Political Correctness Gone MadFreddy Woo writes: "I once worked on an animation to help highlight the issues homeless people face in winter. The client was happy with the work, then a note came back that the ethnic mix of the characters were wrong. These were cartoon characters. They weren't meant to be ethnically anything, but we were forced to make one of them brown, at the cost of about 10k to the charity. This is how your donations are spent. Wisely as you can see."
How has PC affected you? (Please add your own tales - not five-year-old news stories cut-and-pasted from other websites)
(, Thu 22 Nov 2007, 10:20)
« Go Back
Thrown out of McDonald's...Dear friends, please attend while I regale thee with the most amusing story of how I, one Devil In Tights, managed to be forcibly ejected and subsequently banned from that finest purveyor of cooked meat produce – McDonald’s.
‘Twas a balmy summer’s day in 2002. I was on my way to work (ironically in one of Wakefield’s finer eateries), and as it was due to be a long shift and my employers were notoriously bad for letting their staff grab a quick bite mid-shift, I decided to take my life in to my own hands and eat a Maccy D’s.
So, I entered the restaurant (ha, that’s a laugh in itself), and stood patiently queuing while the burger slaves did their customer’s bidding. Just as I was about to order my food, I was quite literally shoved from my position in the queue by the carer of a woman who was in a wheelchair.
Now, I’m a fairly English kind of guy, and I very rarely speak up, but this really narked me off. “Excuse me,” I said, trying to be polite as possible “but where I come from we queue and wait our turn like civilised people.”
The carer turned to me. I watched as her face turned purple. I would swear on whatever holy book you choose that steam was coming out of her ears. The woman was incandescent with rage.
“She… is… Disabled!” she sputtered, putting all of her anger and poison in to the last word of the sentence, “And as such, she deserves to be served ahead of those of us who still have the use of our legs!”
Well, of course. How stupid of me. I now had to come up with a response that would show how completely and unequivocally sorry that I was that I had committed this gross faux pas. How remorseful I was that it was all my fault that the poor woman in the wheelchair (who, incidentally, looked about the most embarrassed I have ever seen anyone look) was unable to walk, and how of course she has a constitutional right to priority service in a fast food outlet.
“I don’t give a fuck if she’s the Queen,” I said “she has to queue like everyone else.” (Subtle, see?)
People literally died on the spot. People reading the Daily Mail and the Guardian vomited on their shoes. Children started crying. The clouds did render themselves asunder, and God himself reached down from above and smote me from this Earth. Or at least that’s what it felt like. In actuality I got thrown out by the Manager of McDonald’s for behaving in an ‘inappropriate and threatening manner to someone who was unable to defend themselves’; whereas it struck me it wasn’t the person in the wheelchair who needed defending.
OK, so maybe not political correctness gone mad, but certainly a story about how political correctness saved me three quid!
(
Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Wed 28 Nov 2007, 11:31,
6 replies)
...A bit stylistically overblown in places, but a good story with some nice touches all the same.
*salutes*
(
Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 28 Nov 2007, 11:34,
closed)
Oi!I read the Guardian and I'm as much of a racist bigot as the next man.
(, Wed 28 Nov 2007, 11:37, closed)
Oh yes, been there.Except I was queueing in a supermarket, and once again it wasnt actually the disabled woman trying to push in but the carer.
Have you seen that South Park episode just about Timmy & Jimmy and all the other characters just say "i'm staying out of this one"? Wise words.
(
Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Wed 28 Nov 2007, 11:58,
closed)
you should have pointed out...that your "inappropriate and threatening manner" was directed at the carer, not the person in the wheelchair.
(, Wed 28 Nov 2007, 12:17, closed)
You could have said that with her being in a wheelchairyour legs would get tired well before hers would.
(
Moonraker isn't the droid you were looking for, Wed 28 Nov 2007, 12:25,
closed)
Fuck me Moonraker...I'd call your comment insensitive if it wasn't for the pure and utter brilliance in the application of logic =)
Discalimer: I push my mum's wheelchair around a lot... and NEVER use her as a cue-jumping tool.
*************
Oustanding, and totally worth being ejected for!! =)
(
Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Wed 28 Nov 2007, 13:12,
closed)
« Go Back