Some of the dialogue around issues of racism and bigotry is
infuriating and infantile.
People who say “[insert minority] are hyper-sensitive”, or
“Political Correctness is bullshit and inhibits communication”, what are you
really thinking? What right are you so determined to exercise?
Imagine you meet someone and a debate arises on the merits
or otherwise of the death penalty. You might wonder why that other person is so
strident and seems to have such a personal stake in things. And imagine that
when you deliver your reasoned, logical, copiously well-informed argument
against the death penalty, the other person bursts into tears. You might think,
reprovingly, “Don’t be so emotional”.
But wouldn’t you also disengage from that topic of
conversation, knowing it is so upsetting to someone else? Even if you
thought that person was being ridiculously sensitive, would you press
on regardless?
And if it comes to light that the other person’s context is
that they lost a loved one to violent crime, would you ignore that and continue
with your unassailable argument? If so, you are an asshole.
Don’t get me wrong. You have a right to be an asshole. You
are legally entitled to ignore people’s feelings, and their specific contexts,
and to continue being an asshole.
But why would you want to? Who sets out to be an asshole,
and then loudly proclaims that other people have no business telling you not to
be an asshole? No one that I want to hang with.
If using a term to describe a group of people causes some members
of that group anguish, or pain, or anger, and you keep doing it regardless of
what you know of that group’s history of marginalization, deprivation, or
torture at the hands of established society, then you are an asshole.
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