Politically correct?
In a recent Record-Bee letter a seemingly sincere citizen sweepingly disparaged our people for her perception of Lake County”s “redneck blather.” This sort of name-calling takes me back to my 23 years of teaching high school social science.
Traditional bigots, who routinely refer to Hispanics with the “B” or “WB” words with intrinsic ease, are such easy targets. The n-word for African Americans, etc. Most thoughtful and reasonable people know that such racist remarks are highly inappropriate. However, I experienced more consternation dealing with kids who would casually say “That”s so gay” equating homosexuality, not with being happy, but with being stupid. I also received dumbfounded looks when I would question my ostensibly progressive kids who would mock Christian or Muslim students. “Those religious kids are so …,” they would opine out loud. I would counter and say “I dunno. A couple seem to be sanctimonious finger-waggers, but most are good kids. Tolerant, ya know?” Or insults directed toward the honors/AP/college-bound kids. “Those ?preps” are all so ….” I would respond by saying, “You surprise me with that term ?prep.” Kinda thought you were a pretty open-minded person. Didn”t think you”d be one who believes in stereotypes. A few seem to be stuck-up, but mostly, they”re cool people. You just gotta get to know ”em.” Then, they usually raised their eyebrows, curled up the corners of their mouths, looked down, and nodded their head.
In sharing these experiences, I don”t want to come off as thinking that I had it all figured out. Or that I posed as a “cool teacher.” It”s just that if someone refers to Lake County as being “redneck,” isn”t that person engaging in the same social pathology that she”s presuming others are guilty of?
Pat Nunes
Soda Bay
