Buddhism and political correctness I stumbled upon a question about the danger in lying and Andrei's answer caught my attention. He claims that '...key qualities of good character are: Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility'. Then it made me wonder - is being politically correct an obstacle on the way to enlightenment?
By the term political correctness I understand 'enforced language, ideas, or policies that address perceived discrimination against political, social or economical groups (&quot;protected classes&quot;)'.

It seems that:
Lots of public figures no longer say what they really think but they mince their words so as not to offend any of the groups.
Media doesn't report certain facts/events/results of studies in fear of offending groups which won't feel comfortable with certain facts/events/results.
Most of the time it is not based on honesty.
Clearly this leads to violated integrity.
In everyday life we also seem to be forced into political correctness.
Challenging someone's views can be perceived as an attack and more and more jokes are perceived as offending (although it used to be a great virtue to be able to laugh at oneself).

I would be mostly interested in what contemporary Buddhist teachers and masters think about this topic.
Please refrain from sharing personal opinion if it's not based on specific teachings. I am looking for advice from Buddhist masters and texts mostly.
This sounds like an issue best analyzed according to the Buddha's teachings on right speech. The Buddha famously expounded how he personally determined how to decide on what to say in the Abhaya Sutta, saying:


  [1] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual,
  untrue, unbeneficial (or: not connected with the goal), unendearing &amp;
  disagreeable to others, he does not say them.
  
  [2] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true,
  unbeneficial, unendearing &amp; disagreeable to others, he does not say
  them.
  
  [3] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true,
  beneficial, but unendearing &amp; disagreeable to others, he has a sense
  of the proper time for saying them.
  
  [4] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual,
  untrue, unbeneficial, but endearing &amp; agreeable to others, he does not
  say them.
  
  [5] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true,
  unbeneficial, but endearing &amp; agreeable to others, he does not say
  them.
  
  [6] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true,
  beneficial, and endearing &amp; agreeable to others, he has a sense of the
  proper time for saying them. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has
  sympathy for living beings."


Source: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.058.than.html

In essence, one should consider four factors of truth, benefit, agreeability, and timeliness. The relevant point here is that even if one might say something that is true, if there is no real benefit to be gained from it, then you shouldn't say it. Certainly not all cases of political correctness fall into this, but it isn't dishonest to hold back from saying something if it will lead to no good.