The Concept Of Political Correctness - Essay Example

After much struggle and various trials and errors, our society has made a conscious effort to end racial bigotry in all its forms. This has given rise to the concept of political correctness. We no longer accept racial or bigoted slurs in our conversations, nor do we support them. However, be that as it may, we live in a society where racism and bigotry are unacceptable, though stereotypes are tolerated and even promoted, even though they perpetuate certain notions about certain groups of people in our minds, thus being passively bigoted.

We have only to look at television programming and content to realize how stereotyping is perpetuated and accepted. In most television shows, the man portrayed as gay usually always has a lisp, the rapper is black, and the Latino is an illegal immigrant. The reality is far from it. We have only to look at the media to prove the point; in this case we look at media celebrities. Clay Aiken and Ricky Martin, both gay men, do not have a lisp; Eminem, one of the best rappers of America, is white; George Lopez is not an illegal immigrant, in fact, he is an American born Latino.

The Native-Americans find their lot no better. We have teams named “Indians” and “Chiefs” which portray stereotypical Native-Americans, with red skins, hooked noses, and feathers, as their mascots and logos, said to honor the Native-Americans. Never mind the racially motivated names of the teams, their mascots and logos are enough to prove that it is no homage to the Native Americans, but massive stereotyping at work. In our times, it is unacceptable that any group of people is discriminated against, yet by perpetuating the stereotypes and tolerating them, we end up being passive bigots, as we, passively, accept that certain groups of people either look or behave in a certain way when we do not object to the stereotypical portrayal of such people.