Political correctness
Political correctness (PC) refers to the practice of using language and behavior that aims to avoid offending or marginalizing particular groups in society. Emerging from social movements in the 1960s and 1970s, such as civil rights and feminism, political correctness gained prominence in the late 1980s when it became associated with the promotion of inclusive language and sensitivity toward diverse identities. The shift in terminology over the decades, like the change from "Negro" to "African American," highlights the evolving nature of language in reflecting societal values.
In educational and workplace settings, the enforcement of politically correct language aimed to create a more inclusive environment, although it also sparked debates over freedom of expression. Critics of political correctness argue that it can lead to a form of censorship, stifling honest dialogue, especially in academic spaces. The term itself has often been politicized, with some using it pejoratively to describe perceived overreach by the left in controlling discourse.
Cultural tensions surrounding political correctness have been evident in public discourse, including during notable political campaigns, where candidates' stances on PC language reflected broader societal divisions. Ultimately, political correctness embodies an ongoing struggle between advocating for respect and inclusivity and the defense of free speech and open discussion.
Political correctness
A term for the use of words or behavior intended to be inoffensive to identity groups or social minorities
The late 1980s witnessed language wars about proper terminology for social groups, which in turn raised free-speech issues.
Although the term “political correctness” did not come into widespread use in the United States until the late 1980s, it had its modern roots in rapid societal changes taking place in the 1960s and 1970s related to ethnicity, feminism, multiculturalism, and the disabled. The term “black”—which had formerly progressed from the derogatory terms used until the 1960s “Negro” and “colored”—was replaced by “Afro-American” and finally “African American.” The term “handicap” was replaced by “disability” in the early 1980s. In schools, problem learners were termed students with special education needs. On college campuses, ostensibly bastions of free speech, “politically incorrect” points of view were denounced as hateful, sexist, racist, or Eurocentric. “Political correctness,” once a term used only in a communist context when referring being within the party line, took on new shades of meaning within a culturally, ethnically, and politically diverse American society.
The large number of discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits in the 1970s and 1980s further served to make a number of terms taboo both in schools and in the workplace. Language and terminology were viewed as powerful tools for labeling people in a group in positive, neutral, or negative way. Such language affected not only how others viewed an individual but also how individuals viewed themselves and made an impact on everything from social inclusiveness to career opportunities. Logos also underwent scrutiny. The logo for Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians, for example, was redrawn in 1973 to appear less insulting to Native Americans, and many school teams dropped their “Indian” logos altogether. Meanwhile, the term “Indians” underwent scrutiny and was replaced by more accurate terms such as “American Indians,” “Amerindians,” “Amerinds,” “Indigenous,” “Aboriginal,” “Original Americans,” and “Native Americans.”
From Campus to Society
During the 1980s, new affirmative action programs were implemented on college campuses; non-Western studies programs rapidly expanded along with women’s studies and ethnic studies. The production of radical feminists, gay rights activists, globalists, and ethnic militants was a natural and perhaps needed outcome to generate a wider variety of educational viewpoints. However, at the same time, it fostered cultural separatism and intolerance for other values and beliefs. By the late 1980s, political correctness moved from the campus to the larger society. Americans using politically incorrect terms could be denounced as racist, sexist, homophobic, or chauvinistic, or, in a kinder vein, labeled prejudiced or insensitive. As victims, identity groups became empowered to denounce critics. By the end of the decade, a backlash had occurred; “politically correct” (PC) had become a pejorative term used to describe an intellectual straitjacket.
Many critics of political correctness were conservatives who used the term as a vehicle for attacking what they viewed as left-wing college curricular, liberal educational reform in public schools, and rapidly changing social values. Philosopher Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind (1987) became a best-seller because of its powerful denunciation of “thought control” in academia. Liberals also denounced the censorship and freedom-limiting aspects of political correctness. Professional organizations such as the American Historical Association warned of substituting subjectivity for historical objectivity and of the lack of intellectual freedom imposed by political correctness. In short, it was believed that the true purpose of higher education, namely the search for truth and open dialogue, had been terribly twisted.
Impact
The late 1980s began a battle between advocates of new terminology and increased sensitivity toward the multi fold identity groupings constituting a pluralistic society and those who viewed such changes as a dictatorial restraint of freedom of expression and thought. The battle continued well into the twenty-first century. Symbolically, the battle pitted the political left as proponents and the political right as opponents. In reality, “political correctness” was more of an artificial concept than an actual movement; proponents and opponents depended on the particular issue at hand and cut across conservative and liberal ideologies.
By the 1990s, political correctness had become grist for a wide variety of satirical works and media comedy sketches. The concept formed the basis of Bill Maher’s television program Politically Incorrect, which ran on the cable television station Comedy Central from 1993 to 1996 and on American Broadcasting Company (ABC) from 1997 to 2002, as well as an Internet e-magazine entitled Politically Incorrect, published from 1997 to 2000. However, in schools and in the workplace one had to be far more cautious about the words one used. Textbook publishers had to sanitize their publications repeatedly so as to avoid controversy of any kind that might reduce sales, while advertisers had to carefully select words and images so as to avoid product boycotts. The irony of political correctness, critics might point out, is that the fear of upsetting anyone upsets a great many.
During the campaign for the 2016 US presidential elections, Republican candidate Donald Trump was both lauded and heavily criticized for his decidedly non-politically correct language and his proposed policy changes. While many felt, especially during the early months of his campaign, that his statements about Muslims, Mexican immigrants, and women would be his undoing and would result in him dropping out of the race, the effect on many of the American people proved to be the opposite. Many expressed their frustration at the over-focus on political correctness in the United States and that political correctness has taken away people's right to freedom of speech and to speak what many term "uncomfortable truths." Critics of Trump, on the other hand, believe that while the United States may have developed a hypersensitivity to political correctness, Trump's blatant stereotyping and insulting of whole groups of people and religions is rude and frightening.
Bibliography
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Friedman, Marilyn, and Ian Narveson. Political Correctness: For and Against. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995. Print.
Keith, Allan. Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. New York: Cambridge UP, 2006. Print.
Levine, Lawrence W. The Opening of the American Mind. Boston: Beacon, 1997. Print.
McIntyre, Doug. "Can We Handle the Truth About Political Correctness?" Daily News. LA Daily News, 21 May 2016. Web. 23 May 2016.
"'No More Political Correctness' for Trump Supporters." PBS. PBS, 10 Apr. 2016. Web. 23 May 2016.
Ravitch, Diane. The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. New York: Knopf, 2003. Print.