Political correctness
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The term political correctness (or PC) is used, often pejoratively, to refer to a range of views and efforts mostly related to speech, including:
- the belief that certain kinds of speech are offensive and/or harmful to certain groups;
- efforts to replace terms considered to be harmful/offensive with terms deemed more benign or sensitive;
- efforts to discourage or prohibit language considered to be offensive/harmful;
- the expression of liberal/progressive views on social issues (especially on matters related to race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.)
Definitions[edit]
Encyclopedia Britannica described political correctness in the following way:[1]
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term used to refer to language that seems intended to give the least amount of offense, especially when describing groups identified by external markers such as race, gender, culture, or sexual orientation. ...The term has often been used derisively to ridicule the notion that altering language usage can change the public’s perceptions and beliefs as well as influence outcomes.[2] |
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The 2018 online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary gave the following definition of politically correct:[3]
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conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated[2] |
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The fifth edition of Webster's New World College Dictionary defined politically correct in the following way:[4]
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conforming or adhering to what is regarded as orthodox liberal opinion on matters of sexuality, race, etc.: usually used disparagingly to connote dogmatism, excessive sensitivity to minority causes, etc.[2] |
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Usage[edit]
The term political correctness is commonly used to criticize efforts to discourage, replace, or restrict language deemed by some to be offensive and/or harmful.
Writer and art critic Roger Kimball compared political correctness to "Newspeak" in George Orwell's novel 1984, saying, "the politically correct of our own day seek to bring about a moral revolution by changing the way we speak and write about the world: a change of heart instigated and embodied by a change of language."[5] Fred Bauer wrote the following on the conservative website National Review:[6]
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One of the causes of the rigor mortis of contemporary public debates has been the attempt to force arbitrarily narrow bounds on the range of disagreement. Rather than a healthy and expansive public debate, we instead have one in which many viewpoints are foreclosed before a civil conversation has even begun. This foreclosing is most obvious in the current fever of political correctness, which all too often holds that dissenting opinions arise primarily out of prejudices.[2] |
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Journalist Jonathan Chait wrote the following in New York Magazine:[7]
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People use the phrase to describe politeness (perhaps to excess), or evasion of hard truths, or (as a term of abuse by conservatives) liberalism in general. The confusion has made it more attractive to liberals, who share the goal of combating race and gender bias. But political correctness is not a rigorous commitment to social equality so much as a system of left-wing ideological repression. Not only is it not a form of liberalism; it is antithetical to liberalism. ... Liberals believe (or ought to believe) that social progress can continue while we maintain our traditional ideal of a free political marketplace where we can reason together as individuals. Political correctness challenges that bedrock liberal ideal. While politically less threatening than conservatism (the far right still commands far more power in American life), the p.c. left is actually more philosophically threatening. It is an undemocratic creed.[2] |
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Some who defend the underlying opinions and efforts with which the term is associated criticize the use of the term itself, while some who defend those efforts and opinions also defend the term.
In 2012, vice president of diversity at NPR Keith Woods said, "the phrase 'political correctness' is unto itself a judgment of the validity of a complaint. It's the frame through which people who'd rather not think about what they're saying dismiss those who believe that people should be responsible for the impact of their words."[8]
Edward Schumacher-Matos, then-public editor at NPR, expressed a different view in response:[8]
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To me, in its first reading, the term means to be politically inclusive, and that is a good thing. It is what is democracy is all about. ... Political correctness taken to the extreme leads to absurdity. There are plenty of examples of this, opening the way to pejorative inflections on the term by critics. But this doesn't deny the nobility of being political and being correct within reasonable measure. How much measure? That is what is always open to debate. But we cannot let some disparage the noble in the name of the extreme.[2] |
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History[edit]
The term has evolved over time since its first appearance in journalism in the 1930s. The New York Times published the phrase politically correct in a 1934 piece entitled "Personal liberty vanishes in Reich." "All journalists must have a permit to function," the piece said, "and such permits are granted only to pure 'Aryans' whose opinions are politically correct. Even after that they must watch their step."[9]
Soon thereafter the term became associated with criticisms of communism. For instance, Herbert Kohl said that in the 1940s, "the term 'politically correct' was used disparagingly to refer to someone whose loyalty to the CP [Communist Party USA] line overrode compassion and led to bad politics."[10] However, some communists used variations of the phrase as a form of praise. One 1960s translation of Quotations from Chairman Mao stated, "The Communist Party has always advocated a firm and correct political orientation."[11]
Use of the term increased in the late 1980s and early 90s when it began to be used in its more modern sense. One study of print databases found about 30 instances of the phrase in print in 1985 and about 450 instances in 1990. It was often used in its negative form of politically incorrect.[12][13]
Related terms[edit]
The following terms are often associated with political correctness.
Cultural sensitivity[edit]
The push for greater cultural sensitivity has involved the adoption of new terms for minority groups. Terms referring to people with disabilities were among the first to be revised. While terms such as cripple and feeble-minded were once used, handicapped became the preferred term in the 20th century. The term handicapped was itself superseded by disabled in the 1960s.[14][15][16][17] Later, emphasis was placed on people-first language, such as saying "people with disabilities" instead of "the disabled."[18]
Other examples include the shifts from Negro and colored to black, from homosexual to gay, and from transgendered to transgender or trans.[19][20][21][22]
Inclusive language[edit]
The term inclusive language refers to a range of linguistic practices designed to avoid excluding certain groups. Using terms that include both men and women, such as police officer instead of policeman or humankind instead of mankind, is one common example of inclusive language. There has also been a movement to expand pronouns beyond male and female options (such as he and she) to include gender-neutral options (such as ze or the singular they).[23]
Hate speech[edit]
The American Bar Association defined hate speech as "speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other traits."[24]
Examples of hate speech that are banned in some countries include:
- slurs based on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion;[25]
- statements that vilify or promote hatred of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people;[26]
- Holocaust denial;[27]
- advocacy of violence or legal discrimination against a minority group[28]
Microaggressions[edit]
The term microaggressions was coined in the 1970s by Harvard psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce, who said the following:[29][30]
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These are subtle, innocuous, preconscious, or unconscious degradations and putdowns, often kinetic but capable of being verbal and/or kinetic. In and of itself a microaggression may seem harmless, but the cumulative burden of a lifetime of microaggressions can theoretically contribute to diminished mortality, augmented morbidity, and flattened confidence. An example of a microaggression: the lone Black among a group of seventy full professors is asked to move the chairs so a meeting may commence.[2] |
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Subsequent writers and activists have given further examples of microaggressions, including the following:
- Calling a transgender person by the wrong pronoun;[31]
- Asking a member of an ethnic minority, "Where are you from?" which implies that the person must not be American;[32]
- Assuming that a member of a minority group conforms to stereotypes about that group or praising a member of a minority for not conforming to negative stereotypes about that group[33]
Trigger warnings[edit]
Trigger warnings are alerts that a particular speech, writing, video, or other medium contains content that may provoke a strong emotional response. The practice began on feminist blogs and websites in order to warn sexual assault survivors that a post contained descriptions of sexual assault, which could potentially trigger a PTSD response.[34] The practice has since migrated to universities, where professors are sometimes expected to place trigger warnings on course content that may be traumatizing.[35]
Safe space[edit]
A safe space is a location or forum where speech or materials deemed offensive and/or harmful to certain groups are not allowed. A safe space can be either physical or online. Sometimes, only members of certain groups are allowed in safe spaces—for instance, only transgender people in a trans forum or physical space.[36][37]
See also[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica, "Political correctness (PC)," accessed March 15, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "Politically correct," accessed March 2, 2016
- ↑ Yourdictionary.com, "Politically correct," 2010
- ↑ Kimball, R. "Political Correctness, or, the Perils of Benevolence." National Interest 74. (2003).
- ↑ National Review, "Restoring Real Debate in the Public Square," December 16, 2016
- ↑ New York Mag, "Not A Very PC Thing to Say," January 27, 2015
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 NPR, "Politically Correct: An Aspiration or a Pejorative?" March 8, 2012
- ↑ The Washington Post, "How ‘politically correct’ moved from Commies to culture and back into politics," December 17, 2015
- ↑ Kohl, H. "Uncommon Differences: On Political Correctness, Core Curriculum, and Democracy in Education." The Lion and the Unicorn 16, 1. (1992).
- ↑ Mao Tse Tung. (1966). Quotations From Chairman Mao. Peking: Peking Foreign Language Press.
- ↑ Hughes, G. (2011). Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
- ↑ Washington Post, "The interesting evolution of political correctness," December 17, 2015
- ↑ Andrews, E. "Cultural Sensitivity and Political Correctness: The Linguistic Problem of Naming." American Speech 71, 4. (1996).
- ↑ Oxford Dictionaries, "Handicapped," accessed February 10, 2016
- ↑ Oxford Dictionaries, "The Language of Physical or Mental Disability," accessed February 10, 2016
- ↑ Mental Floss, "Why Did Disabled Replace Handicapped as the Preferred Term?" accessed February 10, 2016
- ↑ National Disability Institute, "Examples of People-First Language," accessed March 15, 2018
- ↑ Slate, "When Did the Word Negro Become Taboo?" January 11, 2010
- ↑ New York Times, "The Decline and Fall of the 'H' Word," March 21, 2014
- ↑ Google Books Scan, "LGBT," accessed February 10, 2016
- ↑ Slate, "Trans*: What Does It Mean and Where Did It Come From?" January 10, 2014
- ↑ American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, "Colleges Consider Adopting Inclusive Language in their Systems," October 16, 2015
- ↑ American Bar Association, "Hate Speech Debate," accessed February 4, 2016
- ↑ NPR, "Comparing Hate Speech Laws in the US and Abroad," March 3, 2011
- ↑ Globe and Mail, "Supreme Court rulings upholds limits on free speech in case involving anti-gay proselytizer," February 27, 2013
- ↑ New York Times, "Hate Speech or Free Speech?" June 11, 2008
- ↑ Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 20," accessed March 1, 2016
- ↑ Google Books Scan, "Microaggression," accessed February 20, 2016
- ↑ Pierce, C. (1995). "Analogs of Racism and Sexism." In Mental Health, Racism, and Sexism. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. (page 281)
- ↑ Nordmarken, S. (2014). "Microaggressions," Transgender Studies Quarterly. 1(1)
- ↑ Atlantic, "Critics of the 'Microaggression' Framework are Skeptical," September 14, 2015
- ↑ Sue, D.W. et al. (2009) "Racial Microaggressions and the Asian American Experience," Asian American Journal of Psychology 8(1)
- ↑ American Association of University Professors, "Trigger Warnings," August 2014
- ↑ American Association of University Professors, "Trigger Warnings," August 2014
- ↑ Everyday Feminism, "6 Reasons Why We Need Safe Spaces," August 5, 2014
- ↑ New York Times, "In College and Hiding From Scary Ideas," March 22, 2015
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