So as our class was having a discussion, Dani leaned over and told me a story. (You can check out her blog here, and if you see this Dani, correct me if I'm wrong!) Basically, the main idea in the story was that her dad works with an African American man. Someone made the observation that he was very "articulate," but the man, rather than flattered was kind of annoyed. Should it be surprising that he is quote-on-quote "articulate"?
I am a huge Duke Basketball fan, my favorite player easily being Nolan Smith. Mr. O'Connor brought up that he had seen Smith's name linked to the word "articulate" in a recent interview (which I couldn't find...) Why is it surprising that a senior at Duke university is "articulate"? Shouldn't that be expected? Why should it make a difference if a person is black or white?Has our country not progressed at all? It's easily said that we have changed, that we have Barack Obama, our first black President. But what about the list of Oscar nominees? Not one African American. Arguably, pop culture influences the average American as much as politics, if not more. Ask people when the next Congress session begins, they won't know. Ask people who got eliminated on American Idol, full story plus details you didn't necessarily want...
Thanks for the blog linkage! And yes, you got the just of the story down.
ReplyDeleteI like your post. I think that one thing that has changed is a strive for "political correctness". People may have progressed in their views, and are truely trying to say/do the right thing, but sometimes being politically correct is not the best choice. I think people really over analyze everything, and it can make situations unnecessarily uncomfortable. Just like "articulate" was meant to be a compliment, it came out wrong.
One thought that comes to mind for over political correctness is Seasame Street. The beloved cookie monster is now the "vegetable monster, and Oscar the Grouch lives in a recycling bin. Political correctness has gone a little too far.
Awesome blog Carolyn! What struck me first about this issue, was the word articulate. There are mutlitple definitions, that have different ideas. I wonder which one that article was refferring to...check out this site:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/articulate