Wednesday 3 October 2007

Political Correctness

Please don't say "oh you are not being totally PC" to me. I will probably look at you with a blank or bewildered face until I work out what you are talking about, then I will quietly consider wether a KO or even a Slap will get me charged with assault, whilst glaring at you. Then I will just walk away, while berrating you loudly within my head.

Hello!! PC stands for Personal Computer in my world. PC does NOT stand for Politically Correct Language because there really is no such thing as Politically Correct ANYTHING!! Just watch tv footage of the Japanese parliament, pmsl they throw tables, jump on each other and blazenly brawl on national and international television whilst getting paid for it!! Or our government, they sit there and throw slanderous comments around the room and whoop and laugh and cheer or bang their fists on the table and stomp their feet like two year olds chucking a tantrum. So what right do they have to make up stupid suggestions on what parts of language are correct or incorrect in my everyday conversations.

Here is one stupid one, which hits home every single day because of where I live. I can not call my neighbour a black fella even though he does refer to himself and his family as black fellas, yet he is “politically correct” in calling my family whities!!

I am not WHITE, I am like Billy Connelly, I am pale blue from my scottish heritage, pale pink from my irish heritage, not sure what colour the english heritage comes in, and also have just a hint of black fella from my great great great grandmother who was a pureblood Murray, straight from the detention camps in North Queensland. As far as that concerns me, I AM PURE AUSSIE!!

So just because I am not officially recognised as an Indigenous Person (I don't chose to be recognised as anything other than AN AUSTRALIAN!!) I can not use the terms "black", "blackfella", "koori", "murray", "aboriginal" etc. I must use "Indigenous person", or "person of non-caucasian descent". Hello, have they not heard of the black african american couple who had a white skinned, blue eyed baby?? That baby certainly is NOT from Caucasian Descent, its DNA was tested and ALL of its markers showed it to be of Black African American Descent.

So when I am trying to tell the medical staff or ambulance officer which patient I am hypothetically getting treatment for, I am not going to say that black aboriginal man over there, I am going to say that male person of non-caucasian descent and point towards him, hoping that he is surrounded totally by white people, otherwise they might wonder if I am talking about the phillipino man or the greek man or the very black south african man.

I really don't think it matters what words you use, its the tone of voice, the indifference or obnoxiousness that goes with the words. Swearing is much the same, you can use swearing as humour, just check out my favourite comedian MR BILLY CONNELLY, or you can use swearing in terms of familiarity or endearment - I will laughingly call my friend a Bitch, especially when she KNOWS she has done something I wanted to do first, or has bought the very thing I wanted to buy. Or you can use swearing as a derogatory reference to hurt, humiliate, shock or scare someone.

And even swearing has words that are politically correct. Look at the court case where the accused told a police officer to Fuck Off. He got charged for indecent language (or something along those lines), so he took them to court and sue'd the police. I am not sure on what grounds he actually sue'd on, but HE WON! Fuck is now an officially recognised, politically correct word to use in everyday language in Australia. Go Figure!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

OOOO this is one of my pet peeves. I think its gone way over board and political correctness has now crossed the line into being anti politically correct to me. My kids are so busy learning about other cultures that they don't have time to learn about their own anymore. We are going to end up with a generation of white kids who don't know their own roots.