Are we too politically-correct?

Jack Johnson was a champion boxer who was jailed for 10 months in 1920. Why? Essentially because he dated a white woman, which was against the law back then. He died in 1946 in a car wreck. Oh, he's also black. The reason why Jack Johnson is (re)gaining media attention around now is because there's a movement calling for a (rare) posthumous Presidential pardon to rid him of his "crimes" of interracially-dating.

Really, America? Really?! Johnson died half a century ago. Such a pardon would only be symbolic at best and a waste of time and attention at worst. It seems that in this day and age (in the U.S.), we are constantly walking on eggshells, afraid of offending someone. Several minority groups have risen and created groups just to bitch and whine when some sort of semi-high-ranking public official makes a slight gaffe that honestly unintentionally "discriminated" against a group.

• When Saturday Night Live did a parody of New York Governor David Paterson who is legally-blind that may have parodied Paterson's blindness more than his incompetence, Paterson issued a statement saying that the sketch was "third-grade depiction of people and the way they look."

• When white police Sgt. James Crowley arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, the story gained national prominence and eventually led to President Obama holding a "beer summit" with the two (and Vice President Joe Biden) at the White House to clear the air.
  

• During Senator Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2007-2008, news anchor Chris Matthews apparently made a comment on-air about Clinton that caused many people to cry out "sexist." So much so that Matthews had to apologize for his comment.
  

• A couple of weeks ago, Boyzone member Stephen Gately unexpectedly died. Gately was openly gay. Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir then wrote in her column some speculation about Gately's death and tied it to his homosexuality. The column "received the highest number of complaints the Press Complaints Commission has ever received."

The list of examples of political or social faux-pas can obviously go on and on and on. The common thread occurring through these stores and others of a similar fashion is the need to want to "make amends" for doing something that sort of offends a minority group. Is that really necessary? Can't that group just accept that someone is bigoted against them?

It just seems that we're (un?)intentionally creating an atmosphere that fosters hostility. Do we really need to be made aware of all the linguistic loops and jumps that we need to go through before saying anything, to prevent seemingly-attacking a group (or groups) of people? There are just so many layers of political correctness that exist nowadays. I mean, there are classes you might have to take that go over these issues (classes you need to take for a job, a program, school, etc....).

Anyway, just some scattered thoughts....


Unrelated, but I find this music video hilarious. It's "Jesus Is My Friend" by Sonseed: