The Price of Eschewing Political Correctness
“...I don't, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time, either" stated former President Donald Trump, who was then sparring at the first Republican presidential debate — if it can be called that. Trump admitted that he refuses to be inconvenienced by the sensible mores of politically correct culture. Trump was and is revered for his brash, boorish bucking of the established order; he became an idol for bending — and breaking — previously unbent rules and norms. Adam Serwer of The Atlantic asserts that his base found communion in the suffering of others.
Over the last several decades, the cultural right has been successful in framing the demand for political correctness as a slippery slope that precludes genuine, fruitful dialogue by limiting the right to free speech. Though political correctness and its backlash are nothing new, it has recently been co-opted in the culture war being waged by Republican lawmakers and party elites. Certainly, there exists a plenitude of examples of overzealousness on the left, whose attempts to right past wrongs are skewered by the talking heads of the GOP and held as evidence of the growing desire to efface the culture of the white, anglophone hegemon. Gary Kamiya, writing for The Atlantic, warns that this provides valuable fodder for Fox News and the right-wing media echochamber.
It is vitally important to encourage discussion about the shortcomings of political correctness, the movement and its expressions, after all, are not perfect. However, it should be strenuously noted that its absence is deleterious to minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized communities.
Odious and overtly racist appellations for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, such as kung flu and China virus were directly linked to a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. Trump claims he does not have time for political correctness — or empathy — and, as a result of the virulence of such sentiment, Asian Americans have lost their lives or have been attacked. Trump wears his white privilege as a badge of honor. He spoke as he saw fit, as he was allowed to, and suffered few real consequences for doing so.
A study by researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst found that, although economic anxieties motivated voters to cast ballots for Trump, racial attitudes and sexism were stronger indicators of support for Trump. Herein lies the harm of vociferous calls against political correctness. Many commiserated with Trump’s disdain for the demands of politically correct culture. Their ballots reflected that.
The precipitous spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans should stand as a stark reminder in the American psyche of the material cost of shirking political correctness — or common decency, for that matter. Whataboutisms abound in the discussion of politically correct culture and all that it entails. Where the line is drawn — and by whom — are debates that must be had in this nation, not just at the national level but between neighbors, in barber shops, and elsewhere.
