Political correctness is the head of a much larger
beast, really. People have written about the concept already, so I'll look at it from a slightly different angle and list some examples.
I have been attacked in university classes before for using English. The exact situation was when I said something simple: "The reaction rate is retarded." Some moron nearby promptly tells me to stop using the word "retarded" because "some people might have a problem" and not like that. Then he told me that he'd physically assaulted people for using the word before. At that point, I basically told him that he must have some kind of mental deficiency.
As recently as this past Spring I walked out of a university building and was presented with a full view of a "Latina Power" rally. I did complain about that one because it obviously was intended as a play on "White Power," and because if I, a white male, did anything even remotely like that, I'd be lynched. For simply pointing that out, I was called a racist by one of the people running it, and given a lecture on the First Amendment by the idiot in university administration. When I asked if they would support some jackass running a "White Power" rally, even after explicitly stating that I have no interest in that particular philosophy, I was again called a racist, this time by the administrative official I talked to on the phone, and simply told that no, the university would not allow it. I despise the idea of hating someone simply because of the color of their skin and nothing else, but what a double standard.
In applying to graduate school, there are questions all over the applications concerning race. Supposedly, this is used only for "statistical purposes," yet virtually every school states that they have an "active minority recruitment program." How do you have an "active minority recruitment program" if you admit based on merit and race is not a factor? One would think that given the pervasiveness of political correctness in these institutions, they would avoid even the appearance of impropriety in this regard.
I've lost count of the number of times that two black people have greeted each other using or have referred to each other by the word "nigger" (or "nigga," if you prefer).
During a lecture on applying to medical school given by a person from the admissions office from a University of Texas medical school, the man suggested that minority students demonstrate hardship. One of the examples used was: "If your parents swam the river, put that in."
The number of minority-based scholarships and aid programs is totally ridiculous. I don't see many, if any, white-only scholarships. (I wouldn't approve of those either.)
Then there's the idea of quotas, which are intuitively stupid and requires little elaboration.
I don't care about race, but the longer I live in America, the more I get the issue crammed down my throat, and the stronger my reactions to it become. These things are racist. Arguing against them is not racist. Unfortunately, disagreeing with whatever minority groups say tends to result in one being called a racist.
If people want racial descrimination to end, they need to get over the idea of race. As long as people keep drawing these lines of distinction, people are going to distinguish on that basis.
This is the major reason I will not go to a graduate school which has a large minority enrollment. Is it because I hate people who aren't white? Not in the slightest. It's simply because I'm not interested in the idea of sitting next to people who are getting the same education as I am, but are having parts of it paid for by minority scholarships and similar programs, I'm not interested in having race crammed down my throat, and I refuse to go to a place where every other disagreement is likely to end in me being called a racist.
I'm not racist. People who want to keep making race and issue are.