Political Correctness in Russia

[Alina Israeli]

The problem is that we cannot separate the fact from the shame it  
causes and as the result the only way to deal with the shame is to  
pretend there is no fact. From the point of view of the author being  
Black is like being handicap and a polite person should not dwell on  
the handicap. Just yesterday I read a story about a kid who was  
mistreated because he had red hair. So imagine that the society  
eventually overcomes this obsession with red hair and everyone is  
treated the same. But those who are still very touchy about it just  
cannot bring themselves to say 'red hair', 'the person with red  
hair', they'll say 'that one', 'the other one', just to avoid  
mentioning his most distinct feature.

If there is no stigma attached and the term is not offensive the  
distinctive feature should be mentioned as such, that feature may be  
one of those that differentiate this person from the crowd.

PS. On the subject of V Ukraine: check out the latest edition (or  
maybe even two last editions) of Rozental' "Spravochnik po  
literaturnoj pravke".

AI

On Dec 5, 2008, at 11:01 PM, Valery Belyanin wrote:

> I am a bit confused with Russian understanding of PC:
> «Президентом будет черный, – неполиткорректно заметила Дюваль. –  
> Выберут
> Обаму».
> Prezidentom budet chernyj,- nepolitkorrektno zametil Duval, Vyberut  
> Obamu.
> http://www.gazeta.ru/social/2008/10/22/2862684.shtml<http:// 
> 1001.vdv.ru/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t4784.html>
> does it mean that "*black*" regarding Afro-American is also not PC?  
> What
> then
> Russians should say?
> P.S. All this resembles me Ukrainians forcing Russians to say V  
> Ukraine,
> instead of NA Ukraine.
> Sorry for being possibly not too PC.
> Really confused (again lost in between two cultures? :-).
> --
> Валерий Белянин / Valeri Belianine, doktor nauk in psycholinguistics
> Психолингвистический форум = http://mospsy.ru/phorum/list.php?f=2

Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




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