So it's been a while, but I've been thinking of revamping this blog and seeing where it goes. IT could work or crash and burn miserably. There's only one way to find out! Let's move on to today's rant: Being politically correct.
Being a TCK (Third culture kid) from Central America, I have never quite understood certain aspects of the U.S. One of these aspects is the concept of being politically correct. As a latina in heart and soul, I have grown accustomed to a certain ability to speak freely without feeling like I have to very carefully pick my words so that I won't offend people with words like "fat," "black," or "gay." But in the last roughly three months that I have been in the U.S. for college I have had to learn what's okay to say in what crowd. Among my other international peers it is perfectly acceptable to make "racist" jokes and speak freely, but among the rest of the student body I have observed that people use words that I have to keep from laughing or rolling my eyes at.
I often stop to wonder if people realize just how ridiculous they sound. We all know what they're avoiding saying, so why not just come right out with it? Now, I'm not saying that people should be rude or insensitive about it, but really what's the point of dancing around it? You're just feeding the beast by blowing it out of proportion with special words to avoid offending everyone.
A prime example of this happened when I was hanging out with one of my other international friends and a girl I faintly knew because of another friend. This girl is from Kansas but is of latin decent. Now, my friend likes to joke around about me being a Mexican and just makes jokes about latin culture and such. I never take offense to it because why should I? They're just jokes, and neither of us really mean what we're saying or they're things that are actually true. But this girl turned to my friend after he made a joke about latins and told him she was sick of his racism. He tried to defend himself by saying that he's not being racist because it was just statements. This got her mad. She told him that it was his tone that made it racist. Now, I was getting a bit uncomfortable about it all because I didn't really know this girl, and to be honest I thought she was being a little obnoxious about it, but I did not know what to say. She got in his face and told him not to mess with her. I made a halfhearted statement about not messing with latinas, despite not really knowing how latina she actually is. This was met with silence. But when he tried to defend himself again, just stating that he realized she could handle herself she smacked him in the face and told him there was more if he kept it up.
Now, if you, dear reader, do not know a lot about latinas then here's a little piece of information to keep in mind. You do not want to make a latina mad. And you especially do not want to mess with family, which in this case my international friends have become a form of family for me. Now most latina girls are small but feisty. And I am no exception in the feisty department or the fierce loyalty to friends and family. I have a true latina anger mode, and I just about whipped it out on this girl. It took a lot of self-control not to show her what a real latina can do all the while yelling at her in Spanish. I just sat there staring at her in silence. And it dawned on me just how stupid it is to get upset over something so dumb. I've never grasped the concept of being politically correct, and in that moment where a girl playing latina got upset over "racist" jokes, I realized that political correctness is cultivating offense over things that other cultures brush off.
I am not about to bash U.S. cultures. They are different from my own, but I am not saying that there's one "right" or "wrong" culture. But I am saying that political correctness is handing people the right to pull the "racist" card on anything, and teaching them to use it in ignorant ways. But that's just my opinion.
