In Defence of Political Correctness

Picture the scene : two old friends, ordinary blokes, putting the world to rights.

Bloke A : “Political correctness gone mad? Don’t start me on that. So the Mexicans are a bit upset because the Top Gear team had a joke about them being feckless and oafish? I mean it was a joke”

Bloke B : “Yeah – and all the feminists are still hopping mad at Andy Gray having a bit of fun. I mean I don’t agree with what he said, but he was having a laugh – and anyway half those blondes in the Sky Sports studio model for lads mags. What’s the problem with a bit of banter?”

Bloke A : “Not to mention that Baroness Warsi going on about people pointing out the simple fact that most people trying to blow you up these days are Muslim. I mean nobody thinks all Muslims are terrorists, but it is a fact that most terrorists trying to attack the West happen to be Muslim right now. ”

Bloke B : “I mean you can’t call a spade a spade these days, in case somebody calls you a racist. PC gone mad. ”

It might be a caricature but the sentiments, or some of them at least, are repeated all over Britain every day. It is time to push back. Years and years of tabloid-inspired fury about political correctness has left Britain in a state of confusion about what is and isn’t acceptable.

The Top Gear team (and I’ve met Richard and Jeremy a few times) are nice chaps, doing an entertaining show, often with their tongues in their cheeks. But the Mexico gag wasn’t funny, it was lazy, cheap and offensive. And to make it worse it was neither an off-mic unguarded comment nor a mad moment of bad judgement. It was clearly scripted, thought through and contrived to cause a fuss. Andy Gray and Richard Keys might be just a couple of old dinosaurs who were fitted up over some private comments, but their views were simply disrespectful and unacceptable. And I don’t go to many dinner parties where the subject of conversation is slagging off Muslims but I’ve heard plenty of prejudice in my everyday life, let alone in my job. Black sheep? Dark forces? I don’t want to explain to my children why dark is associated with bad, but that doesn’t somehow apply to them.

There was a point to political correctness – to extend respect and courtesy and to reject stereotypes, to think about how language can reinforce prejudice, cause hurt and disempower. Unfortunately whoever called it political correctness did great harm to the whole concept by attaching the word “political” to it.

It might have been accurate, but it made the phrase and therefore the concept irritating to too many people. We need to reconnect with what political correctness was really about. And then just get on with it.