The importance of political correctness

The very mention of the phrase "political correctness" makes a lot of people express displeasure in a variety of ways (smirk, laugh, get angry). They tend to favor open and genuine conversation rather than nuanced "correctness." There is definitely something to be said about such open exchange. It can often build bridges and foster understanding between different groups of people. While it may sound painful, often it can, in the long run, be more constructive than just being "pc" - which really makes sure that nobody hurts anybody for the length of the immediate interaction - specifically through the inappropriate use of language.

However, there is a lot more to it than that. I recently had a couple of unpleasant experiences, which have made me think. In one, I had a student, A, say something to me - that she perceived to be funny - but I found offensive. I knew she did not intend any offense, and was just being clumsy with words. It lead to her apologizing and we had a really good talk afterwards, about the importance of language and how words take on different meanings in different situations, thus requiring us to be careful with usage - even when we are sure about what we are saying and intend no harm.

Ironically, that very night I landed up being the perpetrator and made a statement to a friend - which within the very nuanced context of our conversation was not at all offensive. We were discussing "class" and the inequalities and differential treatments that follow from the perception of this elusive quality - especially if a group of people pride themselves in having class and are in no perceptible ways any better than their peers. It is true that the word "class" is closely associated with history and heritage, but exploiting history and heritage (what many will call cultural capital) does not seem reasonable in a meritocracy. On the contrary, we associated the "lack of class" with a down to earth, no nonsense, approach to hard work. Achievement that stands for itself without the crutches of history to lean on.

Hence, when I made the statement to my friend "Group X does not have class" it was meant mostly as a compliment rather than an insult. It so happened that a member of group X, W', was close by - overheard my comment and . . . to make a long story short, was not at all pleased and was exceedingly rude and hurtful to me. My efforts at explaining to her the nuance of the conversation and the intention were ignored by her. A little more research into "group X" showed that they were a very class conscious society - viciously proud of and protective of their lifestyle. I had unknowingly stepped on a land mine, buried beneath generations of local and social tensions in a town that can be sliced and diced along many lines. Interestingly I had a similar conversation with another friend of mine, K', from the "group X" earlier that day and we had both heartily agreed that there was no concept of "class" among them and we had even laughed about it.

Needless to say, I caused pain, and was quite hurt by the woman's behavior. None of this would have happened if I had just been more pc and avoided constructing a statement that associates what is commonly perceived as a bad thing (lack of class) with a group of people, without quite knowing their history. Irrespective of my intention. Now of course, I did have the same conv. with K. Clearly, K and I, and A and I, have similar assumptions and even though we have different racial and ethnic heritages we share similar assumptions which allow conversation. W and I, unfortunately have different heritages and no similar assumptions - add to that our mutual ignorances about each other, and we have a politically incorrect pudding pie!! Hence, we need to be politically correct with each other, while K and A and I can afford to be communicative ad frank.

This was a painful lesson for me.

For the time being, I have planned to apologize to W, though I don't intend to interact further with her till she apologizes to me for her extremely rude reactions.

The bigger question is, should we avoid people who don't share similar assumptions to spare ourselves the pc stuff. Instead is it a better idea to mix and work more with the Ks and As of the world where there may be points of conflict, but almost always solutions of interest.