THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130320
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Marc Tibbs
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
So much is being said and written these days about political correctness that it's hard to separate the ridiculous from the sublime.
Terms like ``mankind,'' ``spokesman'' and ``journeyman'' have gone from being all-encompassing, genderless, generic remarks to the brink of bigotry when used improperly.
Ethnically, many blacks prefer being called African Americans; some Native Americans prefer American Native as their self-description, and calling an Asian American ``Oriental'' can be downright insulting, since the former describes people, and the latter describes things.
At times it can be overwhelming.
But the national obsession with political correctness hardly explains the gaffe that Walter E. Barbee made last week.
Barbee, a member of a state task forced charged by Gov. George F. Allen with reshaping state government, was speaking to a group about state contracts when he commented that he had seen trash pickup crews along state roads with plenty of ``wetbacks on the job.''
Barbee put his foot so far into his mouth that he's still tasting heel when he belches.
``Wetback,'' a pejorative reference to Latinos, is a term that was coined to describe undocumented Mexicans (nee illegal aliens), some of whom came to the United States by swimming across the Rio Grande.
Barbee, president of the Springfield-based Family Foundation, a grass-roots conservative group, maintained that he didn't know the term was an ethnic slur.
``It just really didn't cross my mind,'' he said.
That revelation, in itself, ought to be reason enough for Allen to disassociate Barbee from state government.
But what should really seal his fate is the feeble public ``apology'' he offered after state Secretary of Transportation Robert E. Martinez, a Latino, complained to the governor's office.
By my estimation, Barbee thumbed his nose at anyone who would find the comment offensive by trivializing it.
``Unfortunately, my political correctness indoctrination training hadn't proceeded to the right level,'' he explained. ``It has now.''
Loosely translated, that's thinly veiled stupid-speak for ``Excuse me if I haven't met your ridiculous standards.''
It's a kind of Rush Limbaugh logic, which says: ``I don't understand how I offended you; therefore, you're not offended.''
Barbee's snide remarks are the kind you hear from people who hide behind the cloak of conservatism.
In their lexicon, ``welfare mothers'' translates into lazy, overly fertile, black women. ``Career criminals'' are black men of any age, and anyone who doesn't agree with them is patently atheist, and un-American. But the modern-day doublespeak isn't limited just to those who call themselves conservatives.
``Bubba votes,'' during Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, was a nice way to say ``redneck.'' They also had once been described as ``Reagan Democrats.''
But sadly, Barbee's ``political correctness'' remark is just the kind of thing that gets him slaps on the back from his circle of associates.
Sure, he wants to reshape state government, as long as it still looks like he thinks it should. by CNB