In my young adult years during the 1980s, the concept of political correctness was not pejorative by nature.
We feminists and progressives felt the idea was to question our biases in feeling and expression, to learn about privilege and stereotypes, and to act with sensitivity toward individuals and groups of people who had been commonly harmed by society.
We had a sense of humor, too, because we also adopted the term “politically incorrect” to poke fun at ourselves. For example, I was politically incorrect in feminist circles who listened to women’s music as I cranked up the volume on Led Zeppelin.
Simultaneously, previously normative homophobia, sexism and racism were falling out of vogue as movements demanded it. Younger people were starting to grow up in a world that was embracing forms of diversity and global connection previously ignored. They were being educated to understand the damaging effects of bigotry.
When the right co-opted political correctness as a weapon of ridicule, it veered far from its intent in the 1980s. We feminists were never about shutting down free speech. We were about what Buddhists call “right speech.” Speech that harms is not free. It is dangerous. Right speech is speech with compassion and an awareness that someone on the other end should be respected.
Hadley Planning Board member John Mieczkowski has bragged that he missed the boat on political correctness. Guest columnist Steve Kramer, an Amherst College alumnus, lamented political correctness at his beloved institution. Both men demonstrate an unwillingness to engage in compassionate correctness. I wish they understood the win-win nature of equality and how our evolution requires us to do better. White male supremacy comes in obvious and insidious forms.
Wielding the weapon against the imaginary PC police is the old trick of turning one’s self into a victim as opposed to recognizing that antiquated belief systems of hegemony may be harmful. I remain puzzled that my apparent audacity of self-worth in any way hurts white, heterosexual men. And I fail to recognize what they gain when everyone else loses.
A world where no one race of people rule over another and where abilities of all kinds and gender variations are embraced is a utopian ideal for many of us. It is also the dystopian world feared by white supremacists and nationalists and the ugly version of “Mad Men” known as patriarchy.
It’s time to adopt the term compassionate correctness to describe empathy and respect in feeling and in action. Imagine the right using it as a form of ridicule. It’s challenging to sound snarky when saying “compassionately correct.”
A compassionately correct person is not perfect. S/he is simply someone who strives to understand the effects of biased feeling, thinking and expression. S/he listens to those who feel hurt by bigotry. S/he wins, too, because it requires that person’s “better angel” to act with humility and love.
J.M. Sorrell is a social justice activist, trainer and health care advocate. Her core feminist values are the springboard for work of all kinds. She is not always as compassionate as she would like to be. Working on it!