Three Sticks — Personal Development for Christians

Here is a great spoof of the Mac vs. PC commercials. My first reaction to it was that it was incredibly funny.

I found this video on YouTube one day when I was taking a break and I was really struck by one of the comments I found at YouTube about this little spoof. Here’s the comment

• Nothing like some racism to sell macs. Nice job

I didn’t see the racism in this video at all, I thought it was a clever way to poke fun of the Mac commercials and at a racial sterotype. This lead me back to my concern that we have taken political correctness to an extreme that is on the verge of becoming dangerous. It appears that we have gotten to a point where any comment or observation that involves race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender etc is considered negative regardless of context or the actual message being delivered. It’s almost as though in the US we have decided to stop thinking when we apply these rules. It’s created an environment where we are unable to discuss the differences between groups without being in danger of offending those we are discussing. It’s also created an environment where people who do have negative thougts about a particular group are unwilling to voice their opinion in public debate. Rather than address their possibly misguided beliefs they blindly repress them in order to conform to the status quo. I have learned that when you blindly repress your opinions without confronting them those same thoughts, ideas and opinions manifest themselves in other ways. This can lead those struggling with negative feelings about other groups to unconciously commit subtle acts of discrimination that are difficult to see and even harder to prove.

As an African-American child, I grew up in an environment that was filled with people (teachers, fellow students etc) who commited some subtle and not so sublte discriminatory acts. I also knew of others who were geninuely curious and wanted to ask questions about African-American people, but were afaid to ask for fear of offending me. From my point of view both positions are equally bad becasue although it provides an environment the is supposedly safe for everyone it eliminates the oppurtunity for us to learn from each other. In that kind of environment we all lose the ability to grow. I also argue that the envrionment isn’t safe for anyone because of the repressed thoughts and fears based on uncertaintly both of which lead to misunderstandings and hurt feelings that just add more fuel to the fire.

I’m going to be more than just a voice in the wind, I’m also going to suggest that we allow people to voice their opinions about others without condemnation so that we can begin to learn from each other and we all have the oppurtunity to grow. We may have to give up our pseudo-comfort in order to obtain true understanding which will lead us to true acceptance and comfort. Lastly, it’s been my experience that when I am tearing someone else down that what I am really concerned about is a weakness in myself and not the other person. If we can all commit to being the best that we can be and help others be the best that they can be then we can endure being uncomfortable for the sake of helping someone else grow.

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