Olitical Correctness, Has It Gone Too Far?

Hernandez 1

Debbie Hernandez

Tony Procell-Professor of English

Argumentive Essay

Due: July 14, 2012

Political Correctness, Has it gone too far?

Political Correctness is an issue that has been and will continue to be debated amongst legal professionals, human recourses professionals, and ordinary everyday citizens. This issue touches us almost daily whether in the workplace, in public and the media.

I have witnessed situations that I believe are sometimes "over the top". Society has become too sensitive in my opinion. We hear almost daily that someone said the "N" word and then everyone's up in arms, but when we hear a black person say it, then it's alright. Yes, this subject is still going on too far, we can't even talk about "illegal aliens" in that term any longer. They are referred to as "undocumented immigrants" just to avoid insulting someone. We quietly have to ignore the fact that they are in the United States illegally.

In the human resources harassment awareness training at work I have been told that if someone who is eavesdropping on a conversation and is offended by what they heard, the eavesdropper can file a formal complaint. This information lead me to ask the question; what if I feel insulted due to the eavesdropping and I wanted to grieve on the eavesdropper? I could not get a satisfactory answer or at least one that made sense.

At my employment a woman comes dressed inappropriately, this is also an opinion, and we told not to act on the issue because human resources is afraid that we will offend the woman. I guess I should have use the term "female employee" to be politically correct.

I do believe that we need to be cautious about what we say or write but as the saying goes; "you can't please everybody". In other words, there will always be someone somewhere that will and can claim that they were offended by someone that had no intentions too. Also, yes, we as a society should be held accountable for our actions and words. But, not just anyone's interpretations, that has created this mess to begin with.

It has been explained to me that it's not the intention of the remark or gesture, it's the perception. Perception is variable, depending on the situation and the person receiving the message. To hold people to that legal requirement is unjust to say the least. I think that is ridiculous! To many people have to many different interpretations of many things, interpretations can get so twisted. The perceptions can be totally different than the intentions and could cause much unneeded litigation.

I believe that we are a society that is quick to place blame on others. This causes