What does it mean to be politically correct?

The entire subject of multicultural sensitivity is important and confusing. I never want to insult anyone. I think this subject is confusing to many people because preferred terms continually change. Additionally, what people consider insulting changes based on who is labeling whom. For example, many ethnic groups take no insult, or even find it humorous when a member of the same ethnic group or friend labels them. However, if a stranger or member of a different ethnicity used the same label it would be considered an insult and not politically correct.

Often minorities or those close to minorities label themselves with the very terms that are frowned upon. For example in a personal story published in the New York Times, a husband of a "paraplegic" wrote that his wife was "crippled in a car accident." However, the book says to avoid the term "crippled." If a reporter used the term, who knows what could happen.

The creation of media that contradicts what is considered politically correct complicates this subject further. A newspaper that caters to an African American audience is named the Afro American Newspaper. Once again, this demonstrates that the rules change based on who is labeling whom.

In examining an article that quoted Obama, I noticed that Obama used all of the preferred and politically correct terms listed in chapter 15 of our text. "And year after year, a stubborn gap persists between how well white students are doing compared to their African American and Latino classmates," Obama said. Impressively, he did not use the term "Hispanic" even though according to the book, the generic term was created in Washington. Of course, "white" and "African American" are accurate terms.

Luckily, amid all of this confusion, we can look to president Obama as an example for which terms are appropriate.