Making time to move beyond language, and learn about others

“I don’t have time to be politically correct.”

An interesting statement made by billionaire real estate mogul and poll-leading erstwhile presidential aspirant Donald Trump at last Thursday’s first Republican debate.

Trump’s comment, while replayed over and over, ad infinitum on the numerous news channels has been somewhat diluted by other utterances. These are, not necessarily in any order or level of importance: the unfairness of Fox News’ questions, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, Kelly and blood from “wherever,” Trump’s alleged comments about women – “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals” (“only Rosie O’Donnell”) — and Megyn Kelly.

But this comment on political correctness doesn’t seem to have registered. At least not much.

It’s an interesting animal, being politically correct. We’ve all rolled our eyes, shaken our heads, laughed at and mocked the more famous examples of politically correct words and phrases.

You know what I mean. Changing “Christmas Tree” to “Holiday Tree,” or saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” There was a woman in Seattle several years ago who wanted to change verbiage in the city’s zoning code, things like “manhole cover” to “utility cover.”

But is this really what political correctness is about, or is it just literary and cultural silliness? Here are two takes on the subject.

In a piece on the website Careerbuilder.com, writer Kay Lorenz tells us that political correctness is not just about watching what you say. Rather, “in its best sense, being politically correct means learning about others and respecting the differences that make us unique.”

Lorenz gives us some ways we can go about doing this, such as examining and rejecting stereotypes we may have formed about people, stepping out of our comfort zone to learn how others think and feel, watching our humor, being aware of different communication styles and being respectful of different opinions. And, maybe the most important, following that good old Golden Rule.

In other words, before speaking or acting in a way that might offend someone or make them uncomfortable, thus casting yourself in a negative light, stop — and put yourself in their position.

A writer on the blog site Queer Guess Code believes we shouldn’t practice political correctness, which in some instances could really be viewed as censorship. The writer, who goes by “yourlesbianfriend,” believes non-PC statements are really indicative of a larger, deeper problem that covering up with politically correct statements not only does not solve, by eliminating discussion and acknowledgement, but also makes it worse.

“But by forcing people to use specific terminology or avoid certain conversation topics, we are going about it all wrong,” yourlesbianfriend writes. “Staying ‘politically correct’ is not medicine for the problems that exist — it’s a band-aid to cover up the wounds. In addition, its goals are all wrong. Political correctness doesn’t teach people to be mindful of problems in the way they think; it teaches them to avoid ‘offending people.’”

It’s an interesting point. By trying to be, or enforcing politically correct statements, we run the risk of deflecting discussion and thought towards the real issues, which can range from intolerance to ignorance to outright hatred, onto the phrase itself.

The focus then becomes about the words, and not the beliefs behind them. And at which point, the eye rolling begins

Here, we can insert Lorenz’s argument, which essentially states that to create and enjoy the benefits of a good, kind and compassionate and therefore productive and growing society, we need to make time to learn about each other and then transfer ourselves into that new, outside world.

Rather than worry so much over the language, we instead need to look past the language to the ugliness that created it.

So Trump’s statement in a way becomes two-fold. When he, and anybody else, says they don’t have the time, or desire, to be politically correct, what they’re really saying is they don’t have the time or inclination to learn about their fellow human beings, to run the risk of putting themselves in somebody else’s circumstances and thereby exposing their own weaknesses.

When he refers to women as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals,” as Kelly noted in her question, what Trump is really doing is simply being insulting.

Neither, in my mind, is very presidential, no matter who says it. Even if they are only referring to Rosie O’Donnell.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].