On her blog, former Wildrose Party leader, Danielle Smith, claims that she is leaving radio because "the mob of political correctness thinks nothing of destroying a person’s career and reputation over some perceived slight, real or imagined." 1/n #abpoli
I can only infer what she is referring to, but her use of the Right's favourite code, "political correctness" raises some questions for me. 2/n
What does "slights" actually stand in for? This term serves to minimize the real harms inflicted on groups who are targeted by hate speech or subjected to banalized racist beliefs. 3/n
What kind of "freedom" does she believe is jeopardized, and for whom? Freedom to inflict such harms on others without consequences? Freedom to not have to think about racist and other power relations and where we are situated within them? 4/n
Does she recognize that only privileged individuals ever enjoy such "freedoms"? Racialized and Indigenous persons are never "free" of the consequences of colonial and white supremacist laws, policing, hiring practices, institutions, or daily insults & threats. 5/n
Smith had the privilege of hosting a mass media radio program. How many Indigenous-hosted radio programs does Corus produce? 6/n
None of us is perfect. We all have learning to do. But how are we ever going to create a more just society if privileged middle class white people persist in seeing themselves as the victims of "political correctness" when their assumptions are challenged? 7/n
That's not defending freedom; that's exploiting the status quo to prevent other people from being free. 8/8
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