So for those of you who are strangers, I'm in high school (I know), and earlier this year, a kid at my school made his senior speech about political correctness. This pissed me off not because the kid personally offended me—I think he did the topic justice—but because there have been so many previous speeches at my school about political correctness. And they all complain about how straight White Christian males are silenced and "reverse-oppressed" by Queer Brown* Muslim womens' (I kid, I kid) political correctness. Boo hoo.
Furthermore, I think we should be politically correct. Two warrants:
1. Being polite to people is OK. If I want you to call me Black instead of African American, you should respect that that's what makes me comfortable and just call me that. Why is it such a big deal to just be nice to people? Some people prefer LGBTQIA, some people prefer Queer, some people prefer disabled, some people prefer differently able... Just be nice and call people what they want to be called.
2. You should let a member of an oppressed group decide what they would like to be called. For example, if you're White, you might think that African American is a better term than Black because it recognizes my ancestry. But I may prefer Black because I think it helps us remember that we are not just from Africa to America, but from Africa, on a slave ship, in the fields and the house, and facilitators of the civil rights movement etc etc and acknowledges a history (this is my actual opinion). Instead of arguing with me about it, respect that I am Black and you are White and let me define my own identity. Furthermore, do not complain about the burden of "political correctness" I have put on you. It's your burden to be communicative about what I'd like to be called since you are the one with privilege. Same goes for me and someone Queer or LGBTQIA—I should ask first (I like Queer because it's super inclusive, so that's what I default to, but I will change what I say if someone asks me to). Although when it comes to immigration status, you should probs just say undocumented. But you get my point. Ask people their gender pronouns and stuff!
*I like the terms Queer and Brown better than LGBTQIA and of color because they're monosyllabic and inclusive.
I think the choice of a balding White guy for this ecard might be intentional.
(Go ahead. Call me a reverse racist. DO IT.)
And so I made a facebook status about it and people got real mad, but hey, I got off scott-free without any allusions to my being a house slave (kids telling me I'm not a real Black person). Here's how it went:
Something that makes me question the political correctness speech is the choice to make that speech in the first place; such a choice is, in turn, a decision about what areas of social justice warrant the most dialogue. When I hear 6 or 7 speeches of the same thing, it makes me feel as if that thing must be a problem of enormous magnitude. But for a social justice issue, it really isn't. Censorship via "political correctness" doesn't stand a chance, magnitude wise, against poverty, for example. This is the point about which I agree with [a different kid at my school]: We should make choices about not just what we'd like to dialogue about, but the magnitude of the issue and the necessity for such dialogue. How pressing is "political correctness"? Somewhat. How much is it dialogued about? Way more than other issues of greater magnitude. And honestly, this leads me to draw the conclusion that for every speech about the oppressed, we need 6 about the privileged because we are that afraid of giving a voice to the voiceless. And of course the privileged should have a voice, but how pressing is that issue? Hardly at all. Fighting for the privileged to have a voice is like fighting for straight peoples' right to marry—it just isn't that big. Truth may be truth, but what's telling is which truths we choose to share.
The internet was mad at me that day.
1. Being polite to people is OK. If I want you to call me Black instead of African American, you should respect that that's what makes me comfortable and just call me that. Why is it such a big deal to just be nice to people? Some people prefer LGBTQIA, some people prefer Queer, some people prefer disabled, some people prefer differently able... Just be nice and call people what they want to be called.
2. You should let a member of an oppressed group decide what they would like to be called. For example, if you're White, you might think that African American is a better term than Black because it recognizes my ancestry. But I may prefer Black because I think it helps us remember that we are not just from Africa to America, but from Africa, on a slave ship, in the fields and the house, and facilitators of the civil rights movement etc etc and acknowledges a history (this is my actual opinion). Instead of arguing with me about it, respect that I am Black and you are White and let me define my own identity. Furthermore, do not complain about the burden of "political correctness" I have put on you. It's your burden to be communicative about what I'd like to be called since you are the one with privilege. Same goes for me and someone Queer or LGBTQIA—I should ask first (I like Queer because it's super inclusive, so that's what I default to, but I will change what I say if someone asks me to). Although when it comes to immigration status, you should probs just say undocumented. But you get my point. Ask people their gender pronouns and stuff!
*I like the terms Queer and Brown better than LGBTQIA and of color because they're monosyllabic and inclusive.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thoughts? Criticisms?