Apparently Radio 4's Today programme had to pull the plug on a row between the author of this article on the dangers of political correctness and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. I would have liked to have heard that.
While I suspect that Anthony Browne seeks to advance a somewhat olde world Tory agenda by peppering his case with the usual suspects...
The EU commissioned a report on the rise of anti-Semitism across Europe, but the authors found that the main cause was an increase in attacks from Muslim youths. The Commission binned the non-PC report, and ordered a PC one that blamed the rise on white skinheads instead. But refusing to face up honestly to the true cause of growing anti-Semitism makes it impossible to combat it.
There is some truth behind his implication that our ruling elites deploy PC to avoid addressing inconvenient facts. Browne has a point when he says that because PC was successful in adjusting perceptions about race, sexuality, etc it has now become the lens through which our elite view any opposition to their policies. So opponents of unrestricted immigration become rascists, of Prescotts Homes elitists.
A little less political correctness and a little more old-fashioned honesty, a little less denunciation and a little more open-mindedness, will go a long way to improving the lot of many of the most vulnerable in Britain. None of this is to say that racism, sexism and islamophobia don't exist and should not still be challenged. It's just they are not the whole story. What the PC brigade cannot stomach is that it is the non-PC free thinkers who are in many ways now our true moral guardians.
While "PC brigade" rather gives the game away, that does not mean there is not some truth in his commentary, just as political correctness also had its uses. The mistake is to adopt either as the absolute orthodoxy.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
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Sadly Anthony Browne is to reason what Immigration Watch are to cultural diversity...
A Good Indy editorial on this yesterday.
Gone mad? Hardly. It's all about respect for others
Published: 04 January 2006
According to a new book published by the Civitas think-tank, "political correctness" has a good deal to answer for. Among the ills of modern life that are blamed on political correctness by the author Anthony Browne are, in no particular order, suicide bombings, Aids, anti-Semitism, African poverty, poor discipline in schools, exam grade inflation and the ban on fox-hunting. Mr Browne argues that political correctness has prevented our political leaders from addressing certain uncomfortable "truths" such as, for example, the link between the growth of Aids in the UK and African immigration. To give another taste of his thinking, he claims women are paid less than men for the sole reason that they insist on taking time off to have children.
Of course, the book provides no convincing evidence for any of this reactionary bilge. But what distinguishes it a little from other intemperate rants is that it seems to tap into something approaching a zeitgeist. Complaints against political correctness have been around for a long time. Right-wingers have always railed against it. But these complaints have reached a crescendo in recent years. Even some on the political left have now joined the chorus of disapproval.
It ends Political correctnes must be rehabilitated. It should be regarded as a positive phenomenon, with connotations of civility and mutual respect. If political correctness means councils offering rudimentary translation services, if it means teaching children about other cultures in school, if it means local education authorities not painting golliwogs on playground murals then we are proud to subscribe to it. In fact, let us strive to make Britain yet more politically correct.
All At: http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article336360.ece
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