Much of Political Correctness Is Not Political at All

Dec. 18, 2006 — -- There is something so politically incorrect in writing about political correctness.

I actually thought that as a notion it had died a slow, painful death -- I don't mean to offend anyone who knows or has known anyone who is dying or has died a slow painful death -- and this one would have been welcome.

Then I was reading the newspaper the other day (forgive me if you work in the electronic media), when I read the story of Sasha Cohen in Riverside, Calif.

I could not have been more excited to see that name in print as it meant there was a good Borat story coming (please don't think that I agree with the hurtful language in that movie).

It turns out, however, that there was no Baron between the Sasha and the Cohen, and that this was a story about Sasha Cohen the figure skater, the hot figure skater. (I don't mean to be sexist. And she's 22 now, so I'm not being lewd, either).

It seems that she was at an outdoor skating rink when she became the unwitting "beneficiary" of some inane, homegrown, political correctness.

Cohen was sitting and signing autographs while Riverside city employee Michelle Baldwin (regrets on my part to all other Michelle Baldwins whom I might be singling out here) asked a local school choir to cease its singing of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

It seems that Baldwin presumed Cohen to be Jewish, and further presumed that were she to be Jewish, she would undoubtedly be offended by the further singing of this carol (or at least partially offended because it turns out that she is only half-Jewish).

My God (or yours), where did we go wrong?

There was a time when this idea of political correctness was helpful.

It is nice that Hollywood realized that the maid does not always have to be of a certain race. Why, too, should a woman have to be a chairman?

It is just plain incorrect, not politically incorrect. That actually brings up an intriguing part of what makes this problem so American, and these situations so embarrassing.

So much of the correctness that has been sought is not inherently political at all. It just plays really well in politics, and the conservative movement in America has gained the most political currency from talking about -- and perpetuating -- that political correctness, perhaps ironic in light of the fact that the politics of representing the unsung has been the domain of liberals.

Conservatives, though, have been very successful in stigmatizing the liberals as being overly concerned with political correctness with issues such as gay marriage, flag burning and affirmative action.

They blame the liberals, and caution America that these "fringe" segments of society are receiving too much stead. With that they stigmatize the groups themselves, and to enduring success, hurt their own political opponents.