Monday, October 29, 2018

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS RUN AMOCK: R.I.P. APU



A recent survey said that 80% of Americans are sick and tired of political correctness. Among the highest percentages of the groups were black Americans, Native Americans and Hispanic Americans. And yet in spite of that we’re still cow towing to the small, vocal, whiners who feel the need to force their opinions on the rest of us. Suddenly after decades man size Kleenex is a gender issue. In spite of the fact that of the 193 nations in the world the number of countries where the average woman is taller than the average man is zero. The ones have an average female weight greater than the average male weight? Zero.

Gingerbread men have been called that for as long as they’ve been made. But someone felt it was inappropriate and now they have to be called Gingerbread people. Did anyone notice they have no genitalia so what difference does it make?

Snow White is saved from eternal sleep by Prince Charming with a kiss. But we have to be offended because, in spite of the fact that she was unconscious until kissed, she didn’t give him consent to kiss her. Really? A tender, loving moment with zero groping, nudity, sex or anything of the sort is offensive?

Megyn Kelly was just fired over making controversial statements. What did she say? While discussing costumes for Halloween she said “This year, the costume police are cracking down like never before…Isn’t the whole purpose of Halloween to dress up and pretend you are something other than yourself?...You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween…Back when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.” She then noted that REAL HOUSEWIVES star Luan de Lesseps dressed up as Diana Ross for Halloween including making her skin look darker saying I” thought, like, Who doesn’t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day; I don’t know how that got racist on Halloween…It’s not like she’s walking around [wearing blackface] in general.” Kelly was forced to make an apology the next day and then fired after that. Amazingly enough comedians/TV hosts Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmie Kimmel have all done skits where they actually wore blackface and none of them were chastised or criticized for doing so.

Want to wear hoop earrings ladies? Sorry, Pitzer College has decided that doing so was cultural appropriation. So are certain kinds of eyebrows so watch it. Other stupid items to be found on college campuses include students asking to be excused from an exam because they didn’t have enough privilege to be able to handle it emotionally, schools instructing professors to take into account the “emotional commitment” that some students had made to protesting on campus instead of doing work and grade them on a curve accordingly, the size of chairs was considered a “microagression” to overweight students, Clemson University diversity training taught participants that it was offensive to expect people to be on time because “time may be considered fluid” in some cultures, math teachers were instructed to teach their students how math has been historically used to oppress people and students at a conference in England for The National Union of Students were told to avoid clapping or cheering during speeches to avoid making deaf people feel excluded (doesn’t that offend the blind people?).

The latest victim of political correctness? Apu, the Indian shop owner on THE SIMPSONS (keep in mind it’s a cartoon) will be taken off of the series because some people find him to be a stereotype. Ignore the fact that he’s smarter than Homer Simpson, knows more American history than Homer Simpson, is a hard working member of society and owns his own store. He has an accent therefore he must be offensive! Ignore the fact that we have a Scotsman with an accent, an alcoholic, a donut eating cop, a female horror host named Booberella, a superhero named Duffman who loves beer, a stoner driving the school bus, a children’s show sidekick who’s a murderer and more. By all means, let’s oust the positive character because someone whines he’s offensive.

But to top off the stupidity of political correctness there is this item. In October 2015, the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin released its annual list of banned, offensive words. Included among them was the phrase “politically correct.” The campus deemed the phrase a “microagression” that might hurt student feelings and suggested using “sensitive” instead. Yes being politically correct is now politically incorrect. They were so offended by the idea of being politically correct that they felt the need to make a politically correct version of politically correct. Huh?

How about we all just stop being offended by every little thing out there? Sure, there are times when people step over the line but they are few and far between. And the fact of the matter is when someone does step over the line most people tell them so. But to cow tow to every single thing in the world that someone, somewhere might find offensive? The list is never ending.

So the politically correct police have won another round. On the air beginning December 17, 1989 and after 30 seasons the character of Apu was deemed offensive by some whiner. All these years with no one being offended, hurt or damaged by a cartoon character and suddenly he was deemed offensive. I’m waiting apprehensively for the bowlegged to be offended by Yosemite Sam, by those with speech impediments to be offended by Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Sylvester the cat, by anti-NRA folks to take on Elmer Fudd for hunting all the time, by the sight impaired to be offended by Popeye constantly squinting, by bulimics and anorexics to be offended by the sight of Olive Oyl, by those who warn of obesity upset with Wimpy and the number of hamburgers he eats, by someone who will think “scooby snacks” is code for drugs or by Donald Duck for not wearing any pants.

R.I.P. Apu, you were a good character. Too bad some people just thought of you as a negative stereotype as opposed to the positive one you were.

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