I see that a major city, Seattle maybe, has expanded the politically correct no-no’s used in official announcements to “brown bag.” That’s because back in the 40’s and 50’s there were clubs and establishments that had a skin tone rule—no darker than a brown bag—for African Americans. Never mind that this was in the black community.
I do remember this brown bag rule. In the 1970s my husband and I were part of a racially mixed couples club. Five black couples, five white couples and membership was rather fluid. The blacks in the group were socially and economically above most of the whites, as I recall—a judge, a dentist, a pharmacist, a businessman, civil service, teachers. Yes, we were going to change the world through friendship and fair housing laws. I remember one black couple complaining there were no other black families in their neighborhood. “I thought you white folks all moved out when we moved in,” he joked. As it turned out, and remains so today, most black churches, social clubs and businesses were all on the east side of Columbus, and most of the white couples lived either in Worthington (north) or Upper Arlington (northwest) and really didn’t have much appeal for black families with children.
One year we decided to have a holiday season dance and each couple would invite a few friends, we’d bring food, and hire a combo. Even with friends, that’s a small group, but one of the black couples was a member of a private social club, and able to get that facility—I think it was perhaps a former bar or restaurant. Not very fancy, but better than what the rest of us had to offer. Ed, the member who was very dark, told me that in the 1950s he wouldn’t have been accepted for membership because of the “brown bag” rule. I thought perhaps that was local to our area, but if Seattle had it, and still remembers it in 2013, I guess not.
“Citizen” is also on the chopping block—might offend illegals. Before you know it, “worker” will make the list.
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2 comments:
Murray sez:
Ahhh political correctness. You know, the smothering ideology that steals from our freedom of expression and enables minorities one more thing to bitch about if we don't conform. It keeps growing along with the list of words that are quickly eliminated from our vocabulary lest we get chastised. Please note the only words that qualify for this ideology are words they claim might offend minorities. That, by itself, ought to tell most intelligent people how bias and wrong this type of thinking is! That being said, I guess you can then say Obama isn't amoung the "most intelligent people".
Political correctness extends to several areas--we can't say crippled, or handicapped, or Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or illegitimate baby, or man hole, or chairman, or now with the same sex marriage movement, even man and wife.
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