Many people complain that they’re constrained in what they say and do by considerations of political correctness, which forbids insulting anyone, even those who are particularly sensitive to insults. Megyn Kelly lost her job at NBC in 2018 after she said that a white girl who admires Dianna Ross should feel free to complement her Dianna Ross Halloween costume by putting on blackface. In the following year, when an old photograph surfaced of Virginia’s governor Ralph Northam in blackface, many people called for his resignation. Is this too much political correctness?
The history of blackface suggests that any use of it is racist. Traditionally, it includes makeup that exaggerates black features to make them ugly, clownish, and absurd. This tradition of blackface started in 1828 when a white entertainer named Thomas Rice put on such blackface and called his character Jim Crow. Demeaning race laws in the South of the United States were called Jim Crow laws after this character who was meant to denigrate black Americans.
But not every case of whites darkening their skin reflects the Jim Crow spirit. Fred Astaire admired his fellow dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson so much that he darkened himself (without exaggerated, ugly, and clownish features) in a dance dedicated to Robinson in the 1936 film “Swing Time.” Many white actors, including Laurence Olivier, darkened their faces to play Othello, also without any intent to diminish people of color.
However, in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement and subsequent indications that blacks continue to suffer from racism in our society, the overwhelmingly malevolent use of blackface in our past justifies people of all races seeing blackface as a symbol of continuing racism. Racism conflicts with our country’s commitment to equality, so its expression is appropriately condemned. Megyn Kelly was correct, the day after her endorsement of blackface, to rescind her endorsement even during Halloween. Governor Northam agrees. Condemning blackface affirms our basic ideals. It’s not a matter of political correctness catering to overly sensitive people.
The Confederate battle flag is another symbol that has come into more general disrepute in recent years. It originally symbolized the Southern cause during the Civil War, which was fought to maintain slavery. After the war, many Southerners came to view the flag with nostalgia as a symbol of a particularly Southern way of life, without looking carefully about the oppression integral to that way of life. This more benevolent view of the flag was abetted by the North and South pretending for generations that the Civil War concerned state’s rights, not slavery.
Perhaps because of this, the television series The Dukes of Hazard (1979-1985) could, without widespread outrage among white Americans, feature a car named General Lee that had a Confederate flag painted on its roof. I think that I’m not alone among Northerners to have thought of the flag’s association with the Civil War as suggesting merely the benign and charming rebelliousness of the main characters, the Duke brothers.
I didn’t know that some Southern states began displaying the flag on their capitols during the Civil Rights Era as a symbol of resistance to racial integration and the end of Jim Crow. Recognizing this, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for the flag’s removal from the state capitol grounds after the racist-inspired killings at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston. Again, rejecting a symbol of racism that conflicts with our civic ideals, a racism that in this case motivated murder, isn’t a matter of overly-protective political correctness.
But I think that political correctness can be overdone. When Mayor Mike Bloomberg said in 2020 that presidential candidate Cory Booker was well-spoken, commentator Yannick Marshall objected that whites calling blacks articulate is racist, because it suggests surprise at their mastery of language. According to this logic, if I say that Pete Buttigieg is articulate, I’ve given him a compliment, but if I say the same of Cory Booker, I’m being racist. But wait! Pete is openly gay, so my calling him articulate may suggest my homophobic-inspired surprise that he’s an orator rather than a florist, hair dresser, or home decorator. Give me a break. Both men are extremely articulate. Finding grounds for insult in that statement reflects creative hyper sensitivity, which is unfortunately sometimes confused with legitimate political correctness.
Here’s another example. The word niggardly, which means stingy, has gotten many people in trouble with the political correctness police. When a white assistant to the mayor of Washington, DC used this word in 1999 to characterize a budget, he was fired for racial insensitivity. He was re-hired in a different job after consultation with the dictionary police, which included Julian Bond, then head of the NAACP.
In sum, political correctness should be observed in order to promote equality, civility, and fairness, but not to avoid insults that reflect ignorance or hyper sensitivity.
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