Question

The assigned readings in Week 4 encourage critical reflection on the impact of political correctness in our society. Perhaps you are concerned that political correctness frustrates the exploration of ideas and obscures the search for truth. Still, we are compelled to consider a few essential questions. First, what problem does political correctness address -- i.e., does political correctness perform, in any sense, a valuable and necessary function in society? Second, is an alternative way of addressing this problem, or achieving important an social function, that strikes you as an improvement on political correctness? Where possible, support your response with references to the assigned readings.

Answer 1

When during a conversation or expression of thoughts and actions one chooses a language and words to avoid showing disrespect, low opinion and criticising , insulting or demeaning any person , community or group is called Political correctness.

Even though it seems to be killing the essence of freedom of speech and limiting our exposure to ideas and creativity but the main objective of political correctness is just about being courtious, a way of politely respecting differences and correcting the use of "offensive" terms and demeaning certain groups and this is fairly logical to respect each other and avoid criticizing those who are different people, groups and their choices as the fredom is one of the fundamental human rights . PC allows every group and individual to have their share of respect and acceptance from others without being discriminated and disrespected on the basis of their caste, gender, religion, race etc and makes sure that everyones gets fair opportunities to grow in the same society.

The problem of using politically correct language has gone far as it is compelling many to just keep silient about the issues pertaing to certain groups or people but the right approach for improvement on political correctnes would be firstly the acceptance of the differences and secondly to give due respect to those people , sentiments and the the groups who are minority and address their issues with due respect rather than discriminating them on the moral grounds and excluding those groups. A conscious effort to ensure due respect to diversity while keeping the freedom of speech and freedom of ideas and thoughts at its place will strike a balance and will encourage a neutral approach without being biased.