heyywinchell:

Planking?

If you think “planking” is cool. Think again! Slaves captured in Africa were stowed away on ships during the “Middle Passage” journey during the late 16th century and forced to sleep on wooden planks. “Planking” was the term used when slave owners transported the slaves on these ships. Unclothed, underfed, and forced to lie on hard planking in unhygienic conditions, many slaves failed to survive the transatlantic voyage. Cultural sensitivity is real. Educate yourself.

In the past two years, I’ve been more and more concerned with political correctness. It comes across as something that only uptight/overly righteous people use, but it’s not a matter of social over-analysis. During middle school and most of high school, I was the typical teenager, using gay, retarded, etc completely wrong. I had a gay friend whose sister was autistic and he called me out on it one day. That’s when I realized the words you use really do matter. You might not be hurting anyone 90% of the time, but that other 10% of the time is still significant. Even if it’s one person you’ll encounter your entire life, you will live with the guilt of hurting them for your entire life as well. I admit that I am no where near perfectly politically correct. I don’t even realize a lot of phrases and words we use these days are wrong. But being politically correct is not difficult. When you say “that’s so gay,” you really mean “that’s so stupid” anyway. You can change your speech, but you can’t change how you’ve affected other people’s lives.

(via galaxiesofgrace)