b*****d 发帖数: 61690 | 1 President Obama acknowledges some on the left use political correctness to
shut down debate over legitimate issues, a problem he says has hurt
political discourse.
The president expressed concern during an interview with NPR that debates
become “like walking on eggshells” when people feel social pressure to
hold back their point of view.
“If somebody says, 'You know what, I'm not sure affirmative action is the
right way to solve racial problems in this country,’ and they're
immediately accused of being racist, well, then I think you have a point,”
Obama said when asked if he agrees with President-elect Donald Trump that
political correctness has gone too far.
Obama said he's given the same advice to his daughters, Malia and Sasha, as
they prepare to go off to college.
"My advice to progressives like myself, and this is advice I give my own
daughters ... is don't go around just looking for insults," he said. "You're
tough. If somebody says something you don't agree with, just engage them on
their ideas.
"But you don't have to feel that somehow because you're a black woman that
you're being assaulted."
The president said conservatives, and not just liberals, are guilty of using
political correctness, citing accusations from some on the right that he's
waged a war on Christmas.
"You'll hear somebody like a Rush Limbaugh, or other conservative
commentators ... who are very quick to jump on any evidence of progressives
being 'politically correct' but who are constantly aggrieved and
hypersensitive about the things they care about," he said.
Trump’s victory in November shocked liberals on both coasts who believed
that his string of inflammatory comments about women, Muslims and immigrants
would doom his candidacy.
It sparked a nationwide debate over whether coastal liberals became
disconnected from the middle of the country, which was parodied in a “
Saturday Night Live” sketch after the election.
But Obama made it clear he doesn’t believe racism, sexism or homophobia
should be dismissed as political incorrectness.
“I don’t consider that political correctness,” the president said of
objections to those types of comments. “I consider that good manners, sound
values and hard-fought gains in the nature of American society and American
community.
“I think it’s a good thing that we don’t think that using the N-word is
socially acceptable,” he continued.
“I think it’s a good thing that we don’t refer to women in derogatory
ways — because I have a couple of daughters, and I don’t want them to feel
that way.”
He said he told Malia and Sasha if they hear something insulting "feel free
to say to that guy, 'You know what? You're rude,' or, 'You're ignorant,' and
take them on."
Obama added that he’s received letters after the election from Muslim and
Latino students who say they feel marginalized.
“Those are the most worrisome and those are ones where I respond and say
that you have to have faith in the basic goodness of this country and that
it outweighs the bad,” he said.
Obama has spoken out against political correctness before, saying last year
that college students should not be “coddled” from hearing opposing views. |
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