Greetings all,
For one of my courses, we have an online forum where we can ask the instructors questions and our peers or the instructors answer them.
For my one course, we got a new instructor after reading week. The last class before reading week, our prof at the time never showed up for class. Most students stuck around for a bit but after 30 minutes, people started leaving and so did I as next door at the Part Time student union, they were offering free massages and they happened to have a free spot. Free massage or wait for a prof that may not come? I made the obvious choice.
Last week, I think I sent a private post to the person who runs this course and I asked if we get a make up class or something because we 'got gypped out of a class'. Apparently my school is very PC and the prof said I was being insensitive and frankly that really hurt my feelings because it implied I was a racist, which I am not.
First of all, I know the 'gypsies' do not like to be called 'gypsies'. They are now officially known as 'Roma'. Okay fine. If that's what you guys want to be called now, fine, I don't care. They are just words, they don't really mean anything. It's just a label. Just like being Italian is a label. It really doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.
I posted a question on my facebook saying something about when did the word 'gypped' become PC and one of the female alphas from my improv community in Hamilton commented on it and basically seemed to be rude about it. Again, implying I was some racist. If she didn't like what I asked, there are other more effective ways to make a point without coming off as antagonistic (I don't think this person realizes that she comes off that way sometimes, mainly when she disagrees with my opinion. I am a sensitive person so pick up the emotionality of people very quickly. I would not classify her as a rational debater, rather more of an emotional debater).
Wouldn't it be politically incorrect for me to say I got Roma-ed? Or I got Rom-ed?
This blog will now be about how I don't agree with this banning of words bullshit. I am very anti political correctedness and this does not make me a racist. I consider myself a realist and feel that banning words really does not address the issue of racism. In fact, I think it white washes the real issue. Do you honestly think that banning a word or making a word taboo is going to eliminate racist behaviour? Because if that were true, we wouldn't have discrimination anymore.The Roma people would be respected, the black community wouldn't be automatically stereotyped as criminals and gay people would be able to get married in the US and all over the world.
Am I saying it's okay to use words that may offend people? No but I'm offering a more realistic perspective.
We need to start examining people's tone and intention when they speak. We can't just assume someone is being racist just because they use a word. You can be a racist without using racist or derogatory words. I think probably the biggest issue I have with banning words or being so anal about people's use of words that may not be the best is that it really ignores the fact that it's not actually words that communicate the message, it's the tone, it's the emotionality, it's the intention. As I said, you can have the most closed minded and ignorant mentality and yet use the most beautiful words. It's all how you say things and the actions you take towards people that speak volumes. Or it's your lack of words (eg read my blogs about aimee buxton who totally embodies this quality) and your body language that conveys your racist attitude towards people. You can be a racist and an asshole without saying a single world to someone! One of the biggest things I learned in my Catholic school days was there was a type of sin called Sins of Omission which basically where sins where you didn't take action when you could of, think of the Good Samaritan and the people before him who didn't bother helping out the person that was in need, but his so called enemy, the Samaritan, saved his life. So you can ignore people and demonstrate that your racist because you're just too good to talk to them. But no one would call you racist if you actually never said anything. You're deemed not racist, which we all know is not the truth of the situation.
I'm a blood donor and if a 'gypsy' needed my blood, I wouldn't object. I'm not a racist and if I ever saw a Roma person who needed genuine help, their cultural background isn't going to impact my decision on whether I would help them.
I'm sorry but I am not going to stop using the word 'gypped'. I see no harm in it and if people want to be offended, that's there business.
I know in Pakistan, calling someone a Paki is common and not racist but in North America, it's considered racist. Again, words in and of themselves have no meaning. We ascribe the meaning. Clearly when I made this comment in the forum for my course, there was no attack towards anyone.
I have another example of over PC behaviour at my school. There is a regular Thursday afternoon coffee discussion gathering. I thought I would check it out. When I was there, I realized everyone seemed...well gay. When they started the topic discussion about Positive Space, I realized this was a group for gay people. Positive Space are these logos that are plastered all over the school that are safe places for gay students. For me, I actually don't like them because as a straight person, it makes me feel like I'm not wanted. I kept quiet the whole time but I wanted to speak out on some of their issues. I wanted to offer a straight person's perspective who isn't homophobic. There was one key topic that came up, I can't remember it now, I would have to check my journal as I think I wrote about it but I just wanted to tell them that they shouldn't give a shit what others think of their sexuality. I think lots of them felt insecure but they are all probably in their early 20s so most people feel insecure anyways at that age. Eventually as you get older, you realize most people don't care about your sexuality and are too self absorbed with their own life. Just be happy and be yourself.
The other comment that was brought up that irked me was how they were getting offended by how people use the word gay in a derogatory manner, like if someone wears something odd, they will say 'that's so gay'. I'm sorry but I remember the word 'queer' was highly derogatory and now they use that all the time and it's not. Gay used to mean happy.
The point is that the meaning of words change. This again proves my point in a logical manner that words in and of themselves have no meaning. It's the meaning we give it. And words can have multiple meanings.
I think the bottom line is this reaffirms my theory that people just want to be offended. People cannot just be happy and let people be. They have to find something to be offended by, even it really has no direct impact on them. People have been very hurtful to me and as an Italian, there are lots of racist attitudes I have experienced but because I am white, it doesn't really matter.
I think people just get so caught up in these little details and I am a big picture person. I look at the big picture and that's why most things don't upset me. I think if people weren't so reactive about being PC, we may as a society be able to become more progressive because we are giving people the opportunity to express themselves, rather than banning words and giving ourselves a false sense that we are eliminating the problem by simple not using a very small percentage of words.
For me, I just have a different world view from this prof. I believe more that's important to have free speech. Usually these PC people are obsessed about hurting people's feelings but for me, that's not something I value too much because I value freedom of speech more. Doesn't mean I don't care about people's feelings, it's just that freedom is my highest value and something I will protect.
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