WHEN IS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS NO LONGER CORRECT?

What do you remember about the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s?  I remember Audrey.  In my youth, Audrey Hepburn was absolutely the most beautiful woman to walk on earth…outside of June Allyson, maybe, or Rita Hayworth, or Grace Kelly.

I remember “Moon River“.  And I remember what Audrey’s character (snicker, snicker) did for a living.  But I don’t remember Andy Rooney and the character he played.  In case you need a memory jog, Rooney played the part of a Japanese neighbor, and the character was, if nothing else, an over-the-top, stereotype.  He wasn’t particularly obnoxious.  He may have even been a little bit lovable.  But the character was a broad stereotype with big classes, squinty eyes, buck teeth and a kind of pigeon English patois.

I only bring this up because the movie was removed recently from a list of movies to be shown at some community affair in Sacramento.  Now I don’t want to belabor the point, nor excoriate the people who complained or the individual who decided to remove the movie.  That’s what you are supposed to do these days.  If you can find a reason to be offended, by all means, be offended.  And if you are in a position of authority, by all means, ban the offensive material.

But I look at it from a couple of different points of view.  First, I am a graduate of the University of Illinois.  Second, I am of Norwegian heritage.

What does that have to do with an over the top stereotype portrayed in a 40-50 year old movie?  A lot.  For years, lots of years, the mascot of the University of Illinois was Chief Illiniwek, a tribute to the many tribes of Indians that inhabited the plains.  Granted, on the football field, the Chief was a mild caricature, but he was never made out to be a boob.  In fact, he was a rather stately, dignified figure who only came out at half-time, never danced with the cheerleaders, nor engaged in on-field foolishness typical of some half-time activities,  and only performed alone. 

Alas, the Chief died February 21, 2007, after appearing at halftime of a Basketball game.  The NCAA banned the University of Illinois from appearing in post-season activities (The Rose Bowl, or NCAA basketball finals, for example) if they didn’t get rid of him because the Chief was “hostile” and “abusive”.  So, after a run of 81 years, a symbol that generations of Illini (that’s what U of I students and graduates are called) revered and identified with was unceremoniously dumped into the same bin as the Stanford University Indian (Let’s hear it for the Cardinal).

As a Norwegian, I probably should be offended by the stupid depictions of Vikings with horns protruding from their helmuts.  Besides being historically inaccurate, it’s demeaning.  And how about the times I was made to listen to Ole and Sven/Lena jokes, mocking the backwoods buffoons with the dumb accents?

From my early youth, I was exposed to those insufferable “Yorgy Yorgensen” albums.  Oh, and how about the people who inhabit the movie “Fargo“ or Lake Wobegone?  The only Hollywood productions that gave Scandinavians a positive image were “I Remember Mama” and those World War Two movies where the Norwegians resisted the Nazis.  All the rest made them out to be big, dumb and funny sounding.

But the thing is, we Scandinavians don’t get offended by those stereotypes, we laugh at them as heartily as anyone.

Why can’t everybody else?