[BRIEF NOTE] On political correctness

[rfmcdonald]

Last night a friend blogged about how so many people who proudly proclaim that they aren't politically correct (with the implication that they are brave, unshacked by sterile pieties and intellectually courageous) are in fact going out of their way to be crudely offensive in the classic ways of established bigotries. Bert Archer's recent posting on gay jokes comes to mind.

I think it’d be great if we could all feel post-racist enough to make nigger jokes, or post-anti-semitic enough to make Jew jokes. But we don’t. And so I find myself peeved that we seem fine with gay jokes. David Letterman’s Top 10 on Dec. 13 included about as many gay stereotypes as you could stuff into 10 gags, and my co-workers, at Canada’s most liberal and Liberal newspaper, just made three jokes in quick succession about Jake Gyllenhaal bending over to grab his toes, etc.

Now, as it happens, men who have sex with men do, from time to time, stick their penises into other men’s bottoms. It’s also true that some of these men like designer fashions. It’s moreover true that most professional basketball players in Canada and the States are black, though I suspect that jokes about NBA standing for the Negro Basketball Association would not only not wash, people would feel abashed at telling them. At least, the people making these gay jokes would.

A commenter argued persuasively that offensive jokes might well demonstrate that a minority's existence is accepted and that integration is actually happening. That still doesn't detract from the rudeness. It certainly doesn't demonstrate any particularly laudable bravery.