC was told and obeyed my the public with dire consequences if not followed. Generation Z may feel comfortable expressing an opinion opposed to that of the since political correctness to them “is just having an extra thing to be aware of in a conversation” rather than a set of rules. 76.6% of generation Z saw political correctness as a form of censorship however this was not an inherently bad thing as they stated, “some phrases and terms, etc. need to be politically correct to not offend ” this is still censorship but for the good of the greater…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Solitary Confinement

    • 3661 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Arguably, the majority of Americans can agree on the idea that America is one of the most politically correct countries in the world. No other country in the world spends more time and more money on ensuring that its people are happy with every little minute detail that they could construe as rude or insensitive. Not even countries like Australia, who’s Prime Minister appeared on national television told his countryman that in Australia the language that all road signs and television channels will be English; and if anyone had a problem with that then they could excuse themselves from the country. For all of America’s interest in public affairs one major problem has seemed to slip through the cracks. Whether it’s because people don’t know or whether people just don’t care, no one seems to be talking about solitary confinement.…

    • 3661 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today's society people pay a lot of attention to political correctness. People are way to worried about the fine details of what a person says and not about what they are actually saying. For example when someone is referring to a short person, they should be called a dwarf or a midget. Little things like that are being harped on so much in today’s world. In reality political correctness is based on people's opinions and people spend way too much time worrying about things that do not matter and not about real issues in world.…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Enright stated “A language without euphemisms would be a defective instrument of communication” (Enright, 1985, p.29). Hugh Rawson also affirmed “Euphemisms are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those who pride themselves on being plain spoken, ever get through a day without using them” (Rawson, 1981, p.3). With the development of the society, more concerns are given to human rights and privacy and our society is becoming more polite than before. Therefore, in order to keep a good impression, people will certainly resort to using more euphemisms. As is alleged, since 1970s, the biggest change in English, especially in American English, is “Return to euphemism”.…

    • 3467 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays