Political Correctness Prevents us From Having an Honest Conversation about Race and Racism

Thankyou very much for the reply, I"m glad my opponent highlighted the points that he did because I completely disagree with them. How my opponent has decided to portray political correctness is completely wrong. I will follow with the example introduced by my opponent: "10 hours of walking as a women in NYC". My opponent stated that 100% of the abusers in the video were male and black. He then seemed to suggest that as a consequence of political correctness it is OK to make connects (accusations) as to the act of cat-calling and harassment and the gender of the people in the video but not to their race. It is acceptable to do neither. To use this "evidence" to claim "men harass women in the street" or to use it to say "black men harass women in the street" is equally politically incorrect and for good reason. The first claim is sexist and the second is racist. Both claims associate an act with a physical attribution ie some one"s gender, the colour of someone"s skin. Alternatively to this, the politically correct thing to do would be to criticise the act itself on a moral or ideological basis. So, to say "it is wrong to harass people in the street." Only with this response is there is no stereotyping or prejudice against a grouping within society. This is infinitely better because it means that instead of starting a "blame game" about who"s fault an issue is and what sort of prejudices people should create as a result of whoever is to "blame", this way we actually stimulate change. Disagreeing with the act is something everyone can agree with and this positive attitude is much more likely to actively promote the wanted action. In this case, to stop street harassment. Furthermore, to state a fact is not politically incorrect, so you can point out the 90% the people in the video were of the same gender or race. As long as you don"t insinuate anything from that then that is perfectly politically correct. Which just goes to show that political correctness is not some sort of mine field. It"s just about not being offensive, it really isn't rocket science. My opponent seems to have challenged me to find examples of when honest, politically incorrect mistakes have been forgiven. I accept. Just this year, Benedict Cumberbatch used the word "coloured" on an American television programme. The term is offensive because it doesn't recognise different ethnic groups but tends to be seen to label all sorts of ethnicities, as anyone who is not "white", under the same term. It has often been referred to as a "one-size-fits-all" description. What Benedict Cumerbatch was actually saying was a very positive comment appealing for a review of the lack opportunities for all ethnicities in the acting industry. Seeing this, the response of organisations like Show Racism The Red Card acknowledged this saying "Benedict Cumberbatch has highlighted a very important issue within the entertainment industry and within society. In doing so, he has also inadvertently highlighted the issue of appropriate terminology and the evolution of language." It was not "this was an unforgivable act of discrimination and Cumberbatch should be ashamed of himself, regardless of the fact that he was promoting positive ideas to eradicate racism within the work place". So, to conclude, my opponent has somewhat missed the point. Political correctness gives not further lee-way to racism or sexism. Another example of how it allows for and encourages positive, necessary change in society. I eagerly await his response.