Phillip J. Milano speaks at the seminar held at Owens Community College about diversity dialogue. Photo by Cathy Zeltner

By: Cathy Zeltner/Managing Editor

Phillip J. Milano held a seminar today, November 8, 2012 at the Toledo campus of Owens Community College. The seminar was regarding political correctness and questions people sometimes have but don’t ask out of fear of offending someone. The event was sponsored by Student Government.

Milano has written books such as “I Can’t Believe You Asked That.” He also has a newspaper column titled “Dare to Ask,” and a website www.yforum.com.

The crowed was enthusiastic as Milano discussed several topics of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual preference and other controversial topics. He does not cover topics such as abortion or marriage equality rights, but topics regarding different cultures and races. Although Milano was the speaker, he encouraged crowd participation.  Milano added that because of crowd participation, he had, “Some of the longest dog dialog I’ve ever had.”

Milano posed such questions as, “Why do white people smell like dogs when they come in from the rain?” He asked the predominantly white crowd if anyone had heard this before the seminar. Most white attendees had no idea that other races thought this. He also asked if it was ever appropriate to use the “N” word and received responses from different races as to whether it was ever acceptable, and why it was or was not.

Sharing several questions and answers from his forum, the question was posed as to whether or not women pass gas, and he even proceeded to answer that with scientific facts about who produces more volumes of flatulence and whether male or females gas smells worse.

On talking about homosexuality, Milano brought up that calling a person “homophobic” is possibly not correct, because a phobia is a fear. He talked about “homonegativitism” as being a possible closer term.

Milano grew up in a primarily white area, where only one African American student attended his grade school. He claims that he remembers, “Playing with his afro” when he was young. As he grew older, he wanted to find out about other cultures and saw that he wasn’t the only person curious.  Today, he has had around 10 million or more visitors to his website, so his assumption must have been correct.

The reason for the website, book, newspaper column and seminars is to bring dialogue about diversity. Milano said that even though we may think that someone smells different, looks different, acts different or eats different types of food, we need to remember that they are having the same thoughts about us.

Phillip J. Milano speaks to the attendees at the P.C. is B.S. seminar. Photo by Cathy Zeltner