The Language Problem of Political Correctness

Submitted by Corey Smith on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 08:19

Time for a little rant...

In an effort not to offend anyone, people more and more are trying to use more  Talking Politically Correct Can Ruin Your Vocabularypolitical correctness in language. Calling someone an African-American because his skin is black even if that person doesn't have any ties to Africa. Calling someone special, differently-abled or handicapable when handicap is probably the right word for it.

Not being able to use a word because someone somewhere might be offended... even if it is the right word for the job is just plain stupid.

It just dumbs down our language and our ability to communicate.

What drives me most nuts is the use of pronouns.

For example. When I am talking about one person, the proper pronoun is "he" or "she"... not "they."

Wrong: "I was talking to a friend the other day and they were saying..."

Right: "I was talking to a friend the other day and he was saying..."

Okay, so what if we don't know the proper pronoun? What if you want to apply the pronoun to both mail and female? Using he or she is far more appropriate.

Right: "When talking to a customer you should be aware that he or she may..."

Use the right language for the right conversation and you won't sound so wrong.



Corey Smith is the president of Tribute Media a web development firm providing high performing, industry specific websites. He is a businessman, writer, technology fanatic, graphic designer and web developer. His greatest passion is teaching, consulting and speaking.

You can find him on Twitter, FaceBook, FriendFeed, and LinkedIn.

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Submitted by Patrick Lee (not verified) on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 09:57.
I agree that political correctness can and probably has gone too far. As somebody who has lived in Africa and traveled to countries like Zimbabwe and South Africa where thousands of the natives are white, I've always thought that "African-American" was a ridiculous and inaccurate over generalization.

Submitted by ChangeForge… a catalyst to affect the paradigm » Apathy: The (not verified) on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 16:56.
[...] thanks to Corey Smith for helping me keep my pronouns [...]

Submitted by Justin (not verified) on Tue, 05/20/2008 - 00:38.
Justin thinks that Corey should stop using pronouns for a while. When Corey starts using pronouns again the people Corey talks to will be grateful that Corey uses pronouns and will not care if Corey uses the wrong pronoun.
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