The P.C. monster

The dictionary defines political correctness as: “demonstrating progressive ideals, esp by avoiding vocabulary that is considered offensive, discriminatory, or judgmental, esp concerning race and gender.” I’ll go two steps further: Political correctness was created to suppress the expression of conventional wisdom and subvert traditional values.

A feminized culture places protecting feelings and denying reality above the rights of individuals, and it’s to our detriment. To offend a “progressive” woman or racial minority is a high crime that requires castigation and public shaming. But a problem arises in the implementation of P.C. laws and policies: They must be applied equally and across the board.

For example, Shannon Gibney, a black professor at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, offended (P.C. word!) white students in her Introduction to Mass Communication class when she talked about “structural racism,” an amorphous entity that will keep the professional civil rights industry in business for generations to come. No doubt fed up with heterosexual, white, and often Christian men constantly depicted in class as perpetrators of all things evil, two white male students taking Gibney’s course objected, saying, “Why do we have to talk about this in every class. … It’s like people are trying to say that white men are always the villains, the bad guys. Why do we have to say this?”

In a case of fighting fire with fire, three students filed a formal complaint against Gibney. Political correctness wasn’t invented to protect white males, but that is the unintended consequence, resulting in the creation of a P.C. monster. The school formally reprimanded Gibney for creating a “hostile learning environment.” (As it turns out, this wasn’t her first time calling out white males.) Gibney and others promptly fired back by filing a discrimination lawsuit against the school.

I feel two ways about the issue. First, educational institutions provide the ideal forum to discuss and debate “controversial” subjects, even so-called privilege. But they must present both sides of the issue. Second, offending someone isn’t a crime and shouldn’t rise to the level of a formal complaint. The problem is that the standards are different. Reverse the races, and the incident would be front-page news. The professional civil rights industry would demand the professor’s head on a platter and pressure the school to prostrate itself before the golden-calf god of diversity, while conservatives, Christians, and others who reject political correctness now realize they can use these tactics to fight back. Things would change rapidly in this country if more people refuse to take the blame resulting from laws and policies enforcing conditions they had nothing to do with creating or choosing and speak out loudly and often about it.

The Fall brought this discord into the world, and as long as fallen humans populate the world, it will not cease. We can take a lesson from the gospel. We are not responsible for the sins of our ancestors, and we are not victims of sins committed against them. God stands in judgment of individuals, not racial or ethnic groups. God saves individuals, not racial or ethnic groups. Despite all the strife, we are spiritual equals.