Politically Correct

A good husband tells his wife he appreciates her because it is true, and he wants her to know it. A not so good husband tells his wife he appreciates her because he seeks some kind of reciprocation (typically sex).

These examples show my view of political correctness. Being PC solely for politics’ sake is wrong, but being PC because of a pure belief couldn’t be more right. Here’s another (maybe controversial) example: a government agency prints a form in English and Spanish. This one is a bit more complicated. There are several reasons for and against. Below, I list a couple of political reasons (in favor):

•  Seeking Hispanic Vote
• Pandering to the cheap-labor-needs of business

But, unlike the husband and wife example, there is at least one political reason against being PC:

• Pandering to the “Immigrants should learn English” crowd

Now a benevolent (and/or non-political) reason:

• Everyone deserves access, regardless of the language they speak

Again, unlike the husband and wife example, there are logical (and/or non-political) reasons not to be PC, one is:

• Cost (translation, ink, paper, etc.)

Ok, there is the issue the way I see it. If I apply my premise, the only reasons to consider are: Equal Access and Cost. (Summary of my premise: PC in self-interest equals bad, but PC for the greater good equals good.) Those two reasons remain because they are not necessarily political. Of course, there are probably tens or hundreds of other reasons for or against using multiple languages, but my point is that acceptable reasons are pure or logical, not political. My view is that benevolence has greater weight than logic, but neither can be abandoned in lieu of the other. Considering the above issue specifically, the “Cost” of using Spanish and English is negligible compared to the cost of government sponsored alienation and separation of cultures.

But that hot-button-issue is for another day. Let me bring this all back to what I wanted to say, which is: Don’t dismiss all political correctness just because most of it is self-serving. I believe in doing the right thing because it is right, not because it is in vogue or it serves me. That may sound self-righteous, so let me note: That belief is a goal I’m often short of.