An Historical View Of Political Correctness

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Men tend to get paid more for doing the same work that females do. That’s just a fact.

This is largely true in terms of race as well. The bad taste that was left in everyone’s mouth by the equalization attempt of affirmative action has left a lot of division within the ranks of the workaday world.

by Bill Formby

Much of this is still a holdover from the end of WWII. During the war, there were a lot of women who were asked to go out and work in factories and other places that, up until that point, were male-dominated occupations. Similarly, because of the times (pre-1941), the better jobs had been given to the white males.

When the war ended and all of the men came back from the war there was a push to get women back in the home so that the men could return to their jobs.

Some women did not like the idea of going back into the homes and, similarly, many of the black males who had fought in the war felt that they had paid their dues and deserved to be treated better than second class citizens. Unfortunately, there was a push for everything to go back to the way it was before the war.

On the racial front, the educational systems and other facilities were still segregated which was based on the “equal but separate” doctrine in the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. The problem was there was no equality in the facilities for the two races.

Growing up I remember the dual public restrooms, water fountains, service windows at businesses, recreation areas and schools. There was nothing equal about those facilities.

The problems were really starting to grow because before there were only 18 states that had equal but separate laws but most all states abided by them to some degree or another. This was especially true where schools were concerned.

It was one thing to eat in a racially mixed restaurant but little Suzy is not going to spend all day in school with those people. Yeah, the wheels started coming off the buses, so to speak. Lawsuits popped up everywhere insisting that all schools integrate and one could hear the howling from all corners of the country, North, East, West, and of course the South.

Violence and protests became a common thing in the late 50s and early 60s but it was as many whites as there were blacks, maybe even more in the beginning.

My office window at the University of Alabama looked directly at the doors to Foster Auditorium where in June 1963, George Wallace stood blocking the entrance to the university’s first two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood. I often sat at my desk and just gazed at those doors and tried to imagine what those two student’s lives were like.

I mean, the entire country, if not most of the world, watched them being protected by United States Marshals, Alabama National Guard, and the Alabama State Troopers to simply walk in the doors, register for classes, and pay their fees

The decade of the 1960s was, to say the least, turbulent. Subsequent to the passage of the voting rights act and the nonviolent protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King race relations were more like a semi-polite war.

Though it was more prominent in the South, the folks in the North had their problems also. Newark, NJ, Detroit, MI to name just a couple were right in the mix of it.

Three political assassinations cities on fire, police trying to restore order when they had so little control over the causes of the turmoil, many people were feeling like it was the end of time.

Throw into that tumultuous landscape the protests over the Vietnam War, domestic terrorism by groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the shooting of four Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard, and the disruption of the Democratic National Convention and we were probably feeling on the brink of another civil war. Another thing had happened that slipped under the radar of most people but the effect is still being felt today.

In 1960 the United States Supreme Court led by the Republican-appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren decided to apply the U.S. Bill of Rights to state and local law enforcement agencies for the first time.

This was a shocker to Republicans who had been holding to the premise of staying out of the business of the states. But after the 1954 decision in the Brown case, which was brought on the basis of the Due Process Clause, the court took on the case of Mapp v Ohio on the same due process clause. They ruled that the Cleveland police had violated Ms. Mapp’s Fourth Amendment rights by searching her home without a warrant.

This slammed local and state police with a burden that they had not previously had to worry about. By the end of the 1960s, they had also produced the cases of Escobedo v Illinois and Miranda v Arizona which were combined to make up the now famous “Miranda Warning”.

In addition, juveniles were granted adult rights and guaranteed everyone charged with a crime not only the right to an attorney but that if they could not afford one the state had to provide one for them.

So, now what does all of this have to do with the issue of political correctness and equal rights. Well, I will wade in here and probably get my head chopped off but I will tell you what I think it means. A lot will not agree and that is their right, but as I have said before, they might see it differently if they had lived their history and was walking in their shoes.

Let us return to the beginning of the nation: 1776, when America declared its independence, and 1789 when the Constitution was adopted. Finally, at last, all were free people in a nation of their own, right? Well, not quite. The only people that actually mattered apparently were white males. Most all blacks were slaves and women had what can best be called a second-class citizenship. None of the people were allowed to vote or own property.

Fast forward to, and through the civil war, which was fought over the right to own slaves, that resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation which set the slaves free.

They were essentially given the right to vote by the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. It did little good for them though because by the late 1870s most states had passed “Jim Crow” laws to prevent the blacks from voting.

Most of these laws stayed in place until 1965 when the voting act was passed. I remember people talking about the “poll taxes’. These were charges that supposedly had to be paid in order to vote although they usually were only applied to black voters.

There were also intelligence tests that had to be passed before being allowed to vote that was directed at the blacks.

While the blacks were having their problems, “…many American women were beginning to chafe against what historians have called the “Cult of True Womanhood”: that is, the idea that the only “true” woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family.” Women have not actually had the right to vote for even a hundred years of this country’s history.

So, I think it is safe to say that white males got in on the ground floor and had a hell of a head start on both women and people of color. That head start came at a critical time when laws were being written, the land was being claimed, and fortunes were being made.

To some degree, both women and people of color were in the same boat. Both were distinctive in their appearance, i.e., it was hard to be one without the world knowing about it.

So the process of discrimination was fairly easy compared to others who were initially discriminated against like the Catholics, the Irish, the Italians, etc.

There were numerous immigrants who came later and still received more of an advantage than did the people of color and the women. But it would be folly to say that everyone had the same opportunities from 1920 or 1965 to the present date. They were still distinctive in their appearance so discrimination, whether it was for jobs, housing, or admission to the right schools, was still easy to do.

Now let’s address the issue of the white male privilege. It is very true that white males today had little to do with the conditions that plagued women and people of color in the past. It is not as if we can turn back the clock and redo things because we now know how screwed up things could get. But to say those white males did not have a hell of a head start on the others would be totally disingenuous. For the first 80 years at least, no one had a say in anything in this country unless they were a white male.

Actually, when truthfully considered in the light of women’s suffrage and the “Jim Crow” laws the head start was more like 150 to 180 years head start. Women got the right to vote around 1920 and it wasn’t until 1965 until blacks were allowed to vote without intimidation.

If we look at the educational progress women were discouraged from getting any education beyond elementary school until the early 1920’s. That did not mean that they could not go higher but it was strongly discouraged unless they were going to be teachers.

Until after the civil war it was illegal to educate any black person though a few of the house servants did manage to pick up some education. It was not until the 1890s that there were actually schools for black children that were part of a school system. Even then the funding for the black schools was minuscule compared to what was allowed for white children which were actually not adequate itself.

The equality of opportunities for the three groups; women, blacks and white males really did not start kicking in until after the sixties with the implementation of integration.

A problem arose at the beginning with blacks who were entering school systems with white students far behind in their learning skills. It is likely that the process of integration probably lost at least two generations of black citizens in terms of equality of education as a conservative estimate.

Women would have been on a little better footing because they had access to the same schools as white males, just not the same jobs.

Trying to find a way to conclude this is difficult. There is every right for all three groups to feel deprived in one way or another in today’s society.

Today’s white males did not contribute to the problems of women or blacks today and they take umbrage at being labeled entitled.

Women are still paid less than men and are targets of sexual discrimination and harassment in terms of competing with white men. Blacks are still discriminated against in the job market and in the criminal justice system. Of course the poor, black or white, are discriminated against in the criminal justice system.

While a lot of progress has been made in the educational systems for the black children it has been, to say the least, uneven progress. We all know how important it is for parents to be involved in their child’s education. But what if the parents, black, white, or purple were less educated than their children?

They know how important the education is to their child but are without the skills, knowledge, or education to help them. They get frustrated and angry and angry because their child is not learning as fast or as well as they think they should. The same is true of poor whites.

The people of wealth made an end run around the integration rules with private schools, many of which are based in churches. Just last year the State of Alabama passed a law whereby state monies could be allocated to private school as long as they were not discriminating against students on the basis of race.

The folks in the Alabama legislature are not bright enough to come up with a bill that sophisticated so I think it is safe to assume that other states are doing the same. These schools can pick the best and the brightest of the black students and admit them leaving the rest behind in the public schools.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the rural counties in Alabama.
So, what do we do? I don’t know if I am that smart. Our entire political system has gotten completely out of control.

The Republicans have successfully turned people against each other. They have turned the blacks into a group who basically feel disenfranchised from their own country and the guilt lies at the feet of the whites, mainly males. Women feel a lack of empowerment because white males in power seem to be thinking in the mold of Donald Trump.

Of course, that is not true of all men but who among us has not, at some time, been insensitive toward women in our comments, actions or gestures. White males are being made out to be the bad people in all of this but all white males are not the same.

Perhaps, through our entire lives, we have not been perfect enough to sit at King Arthur’s Round Table, but we are on an upward learning curve. At least most of us are.

Yes, people of my age probably did receive some level of privilege compared to blacks and women when we were coming up the work ladders. I freely admit that, although I worked my butt off to get where I am and nothing was given to me but an opportunity, it is likely during that time frame a young black male or a young female probably would not have been given that same opportunity.

But, as I said previously, we cannot unwind that clock and go back in time and correct injustices of the past. I and others like me can try to understand that there is a reason for the anger of those groups, but also consider that we did not do it.

Personally, I try to understand why people are in the situation they are in and work with that. No one is perfect, and everyone is not totally flawed, except for maybe Donald Trump. But we all need to coexist on this 3rd rock from the sun until we can find another place.

So, do I have a certain level of privilege now? Absolutely! I am educated beyond my wildest dreams of where I thought I would be. I am privileged to be able to occasionally write well enough that my words can be printed here on MMA.

I managed to retire with a bit of comfort, meaning that I have a roof over my head and food to eat, and a great dog that loves me, and a couple great kids, and grandkids that care about me.

If for a life that I have felt privileged to be able to help people along the way as a way of paying back for a life I have thoroughly enjoyed living. Am I politically correct all the time? No, but I do try to be politely correct as much as possible.

About Post Author

Bill Formby

Bill Formby, aka William A. Formby, PhD, aka Lazersedge is a former Marine and a former police officer. He is a retired University Educator who considers himself a moderate pragmatic progressive liberal, meaning that he thinks practically liberal, acts practically liberal, and he is not going to change in the near future. But, if he does he will be sure to let you know.
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Lyndon Probus
6 years ago

Political correctness is destroying this country. What you are talking about is social justice, and that’s not the same as political correctness. The former is right and just, while the latter suppresses free speech and gives the less competent an edge over the more competent simply because of their gender or race. That’s wrong.

Bill Formby
Reply to  Lyndon Probus
6 years ago

Lyndon, I am going to have to disagree with you there, at least in part. One cannot have social justice without a degree of political correctness. You see, if one is not raised with the idea that everyone has the right to be respected as a person, a human being, first and foremost, it is highly likely that person could give a rat’s ass about social justice. So political, or as I choose to call it, politie correctness must be in place were everyone respects everyone else in terms their rights. It does not mean that I have to like everyone regardless of race, gender, or religion. An asshole is an asshole regardless of race, gender, or religion. Take our president … please. I have never met him personally but I have never liked him since back before he was own television. Thus, I avoided him, his businesses, and his TV show. I do not respect him. In fact I am the same way about a lot of the rich people who actually disdain the right of poor people to even breathe.
But that is a personal dislike based on my preference because of his actions and general behavior. In order to have what you term social justice everyone must be allowed to start life on equal footing, but we know that will never happen. But, there is no reason in the world that people, regardless of gender, faith, race, place of origin should not be treated with respect until and unless they have proven themselves not worthy of it. This true regard less of your race, gender, etc.
So I state this with all good intentions that, if you don’t like the phrase political correctness try using the phrase polite correctness.

Bill Formby
6 years ago

This is a badge we all wear Jess. I tried my best to educate my kids as to fortunate they were coming up. They handled it well. But it will take millions of use to make this change take place. One does not have to have suffered to at empathize with those who have. But, probably the 35% who support Trump never will.

jess
Reply to  Bill Formby
6 years ago

AYUP, the ‘rental units were the same way you are. My dad would say we have money, you have nothing till you go and earn it. One of the biggest arguments I had with mom was why will the cleaning lady not do my room and bathroom in one of my more stupid, entitled teenage moments. Huge mistake because I was put right into my place with lil Hitler’s (mom) answer in front of the cleaning lady just once and never asked again.

Reply to  jess
6 years ago

My parents were the same. Want money? Go earn it, of course, I did get my 25 cents a week allowance when I was just a wee lad.

jess
6 years ago

Uh oh here comes Jess. I don’t think anyone is saying #allwhitemen, I think what is being said is there is an institutionalized privilege built in that benefits some more than others Bill. Great article. I pass for white more days than I don’t but have seen both sides of the spectrum of privilege, one side is way better than the other is all I can say. I wasn’t born into the lucky sperm club but got adopted into one and that is an even bigger advantage at times, when you have some money behind you that can be thrown around.

Neil Bamforth
6 years ago

That, old bean, is absolutely superb.

I regularly fail at being politely correct…but I do try 😉

Reply to  Neil Bamforth
6 years ago

You’re actually getting better there old bean. Much better as a matter of fact. Even Master Bates seems to like you 🙂

Neil Bamforth
Reply to  Professor Mike
6 years ago

Everybody likes me! Some just pretend they don’t.

It’s my natural charm and magnetism 😂😂😂

Bill Formby
Reply to  Neil Bamforth
6 years ago

Neil, you likely succeed as much as any of us.

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