Bigotry & Political Correctness

If there's one thing that's certain to make me a little hot under the collar it's the idiocy of political correctness. We've had more than enough nonsense spouted from various petty officials over the past couple of decades to last the world a lifetime! yet still it goes on, as one after another, someone comes up with more of the nonsense. Often it seems something just to laugh about at first, but it's much more sinister when you start to scratch under the surface.

One area that seems to come under fire with great regularity is that of our children's Nursery Rhymes --- little stories that tell tales that have delighted children for generations. Suddenly it becomes politically incorrect to sing about Baa, baa, black sheep, for we're told that it has racial connotations. What about Jack & Jill then? In the current climate should we be singing the way that some would have us be teaching, about Jack & Tom or about Jill & Mary?

The latest idiocy in this genre is reported in today's Daily Mail, and is about a Newcastle-based company called Shoo Fly. They have dared to publish a story called The Three Little Cowboys, which is based on the nursery rhyme of The Three Little Pigs. The judges of the annual BETT Awards, which recognises excellence in educational technology, have labelled this award-winning CD-Rom as racist because it creates 'concerns about the Asian community in relation to the reference to pigs', the result of which meant that they could not recommend this product to the Muslim community.

The judges also told the company that they objected to the use of so-called stereo-typing in the story which depicted builders as cowboys. They questioned whether it was true to say that all builders are cowboys (which the story does not), whether they get their work blown down, or whether they are like pigs, none of which are claimed in the age-old story, but which must be in the imaginative minds of the politically-correct judges!

You can check the company, Shoo Fly, out and see for yourself.