Just Say It: Being Politically Correct in the 21st Century By Aden Mandel

She’s standing there rambling on about literary fluff and The Great Gatsby. Saying how Jazz was “hot stuff” in the roaring 20s. “It was so soulful,” she says, her knees bending as she lets the last syllable slowly roll out of her mouth. And she goes on to say how it originated in the slums. In the poor. In predominantly… She pauses. 

And in that pause — a millisecond, really — she looks at me. I can see the “Buh” sound formed in her lips. I can feel the bubble of uncertainty that rises up from her chest to her tongue. And it bursts out from her mouth, where I can see the dialogue in her brain.

“I can say this, right?”

“I mean, it’s not offensive is it?”

“But I might as well be on the safe side. Yes, might as well.”

So her lips form into an “Ah” sound. And the little bubble holding the dialogue floats right back into her mouth and back into her chest. 

“...African American communities.”

* * *

Being offensive is, of course, a horrible thing, and it is important to be conscious of what may or may not offend others. However, at times like these, where political correctness is expected from nearly everyone, it has to be asked whether this is a protective barrier for minorities or a cumbersome burden preventing necessary dialogue. And what even is politically correct?

I go to a predominantly white boarding school, and I’m often, if not always, the only (half) black man in the classroom. One day, my friend was giving a presentation on the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a book taught across the United States, and to aid his presentation he displayed a quote on the screen. Instead of the “n” word, a word used throughout the novel, he had put blank spaces. It was perhaps due to a deep feeling of wrong when he had thought of writing the actual word. More likely, it was done to prevent any awkward discussions with the teacher after class. He might have even been thinking of how I would react. 

I personally believe it would have been fine to write the “n” word in his presentation. And as a black man, I should be the one deciding whether or not it is politically correct, right? But what if it’s not? And who decides what’s politically correct, anyway? The answer: nobody has a clue. There are no rules for speaking politically correct. There are no guidelines, no dos and don’ts, no Youtube tutorials. Speaking in this age of political correctness is like dancing around the edge of a cliff in a thick fog: you have no idea when you’re going to slip and fall into the abyss where you die and nobody ever speaks of you again. 

This is obviously problematic. The fact that people of the same race, gender, etc. can have and have had differing views on what is offensive means that the entire concept of being politically incorrect is flawed. But more importantly, what if the issue spoken about, where later the speaker was accused of being politically incorrect, was an important issue? The core problem with accusing someone of being politically incorrect is that the topic at hand, or at least their point at hand, gets ignored. This prevents sound and necessary arguments from being heard, and it’s all because the speaker’s phrasing, not the speaker’s message, was perceived as offensive. 

The “n” word is also quite a controversial topic today. It is continuously the subject of  debate, with many questioning whether it should be used and by whom, but it is seldom if ever discussed in the classroom due to it being a “sensitive topic.” If students are not educated on its origins and how it has transformed, it will be impossible for them to contribute to such debate. Especially because it is such a controversial topic, a half-formed opinion drawn from information from friends or media will simply not suffice for a truly educated discussion, meaning that it is up to teachers to give a non-biased but thorough explanation of the history surrounding that word. The “n” word is just one example of instrumental aspects of history that are glossed over due to the desire to be politically correct. Everything from slavery to The Great Gatsby is riddled with so called “sensitive topics” that are necessary to teach, but are often danced around due to the fear of not being politically correct.

© Copyright 2020 Aden Mandel. Used by permission. All rights reserved.