If life was fair we wouldn’t cling to what defines us
Ihave been wondering about why I feel uncomfortable when white middle-class males (the choice of demographic will be explained) say that PC has gone mad. An observation often followed up with the declaration that no one can speak freely anymore and that White Lives Matter too, you know. Cycling to work one morning and dwelling on the whole PC dilemma (I do believe in freedom of speech — mostly) and my somewhat inexplicable possessiveness about bike lanes, I realised the connection.
Those bike lanes sometimes feel as if they are the only thing between me and certain death; I hog them possessively.
Roads in New Zealand were designed for cars. Bike riders are an annoying though increasingly vocal minority, telling car drivers that they matter too. We have precious little road as it is and are often made to feel we don’t belong even on the bits that are ours. Bike riders have limited power and will invariably be worse off in the event of a tangle with a car.
As a student at the University of Auckland some years ago, a room was established as a Womenspace. There were predictable complaints by engineering students that they wanted a Menspace, thank you very much. This was countered by the equally predictable observation that the whole campus was a men’s space.
Here’s the thing. If misogyny didn’t exist, female students wouldn’t need a space sans men.
Similarly, if we could all share the road harmoniously; look twice for bikes, be prepared to wait two seconds for a cyclist to turn a corner before cutting them off, split lanes with consideration for cars (that’s us I’m talking about), we wouldn’t need bike lanes.
Of course, both scenarios are equally unlikely but stick with me here.
Maori Television has recently decided not to screen Chris Lilley’s series Jonah from Tonga. There is objection to what is seen as perpetuation of racist stereotypes by a white comedian. Shades of Blackface, I guess. But surely not on a par with The Black and White Minstrel Show?
If a Tongan comedian had developed the same series, would the objection be the same? And arguing that a Tongan comedian wouldn’t have written and produced such a series doesn’t actually move us forward. Or what if a Tongan comedian writes and stars in a series stereotyping white culture? When African American people are light-skinned enough to pass as non-African-American, is this Whiteface? Ah no.
I suggest that if racism didn’t exist, neither would this dilemma. It is only within the context of a racist society that the Maori community wish to distance themselves from what they perceive as cultural insensitivity. That a selection of African American people may seek the privilege that comes with being a “whitefella”.
And as far as sexism is concerned, Megan Nicol Reed sums it up with her usual elegance in her recent column, an open letter on . . . “If you had to choose, would you rather have a son in a tutu twirling a pink fairy wand or a daughter in dungarees waving a plastic sword?”
Seeking to emulate the more privileged gender/culture/profession makes good sense — emulating the less privileged one is seen as just plain foolish. Add in our entrenched and knee-jerk homophobia, to allow our sons such an expression of creativity appears parentally negligent.
We have travelled a fair distance from my original hypothesis linking bike lanes with minority demands and our PC world, apparently gone mad. So let’s go back. Ours is a manifestly unfair world. Groups who are justifiably angered at their being discriminated against will cling to those crumbs which help them survive or at very least do not further entrench their poverty. Think bike lanes and Womenspace. They will justifiably argue against the co-option of their culture for any purpose — comedic or otherwise. Think the dismissal of Chris Lilley’s Jonah from Tonga and the alt/right movement White Lives Matter. White lives have always mattered — black lives haven’t.
Let’s dispense with this expression Political Correctness once and for all. Let’s try another one — Justice, Respect and Fairness. It doesn’t have the dismissive sneer of PC and it comes closer to what the original point of political correctness was — recognising privilege (and its opposite) and seeking to mitigate this.
When a privileged gender/culture/ race/population ignores their privilege and whines that they couldn’t get a Maori scholarship, I say that if they want the scholarship, they can also take Maori rates of incarceration, poverty, school leaving qualifications, health, disability and life expectation.
They can’t have my bike lane either.