It comes from the Latin pre-, then the Latin judico with the j. To pre-judge a person is to judge a person before you know them. There is all sorts of prejudice, from racism, sexism, or the lot to ageism. Part of what we have been trying to do in our time is eliminate prejudice. However, what we have done in this modern world is the exact opposite of our goal. This is the result of the taxonomy which we have tried to create to fight different prejudices. In doing so, we have created a more prejudiced society--perhaps more than we had before. Fighting and eliminating Jim Crow resulted from a lot of dialogue between African Americans and white Americans. Many Southerners, before Jim Crow ended, liked the African Americans they knew but not the African Americans. The end of Jim Crow and much of the South's racism was partly due to dialogue--white Southerners realised they had been stupid because of their judgement of an entire race when the people they actually knew were quite decent people.
Ah, yes. Dialogue. Between different peoples helping to end bias. You know, that Martin Luther King thing about judging people by their character instead of their skin colour. Judge not, lest ye be judged.
This is entirely anecdotal, but I have noticed that in many documentaries and stories I've seen these days they quote only the last sentence of his speech, "I have a dream today!"and not the few sentences before that statement where Dr. King states his vision. It is a vision I adore and try to follow. It is one of the most important ideas to me and extends to everyone. I don't always succeed in following his vision, but I try.
What do we eliminate when we huddle in our little politically correct boxes? Dialogue. What does this result in? Stereotypes. What are stereotypes? Automatic judgements based solely on the basis of race, gender, and the like. What is that? Prejudice. You know, racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, ageism, and the list ever continues as more isms are made up.
This is one reason why the politically correct doctrine is one of, if not the most, prejudiced doctrines there is. Yes, there are racists, homophobes, and sexists. Prejudices abound. But within the politically correct doctrine, ALL people are divided in this way and MUST be. I'm automatically a bigot. But--here's the important piece--under this doctrine, everyone else is, too.
I sometimes feel like a hippie reinforcing this, even though I am close to the opposite. But we are one people--all of us. Whether you consider this observation Lincoln's or the Gospel's (both are true), if we're divided we cannot stand. Lincoln also observed, "We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it." And yet taking offense is all we do. And how can we be too noble to give offense when the most minor thing we do may be an considered by someone an offense?
I realise that Lincoln is just "an old dead white man," This is true. But if you dismiss his observation because of this this you reveal your inner prejudice against old dead white men. Just because he is an old dead white man does not make his observation not true. The same goes for the Gospel. I am far from a devout Christian, but you reveal your bias against Christianity and your lack of knowledge. The century before Jesus of Nazareth was born, the Roman Republic tore itself apart with the death of Julius Caesar. Do you think Judea ignored what was happening?
This is another reason why the politically correct doctrine is the most prejudiced doctrine out there. It assumes too much and necessarily forgets the historical context in which these people were operating. It forgets facts for convenience. Thomas Jefferson is busy being forgotten in the United States because he owned slaves. He did. However, he was far from unique and that does not make his work at the time invalid. His Declaration was the basis on which Lincoln advocated to end slavery.
And so, context is forgotten and old white men are forgotten because they were old white men and what they did in that time, considered routine then, makes them horrible people. Jefferson helped create the first representational government. Those busy writing off Jefferson, however, must also erase history and reveal their bias against history.
Was Nelson Mandela horrible? He managed to create South Africa despite the racism there and he wasn't an old white man. However, he was a Communist terrorist who spent many years in prison because of it. Ah, history dies. I take offense.
Discussion is quashed. We cannot speak to each other. So important topics don't get discussed and important issues are left unaddressed. We could not destroy Jim Crow today because we couldn't talk about it. Either that, or it would be destroyed by the government without our understanding. George Wallace's stature wouldn't have died. And so, there would be many more real racists today than there are.
It makes me laugh. I'm no longer terrified by PC, because I find it quite amusing. I know we'll fail because we are so selfish we stay in their politically correct little boxes, don't talk, and follow that believe that we are hopelessly divided weak little babies who need safe spaces to recover from a little argument. Because of this, following the politically correct doctrine makes us hopeless prejudiced people with the most lopsided ideology that justifies racism while fighting it.
But PC is not true. When you miss a step and trip on the sidewalk, the hand that helps you up might not have the same pigment you have. When you see an accident and want to help, you don't care about that person's skin, sex, or sexual preference. You just want to help them up.
But, we believe we will remain hopelessly divided, because the academia and activists say we are. And that makes PC one of the most racist, sexist, homophobic, and other ist ideologies there is.
