The PC Fascisti* Ride Again

Every so often, political correctness takes over someone's brain and they seem to completely take leave of their senses.

Such was the case in Morgan Hill, California when some students showed up for class yesterday in clothing bedecked with American flags. They were sent home, because it was Cinco de Mayo, and this show of American patriotism was deemed "incendiary." Mexican-American students, it was reasoned, would become so angry that it was feared that fights would break out on campus. Meanwhile, some Mexican-American students played the role of aggrieved minority to the hilt, incensed not at the fashion crime the tacky patriot-wear represented, but at the unconscionable insult of an American student daring to wear the American flag at a school in... America.

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

Right. Something tells me that if I go to Mexico on the Fourth of July, and find someone with a Mexican flag on his shirt, I doubt that he'll feel that he's disrespecting me by doing so.

White Americans are often portrayed as unreasonably touchy about the whole PC thing, but this, honestly, earns them my sympathy. While Fox News is no doubt salivating over the chance to raise the hackles of their audience by blaring this story from the rooftops, there is a point here. A group of American students (the children of ex-pats) living in a foreign nation, who insisted that the natives refrain from wearing their national flag on the Fourth of July would be branded as Ugly Americans, and half the planet would be disapprovingly clucking their tongues at us. Such behavior would be considered completely unacceptable, a sure sign of Imperialism and American arrogance run amok.

I understand that Mexican-Americans may hold Cinco de Mayo to be important, but for most other Americans, it's little more than an excuse to drink Corona and tequila half the night. That's part of the deal one signs up for when living in a foreign country.

* This is an inside joke. The PC Fascisti was a group consisting solely of a friend's answering machine: Guido - the voice of oppressed small appliances everywhere! As you may have guessed, Guido could be relied upon to regale one with a tale of woe concerning a fellow small appliance whenever his masters weren't present to answer the telephone. Usually in a laughably bad pseudo-Italian accent. But he did offer some amusing insights into his owner's views of political correctness.