Political Correctness is one of the few current cultural phenomena that really ticks me off. Its intent is to conceal and euphemize distasteful concepts in order to dilute and coverup the fact that certain things are occurring. Its worst form comes when politicians apply political correctness to history -- it is pure and simple revisionism.
Most folks are probably familiar with the maxim that people who refuse to learn from history are fated to repeat it. I submit that those who revise it to suppress potential evils are dooming the whole society to repeating the suppressed activities.
Below the fold I will talk about this more.
History, and especially American History, is subject to lots of revisionism for the sake of promoting our national character in its best light. The suppression our historical faults in the state approved history curriculums covers lots of faults. The relocation and genocide against native americans is not mentioned in relation to the story of American westward expansion. Histories of the Civil War portray it as a grand moral crusade against slavery, almost completely ignoring the many other causes of the conflict. And the southern states promote the Confederate Battle Flag (The Stars and Bars) as a symbol of heiritage and identity rather than as a symbol of hatred and racism.
The Confederate Flag is a symbol that is almost as sacred to southerners as the American flag is to everyone.It should not be present in many of the places it appears, but it is just a symbol and should not be censored in the name of political correctness. In the effort to remove it from government-sponsored locations, we should not fall into the trap of suppressing someones free speech rights.
The speech that the Stars and Bars represents is certainly hateful and disturbing to many. But we are not guaranteed protection from speech that disturbs us. I think that the suppression of the Confederate Flag by several mass market retailers is a gross over-reaction to the terrorist attack perpetrated in Charleston, SC.
I, for one, prefer to see it in some places; so that I can know somewhat the attitudes and sympathies of those who display it and avoid dealing with them or giving my monies to them. By suppressing the CF completely those people are driven underground and out of sight and mind of the mainstream culture. That many states have chosen to stop offering the Confderate Flag as a decorative custom license plate is also pure censorship.
I live in Durham, NC and that symbol appears in quite a number of places around town (e.g. certain bars, pool halls, fishing supply stores, and a smattering of other business and private homes.) When I see it, I know to avoid the folks there. I know that there I would run into anti-intellectualism, homophobia, extreme Christian "values" and a bunch of other attitudes and opinions that I would rather not deal with. However, the Stars and Bars has already been removed from public display in some of those places which makes it more difficult to avoid them. In a way though, I find it quite satisfying that these folks are now dealing with the same sort of discrimination and abuse they have been handing out for years.
The current frenzy to suppress the Confederate Battle Flag is going too far. Yes, remove it from government-owned locations -- it should have never been placed there to begin with. However, don't remove it from commerce in a fit of political correctness -- that merely pushes the hateful speech underground and forces society to having to deal with what it represents blindly and in the future when the festering attitudes boil over and emerge in more disturbing ways.
Such is my $0.05 opinion. (That's my 2 cents worth adjusted for inflation.)