Frank

The constrictions of social appropriateness and behavior serve a purpose: to minimize any offense one might receive, or feel they receive by the ignorance, carelessness, or otherwise indifference of someone else. Today's age has especially seen a big push for people to tiptoe around these issues and peoples feelings. All of this political correctness dilutes our ability not only to express ourselves but also causes us to avoid issues that, quite frankly, need to be discussed rather than avoided.

There have been many people over the course of popular entertainment to question the appropriateness of being politically correct. Many comedians used it to demonstrate our differences (Richard Pryor as a good example), Bill Maher had a show named for it, and now Sarah Silverman in blackface is at least broaching the subject on a shock level intended to be offensive. Which it is.

In a recent episode, Sarah has a run-in with a black man and decides to take a walk in his shoes by becoming black herself. Her good natured attempt, however, lands her painted up in blackface. As she happily walks down the street she receives jeers and name calling and incorrectly attributes it to her "being black." In the end, she sort of learns a lesson, but in true fashion ends up more superficial than before.

The goofiness of the show aside, race relations and how we deal with them are important. Letting things slide by in our politically correct world unnoticed and untouched seems to defeat the purpose of forward progression. Why shouldn't we all be able to put our preconceptions on the table and work from there. Because of not, we're just going to mire ourselves in a nasty, racist quagmire.