The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Political correctness prevents us from overcoming our racial rifts

Don't you laugh when you're watching a rap video, or rather anything on television, and you see someone flick off the camera? You don't actually see the finger, however, because, due to censorship, it is blurred out through a very expensive project, thanks to the powers that be.

An exercise in futility is really what it boils down to. Although I am against censorship, I understand the reason for it.

However, there exists another kind of censorship that compels America to hide behind a red, white and blue veil. It is the act of being politically correct.

Some would call it respect, others would call it a ridiculous antic expressing soulless diction - I call it useless. When it comes to respect, where I'm from, the biggest respect is to tell someone the truth, as blunt as it is. Political correctness is an entity that hides people's true feelings by covering them in a post-Victorian expression of fake sentiment, meaning that it doesn't make any sense. Being nice, caring about others feelings and choosing your words correctly are all admirable traits, but to use that analogy I opened with, and when expressing views and feelings on a macro level, people shouldn't punk out or hide behind a curtain of what we really need to hear: the truth.

Our country's people are famous and notorious for speaking our minds. We shouldn't penalize people for saying what they feel; we should respect it. We can even respectfully disagree with it while respecting the opinion of that man or woman.

Have you ever been in a relationship where you are trying to communicate with your partner but can't get the right words because you don't want to sound so blunt? We are too sensitive as Americans. We can't take hip hop, rock, reggae - any genre - or anyone who uses the freedom of speech as a tool. We can't listen to rap because it, in its essence, is a form of true raw expression that roots itself in one of the most vulgar and insensitive parts of our America - the streets. To stay true in this country commercially and on a micro-level means is a rare thing. An aspect of staying true is say what you feel. One of the reasons why artists in all realms succeed, at first, is because their talent expresses who they are. What if they were limited because they didn't want to offend anyone?

Political correctness is a plague that prohibits people from saying what they feel. It is now practically a social norm for people to alter their own feelings and thoughts for fear of being reprimanded for what they believe.

Not too long ago, a white friend of mine came back from class and told me that that he got into trouble for making a comment during a class discussion. It was an English class, and they were discussing critical race issues related to some text they were reading. He made a comment about black people along the lines of, "I don't understand, it seems like all black people I view...." Regardless of what he said, even if it was the most asinine and racist statement of the century, he didn't hold his tongue, and now a true topic could be discussed collectively by a class of aspiring professionals. But his professor told him to keep some of his comments to himself in order to not offend any of the black students in the class. Lord knows that they could've learned something from an opposite perspective, but we don't want that to happen. We're too about offending someone, or hurting their feelings.

The point is that political correctness dilutes the views of our fellow man, and nothing positive can come of that. One Love.

George is a junior in political science and journalism. Stop! I've Got a Refined Thought appears every Tuesday. These views do not necessarily reflect those of the DAILY EGYPTIAN.

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