If You Think People Are Too Sensitive, You Are Wrong

A clothing company is under fire for an inappropriate ad. The ad featured an African-American child with a hoodie on that said "Coolest Monkey In The Jungle".

Some people don't understand why this is offensive. They say, "everyone calls their kids little monkeys". What they don't understand is that their kids and people in their culture were never called "monkeys' as a way to demean them.

I constantly see people write "people are too sensitive", "everything is too politically correct", "people need to get over it". What these people don't understand is that they don't get to decide what another culture deems offensive. For example, when I was a kid I couldn't understand why the Frito Bandito was taken away from me. You don't realize it now, but the character was portrayed as a thieving, lying, and violent outlaw with a lazy Mexican accent, and at that time, he was one of the only Hispanic characters on t.v. Now its completely apparent how Hispanics would take offense at this character.

So where do you draw the line on political correctness? The fact is, you don't get to. You can have empathy and take a step back when you're pushing someone else's boundaries or don't. You have can go through life being a jerk to everyone if you want to. I just remember the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you want respect for your culture, give it to other folks. In short, be awesome to each other.

Political correctness at its core is just having empathy for other people and other situations. It's almost biblical in its nobility. It costs you nothing to be nice to other people and the benefits are incredible.