Worst example i've come across lately: don't know if I want to laugh or cry at this lunacy:

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2741345


To 'oppressed' sumos: Queen's is sorry

Joseph Brean, National Post Published: Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story. ... z0jgjuRVq5


Sumo suits, the plastic novelties that can transform a skinny sports fan into a comically unstable sphere for the delight of a stadium audience, are racist and dehumanizing instruments of oppression, according to the student government of Queen's University.

They "appropriate an aspect of Japanese culture," turn a racial identity into a "costume," and "devalue an ancient and respected Japanese sport, which is rich in history and cultural tradition." They also "fail to capture the deeply embedded histories of violent and subversive oppression that a group has faced."

The Alma Mater Society yesterday published a two-page apology and cancelled a food-bank fundraiser scheduled for today, which was to feature two Sumo suits. The letter scolds the student government's own executive for "marginalizing members of the Queen's community" and failing to "critically consider the racist meaning behind [the fundraiser]."

It also vows to discourage other campus groups from using the suits, owned by the school's athletic department.

"We recognize racism as the systemic oppression, both intentional and unintentional, of individuals and groups based on racial or ethnic identities," the letter reads.

Given the quick apology, which came in response to complaints registered on a Facebook page promoting the event, the racism of the Queen's "SUMO Showdown" seems to have been unintentional, and not an effort to belittle Japanese people.

Brandon Sloan, communications officer for the Alma Mater Society, suggested "white privilege" had blinded the student government, which is largely but not entirely white, to the seriousness of the issue.

Likewise, the owners of the two suits have never imagined they could be considered offensive.

"It's the first time we've heard of [the racist aspects]," Mike Grobe, a spokesman for Queen's Athletics, which uses the suits at football and basketball games for half-time shows, when people run obstacle courses in them. "They're just big puffy suits. They're pink... No one's complained."

They come with a helmet shaped like a head with a bun of hair, like a Sumo wrestler, but nothing overtly stereotypical. They are new this academic year, and are often loaned out to student groups. They were even loaned out to the Ontario Hockey League for its all-star hockey game.

While Queen's can claim a history of inclusivity -- it was the first school in Canada to graduate a black man, Robert Sutherland, who became a prominent lawyer -- the school today has an awkward relationship with political correctness, exacerbated by its reputation for drawing its student body from the privileged neighbourhoods of Toronto and Ottawa.

In a report last week on racism in Ontario universities by the Canadian Federation of Students, one Queen's student reported that "white privilege" permeates the "walls, books, classrooms and everything that makes Queen's what it is."

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story. ... z0jgjpyzM6

I read the first paragraph then decided that the rest of it would be taxing on my sanity.

The title of this thread does a good job at explaining how I feel about obsessive political correctness too.

Political correctness goes way overboard most of the time! To be politically correct, some would say that I'm height challenged....just call me short and be done with it! I know I'm short...that's why I wear tall shoes, so my pants don't drag on the ground because short cuts turn into high waters after one wash and trip to the dryer...LOL!

And then there is all the political correctness with races...like African-American. Most of the people of color I know will say, "Look, I'm not from Africa...I'm just an American. If you are talking about the color of my skin? I'm black, okay!" Though they are trying to be more politically correct using the ______-American labels, many find that more insulting, as it indicates they are less American than someone who has no clue where their native roots lie, or are a mix of so many people groups it doesn't even matter any more! Like they are Asian first, then American...or Mexican first, and then American...when many of these people are several generations away from their relatives who first came to this country. Nationality is not race!

The worst is the use of bullying and compulsion to exact 'confessions' from 'offending' students who just want it to all go away.

The modern western university has learned a few lessons in how to conduct show trials from the show trials of Kamenev and Zinoviev et al from the 30s: threaten innocent people who've done nothing wrong to admit that they've committed a great wrong and to sign a paper testifying to the fact.

Fascism with a happy face.....

I read the first paragraph of it, and I too, stopped reading. Political correctness has been hijacked by those with no sense of humour and/or spirit of fun and is used these days to stop people from doing any tiny thing that others with a small amount of power deem inappropriate or "not the done thing by people here".

Gets on my nerves when it's trolled out as a reason to not have hanging baskets on lamp-posts "in case they fall on someone's head" (even though there have been hanging baskets of beautiful flowers there for two decades and never an injury!)... to stop people having a march that has been happening annually for over two hundred years as the organisers cannot afford to have extortionate insurance "in case some is hurt during the march" (both of those are real, btw).

Makes me sick, when you see what people can get away with in the name of religion... but not what ordinary people can do just for fun!

As you say, Annwn... Fascism with a happy face

I have to admit, it *does* drive me mad to see a black person refered to as "African American" when they're just.... African.... or Irish..... people occasionally settle down and have kids, mad I know!
Sometimes these marches are just plain dangerous, although I think we've got a different perspective on them over here :p

Only about as dangerous as marching in Fallujah!

I guess we shouldn't wear black lest it offend someone!

Talk about PC stupidity...

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/03/31/ou ... ters-fees/

Humanity is once again, reinforcng my disdain of stupid people in large groups.

I'm all for free speech, but hate speech is something that impedes anothers happiness(life, liberty & happiness is one of our rights) and should never be covered under the first amendment. It still shocks me that these dung heaps ccan protest a fallen soldiers funeral and be disruptive, but the family is not entitled to grieve in peace? That's unconstitutional!

The irony of defending the honor of Japan, a country of the most un-PC people on the planet. Sniff my soiled knickers you white bread middle class bitches; donate your education to someone who strives to better themselves, not as an expected progression from nanny to cushy well paid job. The leaden, crushing irony piled on irony of "white privilege" from a class who are the epitome of privilege. The bastards on the mount, proclamations sent down to tell us what to think.

-LS

Seroiusly, the Westboro 'Baptists'--unlike ANY Baptist in my experience, let me say off the bat--are cultists that need to be put away or treated with an aluminum baseball bat.

But what is "hate speech" though? Its whatever a group of people want it to be, right? I can't support that. Either everything is okay or nothing is. Once you place restrictions its a real slippery slope. For what its worth I fully agree with you on not protesting at a fallen soldier's funeral. Its just tacky and distasteful.

Hahahaha, there never seems to be a balance when it comes to these things. Back when it was socially acceptable to discriminate it paved the way for ill programs like Affirmative Action and Political Correctness which eventually snow balled into the "fascist"-like state that we are faced with now. We're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't.

I wanted to read the whole article but I just couldn't. The stupidity of this idea (the fact Sumo suits are offensive) exceeds the stupidity of the "Three Little Pigs" controversy. I mean, ok the religious views are a sensitive case and you must accept (almost) any, even the most eccentric point of view on belief but this one is just pure ignorance! Tell me, why don't the Japanese themselves protest? Right, because they are okay with it. It will be as much as banning other over-used traits of culture. Let's ban vodka outside Finland and Russia, let's ban hamburgers outside of the USA.
Well, I believe there are some flaws in my point of view but I guess you'll agree with me.

Everything I wrote is pure imho, just in case.

What the KKK spews is hate speech. I draw the line at anything that states one race as being better or superior to another or that certain people should be killed because of there skin color/religious views/sex or for being part of the gay community. See? Easy.