How to Fail at Being PC

I shall start this post by saying the stupidly obvious: Political Correctness is on the whole a good thing. Society is just now coming off a millennium-long bigotry binge and every one racist or misogynist still in existence is one too many. I was raised that judging others based on skin or other innate features is not only amoral but also the lowest form of ignorance, on par with rolling around in fish guts and swan-diving into the local alligator pit.

That being said.... It's a delicate balance a lot of the time. what may be potentially offensive from an outsider's perspective can be totally innocuous or even admirable to said offended party; and sometimes the "corrections" only draw attention to the already overplayed differences and can have a horrific reverse-effect. For example, please reconsider your PC shift if:

The Group you are Trying to Protect Tells you To Knock It Off
This is more common than a lot of people think: some concerned bleeding-heart liberal takes offense at a non-white character that they perceive as an outright racist caricature only for said non-white group to come to the character's defense; either stating they don't mind one way or another or that they appreciate the  cultural recognition. This is common with sports teams based on Indian tribes and anime shows that feature what would be to them funny foreigners, but the most famous case involves Warner Brothers in the 90's. Keep in mind that they were trying to atone for this:

So the knee-jerk reaction of "Hide ALL the controversy!" is perfectly understandable. Son they started by locking monstrosities like the above video away and releasing them on the occasional special-edition set whenever no one was looking. They also decided to take reoccurring stereotypes like Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales off the air to ensure no one would ever be offended by the Loony Tunes again.... Only for Latino viewers to gripe about missing their favorite Mexican mouse.

As it so happened, a lot of Spanish viewers admired Speedy's wits and ability  to outsmart "the gringo cat" (I will accept this bit of counter-racism in good humor, considering the circumstances of this blog post).  So when Speedy made his return in the Loony Tunes Show, not only as clever as ever but as a successful business owner with a kick ass Cadillac, the crowds went loco.

When Your Change Changes Nothing
There are instances where the word "man" is gender exclusive and wont for change: Mail man, for example. Mail carrier not only acknowledges that women work the role as well but is a bit more descriptive on top of that. However, please keep in mind that another definition  of "Man" is a general term for the human species in general.  As such, changing the phrase "manhole cover" to "Sanitation worker's hidey-hole" or some such nonsense is far from a relevant change.
But not as bad as this example from the book "Who Stole the News". In it, A news reporter was chastised for his terminology of using "blow a man overboard" on an aircraft carrier and was told to use "person overboard. You know, on a ship that just so happened to have an all-male crew and just so happened to be practicing man overboard drills.

Nice try, overzealous femnazi's, but the term Man overboard will stay so long as Merriam-Webster still publishes dictionaries with that secondary definition of the word "man"

When Your Attempt to Quash Bigotry is in Fact More Bigoted.
Portland Oregon is an amazing city; full of amazing coffee shops, thriving art culture and pristine schools. Mind you, pristine does not always mean rational or moderate. And seeing as Oregonians have as much of a social stigma against racism as most states in the deep south have against worshiping Satan, it is only natural that someone would find something totally mundane to claim as a symbol of racial oppression. However, nobody but nobody expected the new sign of the KKK to come in the form of a Peanut-Butter and jelly sandwich.

I wish I could say I was kidding.... but the principal of Harvey-Scott K-8 school did indeed use this pre-K comfort food as a lesson in tolerance of other cultures.  Her justification was and I quote, “What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches? Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.” Which is all well and good if you're you're doing a high-school introduction to world studies lecture on food, but if the intent is to say it in front of the melting pot that is a Washington-County primary school the implication suddenly becomes "Non-white people will never eat food outside of their culture, so do not bother to share your Pb&j."
It may seem like I'm over blowing this, but once elementary schools in the North West get in on this sort of logic, they do things like have a lesson plan on celebrating Hanukkah with the one Jewish kid in the entire school (mind you, I was killer at dreidel. No real regrets.)

So I can only imagine what the lesson plan looked like at Harvey-Scott:

Teacher: Alright kids, going along with yesterday's Pacific Educational Group's briefing we're going to talk about something something no doubt foreign and scary: The White Man's Breakfast
*clicks to a slide of a typical Kellogg's complete breakfast.* 
Now, Americans tend to eat "processed cereals", like those funny rings in that bowl up there. You may know of something similar in your home such as grits, rice balls, tortilla- Jasmine, what is that in your mouth?
Jasmine: *sheepish* a sandwich...
Teacher: Don't you remember what we talked about yesterday? You'll make yourself sick if you eat foods your body isn't used to having culturally. I'm excusing you to the office when we're done here to call your mother and have her bring you some Popeye's instead. *sighs* anyways, this is usually accompanied with a protein such as bacon and eggs, although eggs are popular as huevos rancheros in Latin america, most eastern cultures prefer vegetarian options such as sweet beans or tof- Rashad, is that SUSHI?!
Rashad: What? I like fish.
Teacher: that's not the point! It's not meant for you if you weren't raised with it!
Rashad: But I've been living next to this restaurant since I was three!
Teacher: ... I'll let it slide today, but I expect to see Shwarma on your desk next time you are in this classroom, you hear me? Gah, where was I? Oh yes, onto drinks.... Americans, being the consumerist beasts that they are, will drink no less than two drinks at breakfast: a glass of orange juice, and either milk or coffee depending on age. the American caffeine addiction is central to american li-  Koizumi, why is there a FUCKING COCA-COLA on your desk?!
Koizumi: Because double-standards make me thirsty.
Teacher: Dammit, can't you children see we're trying to save you from gentrification before we live in a world without self-contained reference pools?!? This is the biological equivalent of dropping a nuke in your stomach! Have you no Japanese pride Koizumi?
Koizumi: I believe Japanese pride was a contributing factor to that incident you are referncing, not gentrification or soda. Also, would you please stop using my surname when you call on me; I've never once heard you call me Steve in class, or is that name too hard for you to pronounce?

So at the end of the day, we're left where we started: Speedy still wins the day, men are still entitled to their holes, children still eat pb&j and drink ramune indiscriminately, and all the while real racial issues fester in both america and the rest of the world. Perhaps if we stopped nitpicking on little things and instead chose to reach out and say "Hey, beneath some minor bullshit factors, we're all the same." We wouldn't need to sort through the PC that needs to exist and the PC that we laugh at on comedy blogs. But hey, that's just an idea...