I have a very low threshold for political correctness. A blogger arriving in Denver last week to cover the DNC for Pacifica Radio, posted the photo above of DNC volunteers at the Denver airport, and her comment sent me right into “Flo mode” which if you don’t know already, means I cop an attitude worthy of a very annoyed truck stop waitress and snarl “Kiss my grits.” And then I proceed to get actually hostile. Bloggie-poo wrote:
I have to admit that the welcoming committee pictured above hardly reflects the diversity that I see on the floor today: more than half the delegates are women; one in every four is African American, 11 percent are Latino, four percent are Asian-American Pacific Islander; another four percent associate with a disability and six percent identify as LGBT.
Golly. I’m sure that in San Francisco they would never have allowed any group of volunteers to gather to offer to help people, except in properly assorted types and numbers. But this is Colorado. We’re not as politically pure.
We still kind of think three friendly faces are, well, three friendly faces. Without consideration of race, religion, age, national origin, disability, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, technological sophistication, political affiliation, or economic status.
The folks in the orange T-shirts volunteered their time – and the resources to get to the airport and home again which usually means gas and parking money – to greet people coming to the DNC and help them navigate the airport from arrival to baggage claim to ground transportation. (Edited to add: Those in the picture were only three among hundreds of such volunteers, who helped both at the airport and downtown.)
And a snotty blogger just had to slam this random lot of them for not being a politically correct assortment.
Anyway, I doubt that she talked with them and went through her checklist. Maybe one of them ‘associates with a disability’ (Lord, a whole new straight line!), or only one of them is heterosexual?
This calls out for Cranky Prof’s articulate billingsgate.
I am not worthy.
Geez. Does she really want a welcoming party of 100 people with the correct ratios? Forcryingoutloud lady.
What about ZERO people meeting everyone to help navigate the airport?
It was still very kind of those three to volunteer the time.