General Chat

Ruby,your remarks about bibles,When I was at school'Many Moons ago,in your last year you were given a Bible to keep,also you had to give 'Readings 'from the Bible at School Assembly in the mornings.Does this still happen?or like many other things,been banned. Hal.

Thank you David, for such an interesting thread. Can I just pick up on the point made about Bibles being banned in some classrooms: Always assuming that this isn't something invented by the right wing press for their own nefarious ends,this seems rather an odd piece of legislation. Whilst no Muslim would accept that Jesus is divine (no more would some Christians, incidentally) they do believe that he was a prophet of God; and, as such, they regard the New Testament as a holy book. Also, one of their Eid festivals commemorates the story of Abraham and Isaac - A tale which is familiar to most Jews and Christians.

To my mind the PC. Brigade are just doing a lot of these things to'Justify Their Jobs and Exsistance' and are an Insult to peoples Intelligence. People of whatever Race/Colour/Religion etc.do not like being told what they will or will not do,that causes the friction,and even worse is the fact that,we then realise their income is paid for by us,the taxpayers. They,re just Jobsworths with nothing better to do. Hal. Winge over.

As was suggested earlier, it is a pity that the Media don't challenge the so-called PC Brigade instead of reporting half-truths and misrepresentaions. Instead they rely on scaremongering to boost their sales. I believe in the freedom of the Press to tell the truth, and not the tangles of lies we read these days.

Hi all, as I have said, I agree some good has come out of P.C, I would be foolish to say it hadent, for one thing women are treated as equals which has to be good from my point, and every other womans, but I have also heard some rather negative things too!! I just think there should be some sanity involved too, or are we not allowed to talk about the negative for fear of being classed as NON-P.C!!

We have chalkboards, Blackboards & whiteboards but we haven't got the PC brigade over here. Blackboards are dying out because of the chalk asthma sufferers and the mess etc., the whiteboards are for markers but work out expensive. Chalkboards are supposed to be better on the eyesight & less mess. So in the future there will be no blackboards and it won't be because of the name. Seems people are a bit cute when they are telling stories not so much porkies as misinformed tales. Pat x

Roxanne & Jacquie I do know that there are examples where things have been taken to the extremes - I've said it several times on this thread. My point was that the media and some people on these boards seem only to concentrate on the negative and rare extremes, which I'm sure most people agree don't achieve anything. Have you never thought of all the good that has come from the development of society in the last few decades for people from all different sections? - people who were discriminated against every day of their lives for one reason or another now have things so much easier because of the way our consciousness has altered and because legislation has and is developing to protect the members of society who had no rights before. Political correctness can't be all bad can it? Wouldn't it be nice to sometimes be happy about the positive things rather than always complaining because one dopey person somewhere has thought up something nonsensical?

I have taken to using the expression 'genetically suntanned'.

Hi Gwynne, this came from a teacher friend, they now have to say'chalkboard', perhaps your council isent as strict but from what I was told it was something all schools had to adopt, its intersesting that your council dont have this rule, I must ask him again, perhaps its just Manchester. Roxanne

Don't accuse me of stirring up bother but I know of a relative disciplined at work for saying someone looked as 'black as thunder'!! Would you get done for saying white as a sheet/ pasty face/ dough face? The person she said looked as black as thunder was white!!

Not being pedantic Gwynne, but a teacher we knew a few years ago told us at the time that they weren't allowed to say the word 'blackboard'! I kid you not!

Hi Roxanne, What makes you think we teachers can't call blackboards by that name? I do - I can't think of a single teacher who calls them anything else. Gwynne

David, In my opinion all it does is push it all underground,there will always be racists, homophobics and just horrible people, its part of life unfortunatly, I honestly dont think it achieves much, on the outside maybe, but it will never go, so the rest of us have to conform to crazy ideas, come on !! they cant even say Blackboard at schools!!!its a joke!

Andy I agree with you about the panic that seems to be spreading about certain terms, both in those who try and redefine everything to those who read the papers. Like you - none of the extremes seem to have affected me but as I've said if it wasn't sensible I think I would object. Jacquie I wasn't really talking about any specific prejudices or groups - although most people have tended to talk about racial groups. I was thinking more generally. But I have to say there is a vast difference in having been discriminated against at a time in your life and having experienced discrimination throughout your life. Elaine That's the way I look at it. Like Jacqui was saying - it's the old live and let live that we need. Louise My grandmother finally got like that when she was in her 90s lol - she'd never really known any black people and had the attitude typical of her time. But my partner's grandaughter is mixed race and when my grandmother held her as a baby it was lovely. Glenys Well I must have missed that thread lol:) Colin No - doesn't really worry me - they're only words and I don't mind whether David is my first or my christian name - it has no relevance to my beliefs. I'm also not very nationalist but I thought British was our nationality anyway. Jim I hadn't seen the Birmingham riots in terms of financial divides before - always too easy to look at the obvious problems isn't it:) Roxanne Society is till developing and always will but there is still so much prejudice that the laws need to develop to protect the weaker. PC is take too far at times - but why is that all we hear about rather than the good that a different way of thinking has done?

Well, Gwynne, they could try, but unless they were pointing a gun ... CB >|< ;>)))

CB, I can't imagine anyone telling you what to do and getting away with it. Gwynne

Well, then, David, as long as neither of us tells the other what to do, looks like everything's hunky dory! LOL CB >|<

There are stories frequently occurring in the tabloids and on online concerning political correctness, Christmas is seen as open season for some to take their annual potshots. Then there are the examples where it seems as if a whole new lexicon gets invented so that there are subsitutes for 'outlawed' words and terms, e.g. the word 'failure' is subsituted with 'deferred success', fat gets replaced by 'of heavy build'. I object to that sort of thing, on those terms as it seems plain ridiculous. However, having said that, I do question the prevalence of extreme PC-ness. It's easy to think that a few tabloid stories amount to a crushing wave of this kind of thinking, when it could so easily be that they are isolated examples. Certainly, I haven't been on the receiving end of someone telling me that I can't do or say this or that.

Every one has been discriminated at some stage in their life;- Eg, For being working class, for being a woman (of child bearing age/ having children), for being old, for having an illness that may require you to take time off work (such as diabetes or asthma), for being disabled etc etc the list is ENDLESS. It's not the sole property of ethnic people or those of a different sexual orientation to be victimized you know!! That doesn't mean I don't think the PC brigade have gone far too far and people are loosing patience - would radical feminists banning skirts and make up help women? NO! Jacquie -P.S It takes all sorts to make a world but 'average people' are the norm and should be accepted too!!

Why cant there be a happy medium ? Change or remove those things which will blatantly offend people, but lets not get silly to the stage that we offend our own people by (example) banning christian religion, and letting other religions stay and do what they like. Christians may not like other religions, but that is not considered. There is room for all religions, we don't have to parcipitate in the ones we don't wish to follow. Elaine x