APRIL 27 -- I remember one time while I was still in school talking with a non-Muslim friend during a meal and the conversation drifted to some differences and similarities in our faiths.
The conversation was getting interesting when I felt a soft kick to my feet – another Muslim friend who was also present had kicked me and shook his head slightly. It probably wasn’t my first political correctness moment, but it’s among the most vivid.
The conversation went another direction after that.
Most of us are extremely careful about this. We avoid self-deprecating jokes about our own race. We restrain our laughter when someone cracks a self-deprecating joke about his own race — what would other people think, right? We try hard not to offend anyone.
And for good reason, too. In this diverse melting pot we live in, there are plenty of people with different sets of sensitivities and beliefs. Ergo, plenty of people we might offend. Often unintentionally.
Look back at past instances where someone made news for bringing up something related to either race or religion (or both). Someone somewhere will throw around labels like “racist” or “bigot” and the like. Sometimes with clear-cut justification. Other times not. But many people do this too easily, too lightly.
Calling someone, say, racist is a serious thing. A racist either believes a particular race is superior to another, according to Oxford Dictionaries, or is prejudiced against people of other races. That is very different from, say, raising concerns over the plight of certain races.
Regardless, the labels tend to stick. They muck you up. Once labelled, people don’t forget easily, even if the label against you isn’t true. A careless comment. A throwaway remark. That’s all it takes and the impact lasts.
And political correctness “police”? Doesn’t help. These are the people who cry foul every time someone says something that can be interpreted as callous.
Often not necessarily when these statements actually offend anybody, mind you, but when such statements may — emphasis on possibility — offend someone somewhere.
Their intentions are good, but intentions alone never guarantee positive results. Too much noise about the political correctness of a statement, when unwarranted, effectively throws a wet blanket over potential conversations about what may be an important issue.
We miss the forest in arguing about the trees.
The net effect? Many of us tip-toe around potentially sensitive matters. Mixed company? Don’t broach “risky” topics.
Don’t talk about religion with people from other religions. Don’t talk about cultural practices, don’t ask curious questions.
We self-censor to avoid complications. So we stick to the safe conversation points. If you’re with close friends, maybe you can push the line a little. But at the back of your mind, you wonder how far you can.
The thing is, too much political correctness is bad. Too much hinders our progress as a collective society.
A diverse community like ours, we need to talk about our differences — a lot. We need to talk about how our cultures differ, how our religions differ, how we can accord respect to each other’s practices and beliefs.
We need to know each other’s hopes, dreams, fears, concerns before we can accommodate each other.
Only then can we understand each other better. And understanding paves the way to tolerance and harmonious co-existence, eventually co-operation.
Political correctness gets in the way of that. If the fear of offending stops us from asking about the things we are curious about, how do we get answers?
How do we know what offends people from another religion?
How do we combat our own ignorance about other cultures, religions that share this nation with us?
What would happen is we would turn to presumptions. Which is a bad way to start understanding each other – presumptions are so easy to get wrong and harder to change. And one wrong presumption atop another leads to a slippery slope we want to avoid.
So be careful about political correctness. Too much is bad.
In the multi-cultural society we live in, it is critical we overcome the barriers of ignorance and misunderstanding among religions and races. The only way across the abyss is frank, polite conversation.
Otherwise, constant self-censorship in these sorts of conversation will end up perpetuating, even reinforcing the very gap we need to bridge between us.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
