O is Oppression and Offensiveness

My coworker complained, again, that this world is becoming way to “PC,” and no one is being able to say what they want to say.

“What do you want to say, then, that you can’t?” I replied.

She had no answer.

Within a few hours, I saw an article about people being way too offended these days, especially on college campuses. The term, “that’s a trigger for my…” being used like cheeze whiz on a variety of societies’ crackers.

Cracker? Yes, that can be seen as offensive. Sorry about that.

PC. It stands for politically correct. It means to choose terms and representational aspects of writing and communicating that causes as least offense to a person that is being addressed. It’s mentioned even, briefly, in the Disney film, Zootopia, when a cheetah addresses a bunny as, “cute.” She responds, “well, technically, a bunny can call another bunny cute, but not other animals.”

At least, that’s how I learned it. I’m educated, frankly. Well, I like to think I am. I’ve written two graduate papers, and, in those, I was required to write in a formalized format that put the humanity before the situation. Instead of saying a Deaf person, I would have to say, “a person with a hearing impairment,” even if I hated the term ‘hearing impairment.’ Still, it made sense. It gave the clinical professionalism needed to discuss the topics at hand with scientific clarity and it was respectable to all the parties involved. It’s called the American Psychologists Association or APA format. Sometimes it’s called MLA or the Modern Language Association format as well.

Essentially, well, be PC. And it made sense. I should keep to the clinical stuff when it comes to professionalism.

I never even heard of PC until I was out of graduate school.  We’re looking at the mid 90s. And, from there, I never heard of it being a pejorative until I moved to the South. And I haven’t heard of it being a concern for the past 20 years.

Ahhhh, the South. Your days of being oppressive are limited, if the argument you have is that academic writing is influencing your daily living. Wow. Impressiveness.  

We learned-types making you think and see each other as equals.

But I'm being myopic and that's wrong of me. I forgot that, sadly, sometimes I do walk the line of white-guilt and miss that this isn't just in the South. It's countrywide.

I have no further to look to the newest Doctor Strange’s release, where I see that the Ancient One is being played by a non-Asian.

Huh?  

Or the fact that, even though there are more gays on television then there has been in a long time, it seems that one half, the more masculine part, is played by a screaming….straight dude.

One these gents is a straight man.

Huh?

One of these gents is a straight man.

And yes, the Oscars are up there.

My complaint then and now is that we shouldn’t wait until the movie opens or the awards are announced. I raised a Twitter-stink when I saw Straight Outta Compton, even joking that it was so good, no one at the awards show will notice.  The concerns should be addressed prior. And loudly. Those who make the decisions need to know that the white male moviegoer is truly a myth. If movies like The Force Awakens can stride up to the biggest movie release in eons with a female, a Latino, and a African Amer...well, he’s from England, so whatever the correct term is there.

Okay, a really hot dude also works.

Idris, Idris, Idris….wait...what?

The fact is, and everyone pretty much agrees, dear Hollywood, wake up? Stop doing this. Make movies and know that the audience is not what you think it was any more. Everyone can see movies, not only on the big screen, but on the smaller one, too (hello Netflix and Hulu). There’s no reason for this.  Cast African Americans. Cast Latinos. Cast women. You’ve done it before. Heck, Morgan Freeman was cast as God, and no one batted an eyelash.

Okay, that’s cheating. Morgan Freeman is kinda awe-inspiring and God-like. But you know what I mean.

As for those who think that they are oppressed, even though they don’t have to hide the picture of their partner from this desk? Or say where they’ve been over the weekend?

The “Haves?”  

You are not being oppressed. You can still do what you want. At no point do you have to stop “having.” You have no concept of oppression. You have no concept of the pain you cause to that closeted kid in Mississippi when you pass a law saying they are less. When a presidental candidate can say this, then, we really need to rethink things.

I so wish that, by this time in decades, we’re still discussing something so obvious. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And for you, dear Reader, know that you can be yourself around me, I’m bigger on the First Amendment then most. There was once a massively offensive comic strip about autism posted in the school newspaper at my college. I was a writer there at the time. I found it offensive. It spawned debate and discussion. But it also espoused hatred-an impressive amount, I’d say. And for good reason. But, here’s the tic, what a learning experience. The dialogue was real and forthcoming, and made all involved see what was on the table and I thought it was welcome. The barbs were not needed, but when we’re dealing with family members, I get that. Offensiveness, in many ways, does have a place, for it teaches us what we’ve accepted and what we’ve moved on from. Where we are as a society and where we need to go. Look at the Simpsons. Cutting edge for eons. Now? Nothing really that offensive. But that’s vital, too.

We learn. But we do have to remember, there is a process. I know we can fix this.