Understanding Political Correctness and Social Issues
Political Correctness: means using words or behavior that will not offend any group of people. Most people think it is important for everyone to be treated equally, fairly, and with dignity.
Taboo Language: refers to words and phrases that are generally considered inappropriate in certain contexts. Swearing: rude or offensive language that someone uses, especially when they are angry. Patriarchy: a social system in which males hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property.
Chauvinism: a person who believes one gender is superior to the other; a person who is aggressively and blindly patriotic.
Gender Equality: is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economic participation and decision-making, and when the different behaviors, aspirations, and needs of women and men are equally valued and favored.
Gender vs. Sex vs. Sexual Orientation: the term sexual orientation refers to the gender to which a person is attracted. There are several types of sexual orientation, such as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, etc.
Gender Stereotypes (Masculine + Feminine): gender stereotyping is defined as the overgeneralization of characteristics, differences, and attributes of a certain group based on their gender. Gender stereotypes create a widely accepted judgment or bias about certain characteristics or traits that apply to each gender. If a man or a woman acts differently from how their gender is assumed to behave, then they don’t conform to the norm.
Gender Markedness of the English Language: representations of women in the media have developed and changed over time to reflect the cultural and sociological changes in society. However, female stereotypes continue to appear in some media texts. Representations of women are often defined by how men see women (termed the ‘male gaze’) or by how society expects women to look and behave.
Mainstream Culture: people, activities, or ideas that are part of the mainstream are regarded as the most typical, normal, and conventional because they belong to the same group or system as most others of their kind. The Establishment: generally denotes a dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation or organization. The Establishment may be a closed social group that selects its own members or specific entrenched elite structures, either in government or in specific institutions.
Bias: the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment.
Prejudice: an unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge. Example: Laws against racial prejudice must be strictly enforced.
Xenophobia: extreme dislike or fear of foreigners, their customs, their religions, etc.
Racism: the belief that people’s qualities are influenced by their race and that the members of other races are not as good as the members of your own, or the resulting unfair treatment of members of other races.
Racial Slurs: a derogatory nickname generally used when speaking negatively about people from a specific race.
Racial Stereotypes: automatic and exaggerated mental pictures that we hold about all members of a particular racial group. When we stereotype people based on race, we don’t take into account individual differences.
The Myth of White Supremacy: white supremacy is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent, for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege.
The History of the N-Word: in the present-day English language, the word “nigger” is an ethnic slur, usually directed at black people. The word originated as a neutral term referring to people with black skin, as a variation of the Spanish and Portuguese noun negro, a descendant of the Latin adjective niger (“black”). It was often used derogatorily, and by the mid-twentieth century, particularly in the United States, its usage became an unambiguous pejorative, a racist insult. In contemporary English, using the “nigga” word is considered extremely offensive, and it is often replaced with “the N-word.” The variant “nigga” has, to some extent, been reclaimed by African Americans.
Discrimination: treating a person or particular group of people differently, especially in a worse way from the way in which you treat other people, because of their skin color, sex, sexuality, etc.
Hatred: an extremely strong feeling of dislike. Example: the motive for this shocking attack seems to be racial hatred.
Bigotry: the fact of having and expressing strong, unreasonable beliefs and disliking other people who have different beliefs or a different way of life.