We should have seen this latest silly example of political correctness coming.If anyone thinks I'm going to change my name due to its similarity to an anti-hispanic slur, they've got another thing coming. At some point, we have to say "No mas!" And since I have a politically-incorrect keyboard, I don't have an upside down exclamation point to put at the beginning of the sentence.
Of course, don't expect Cracker Barrel to change its name, even though "cracker" is an ethnic slur used against poor Southern white people. Why? Because only a certifiable idiot would think "cracker" used in that context has anything to do with racial hatred. I guess the presumption is that poor white people aren't stupid, so changing the name isn't on the radar screen.
But I guess the folks at Beaner's Gourmet Coffee must think Mexicans, unlike white people, are stupid not to realize that their company's name has to do with coffee beans (ya think?) and nothing to do with ethnic slurs. But wait a minute, if they really do think Mexicans are stupid... hmmm. So the folks at Beaner's really are.... So their "sensitivity" is in fact a form of...
Goodness, this is getting very confusing.
Well, just the same, I'm still not changing my name - even though it is the same as a 16th century Scottish cannibal (and I do think cannibalism is pretty much politically incorrect these days - though my family now has the problem relatively under control).
And I still like Cracker Barrel - even though for some strange reason, everything tastes like chicken...
I don't suppose there will be a cry to remove the phrase "hocus pocus" from circulation out of "sensitivity" to the Christian belief (or at least it should be) in the Lord's Supper, whose words of institution for the bread in Latin are hic est enim corpus meum, which the phrase originally meant to slur.
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, I don't suppose there will be a cry to restore the use of "Man" as a primarily generic term for people, or to insist on only its generic use, since the word comes from the Sanskirt for "thinking being" and to exclude females from that would be --- nah, ain't gonna happen.
Feelings over facts, perception over reality, the rules of the game now.
I remember when I was about eleven years old, I was watching Good Morning America, where they were interviewing a woman who was changing her last name from Zimmerman to Zimmerwoman. I hoped she didn't have a son my age who was being subjected to the same!
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