PC Isn't Totally New

We’ve all seen dozens of pictures like this poster – advertisers are especially fond of them. Of course they are absurd and laughable in their pathetic attempt to offend nobody and include everybody. In addition to the omissions noted, I see they're missing the handicapped physically-challenged person.

But they also remind me of another, much earlier effort to be ‘inclusive’ (though less inclusive than today). I’m thinking of those great old World War II movies where at some point Sarge would call roll for the squad, and it would be something like, "Kowalski ... Garibaldi ... O'Malley ... Goldberg ... " and so on.

Of course, the Army wasn't integrated yet, or the list would surely have included a black guy named, no doubt, Washington. No Asians, either. Sometimes there might be a Hispanic, generally named Martinez; he’d be from Los Angeles. That’s because they were also aiming for regional inclusiveness -- there was always a guy from Brooklyn, a southerner, and a ridiculously naive farm kid.

Great stuff.