As usual, I waited until the last possible moment to do my Christmas shopping. Regardless of the time of year, I would rather be spanked with a spiked steel glove than spend time in a store or shopping mall. This sentiment is amplified during the Christmas season, when the stores become as uncomfortable for me as a trip to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. This year, an already uncomfortable experience is made even more agonizing by the added awkward moment that now happens at every checkout counter as clerks cautiously contemplate which holiday wish they will offer at the completion of the sale.
Being in a bi-racial and bi-national marriage gives me a unique perspective on sensitivities given to the culture and belief systems of others outside of our own. The most comprehensive understandings in my own marriage are reached out of brutally honest discussions. The greatest benefit in such discussions is not somehow enforcing my own cultural norms or beliefs on my wife but rather the discoveries of where each of our beliefs and norms are different. This is what allows for the subsequent bridge building that sustains a healthy relationship.
It’s hard work being honest, discovering real divergence in beliefs and harder yet, to find the means for both parties to retain their beliefs and live under the same roof. The holiday greeting ignominy that has spiraled out of control this year is a further step in the politically correct speech movement that began in the 1980s. The so-called cultural sensitivity shown in such speech is a farce. The individuals and groups that takes such petty pride in buffing individual identities and belief systems out of the way that we speak to one another are doing far more damage to the nation than any Walmart clerk that might happen to say Merry Christmas to a Jewish person.
Why such an uproar this season over our holiday greetings? I looked at some national demographic statistics comparing religious affiliations in the U.S. between 1990 and 2001. Between 1990 and 2001 the proportion of our population that could be classified as Christian has declined from 86% to 77%. This would support being more sensitive about greeting a non-Christian shopper with a Christmas greeting right? Not really. In the same time period the number of Americans purporting no religious affiliation has jumped from 8% to 14 %. Most of these non-Christian Americans still celebrate the secular elements of the Christmas holiday. Given these numbers there is really only a 3% increase in individuals with a non-Christian background, hardly an overwhelming flood of non-Christians.
Despite these numbers, the real issue is that we are mopping our differences under a rug and pretending they don’t exist. It doesn’t take a psychiatric degree to know that, for an individual, bottling up feelings is unhealthy and ultimately can lead to an explosion of rage that does more damage than had the feelings been vented gradually. Why would a collection of individuals be any different? Rather than being “sensitive” to the under-represented, I would propose that our societal push for ever increasing political correctness in speech is a cop-out and a way to avoid uncomfortable situations. If we are not careful, the ultimate result of such avoidance could be social upheaval like that which was witnessed in France recently.
Until the time that people grow up, shed their fears for talking about cultural differences I am considering crafting a nametag that I can wear into stores to avoid the awkward instance when the clerk carefully considers their words. My badge will read: Chris Keesey: White, American, Christian with Black, Haitian wife and mixed race child. Hopefully this can help store clerks and any other individual worried about being sensitive to not offend me or my family.
During a newscast the other night featuring the “Merry Christmas” controversy, Ingrid noted, “I come from a country with 70% unemployment and a per capita GNP of $400, you people need to get a real problem”
Did she just say that Americans have no real problems? I’m offended.