Political Correctness Still out Of Control

…and maybe it’s even worse now that the elections are on! I’ve really been trying to avoid paying much attention to any of this stuff because I just don’t believe that any of the potential candidates are good candidates for our country.

But, the political juggernaut is in high gear and you almost can’t help but hear the reverberation of it in your daily life. I guess if you live under a rock, or do nothing but eat Cheetos and play XBOX you can avoid it.

The latest thing that is plastered everywhere is the problems Obama is facing with regards to public ridicule over his relations with his former Pastor Wright. Obama gave a speech or two on the subject, and I only caught pieces of it. However, I’ve read lots of commentary about the speech on both sides of the fence.

Initial polling indicates that most people don’t think it makes much of a difference and that his speech quelled the disruption.

But, I’m not here to write about Obama. I’m here to write about hate and political correctness.

Let’s start with a term I absolutely cannot stand – African American. I’m not going to re-hash this as I’ve already posted about it here.

I think Americans are pretty much fed up with racial tensions, but the question is what are we doing about it?

Prejudice is usually fueled by ignorance or fear. This can go hand in hand with being racist. This may not always be the case, but it’s a start. As an example, my grandmother used the term “colored” in reference to black people. And she harbored some pretty strong feelings about them. Growing up, I think that some of it was due to “their generation” and later attributed this to simple ignorance or fear.

Now, I loved my grandmother but I didn’t agree with her. This would be an argument that Obama uses as well. But there is a difference. And it’s a big one that should not be overlooked.

Fear and ignorance can be overcome. We can all make a difference by extending our hand instead of our fist. We can show each other that we aren’t all stereotypical and that we don’t have to hate each other. Hate. That’s a strong word, but its part of the problem.

For people like Pastor Wright, Farrakon, Jessie Jackson, and others hate and dissent are what they preach. This is not simple fear or ignorance. It’s fearful to think that because you are black you will get the crap beat out of you by a police officer. I can understand that scenario. But that’s not the same thing as being taught to hate the police officers and dissent against them. And it’s not just black people. White people do the same thing.
My grandmother didn’t preach hate and dissent, but she did unknowingly project a poor image of black people. I have a good friend that is fairly prejudiced, and it drives me nuts. To the point that I don’t want to be around him sometimes. But he doesn’t try to get others to feel the same way. He’s not trying to get me to dislike black people and that is a substantial ideology that I think most people don’t get.

It seems like I’ve read a lot of “angry white man” articles lately. And I can’t say that I wholly blame these people. There is definitive racial tension in this country and it’s not all about fairness and inequality for a specific race. I think that while trying to make things better we have made things worse.

Personal Note: It’s funny that as I was originally writing this I went off on some wild tangent trying to prove a point that I later thought was the wrong point to prove.

And since then, I haven’t been able to finish this article so it’s been sitting here on my desktop waiting to be finished. That’s why I haven’t put much on the blog lately. For some reason articulating my opinion on racial issues has proved to be rather problematic.

But what I think is more important is the big question what are you doing about it? What do you do in your every day life that either encourages prejudice and racism or discourages it?

I think too many people are intentionally, or even unintentionally, encouraging it.