Revision as of 06:06, 23 October 2015 editMr. Magoo and McBarker (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users5,369 edits →1990s: Added asked definition.← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 20:17, 8 January 2025 edit undoA garbage person (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users1,956 edits condensed references and put another in CS1 | ||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|Measures to avoid offense or disadvantage}} | |||
{{Redirect|Politically incorrect|the American television show|Politically Incorrect|other uses|Politically incorrect (disambiguation)}} | |||
{{Redirect2|Politically correct|Politically incorrect|other uses|Politically Correct (disambiguation)|and|Politically Incorrect (disambiguation)}} | |||
{{Redirect|Politically Correct}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date= |
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} | ||
{{Discrimination sidebar|Related}} | |||
{{globalize/US|date=April 2014}} | |||
"'''Political correctness'''" (adjectivally "'''politically correct'''"; commonly abbreviated to '''P.C.''') is a term used to describe language,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/politically-correct|title='politically correct' definition|website=]|access-date=14 March 2016|archive-date=6 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210406011704/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/politically-correct|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/political_correctness|title=Definition of ''political correctness'' in English|publisher=]|access-date=1 January 2017|archive-date=13 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413091703/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/political_correctness}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title='Politically Correct' definition|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politically%20correct|dictionary=]|access-date=7 October 2017|archive-date=20 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020073401/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politically%20correct|url-status=live}}</ref> policies,<ref name=Kohl>{{cite journal|last1=Kohl|first1=Herbert|title= Uncommon Differences: On Political Correctness, Core Curriculum and Democracy in Education|journal=]|date=1992|volume=16|issue=1|pages=1–16|doi=10.1353/uni.0.0216 |s2cid=145173687}}</ref> or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society.<ref name="Gibson">{{cite news|last1=Gibson|first1=Caitlin|title=How 'politically correct' went from compliment to insult|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-politically-correct-went-from-compliment-to-insult/2016/01/13/b1cf5918-b61a-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html|access-date=7 October 2017|agency=]|date=13 January 2016|archive-date=26 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626145017/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-politically-correct-went-from-compliment-to-insult/2016/01/13/b1cf5918-b61a-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Florence">{{cite journal|last1=Florence|first1=Joshua|title=A Phrase in Flux: The History of Political Correctness|journal=]|date=30 October 2015|url=http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/phrase-flux-history-political-correctness/|access-date=7 October 2017|archive-date=22 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822071043/https://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/phrase-flux-history-political-correctness/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Chow>{{cite news|last1=Chow|first1=Kat|title='Politically Correct': The Phrase Has Gone From Wisdom To Weapon|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/12/14/505324427/politically-correct-the-phrase-has-gone-from-wisdom-to-weapon|access-date=7 October 2017|publisher=] (])|date=14 December 2016|archive-date=11 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011171717/https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/12/14/505324427/politically-correct-the-phrase-has-gone-from-wisdom-to-weapon|url-status=live}}</ref> Since the late 1980s, the term has been used to describe a preference for ] and avoidance of language or behavior that can be seen as ], marginalizing, or insulting to groups of people disadvantaged or discriminated against, particularly groups defined by ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. In public discourse and the media,<ref name=Kohl/><ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name=Friedman>{{cite book|last1=Friedman|first1=Marilyn|author-link1=Marilyn Friedman|last2=Narveson|first2=Jan|author-link2=Jan Narveson|title=Political correctness: for and against|date=1995|publisher=]|location=]|isbn=978-0847679867|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lnU9pMbHk0sC|access-date=31 October 2015|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412192444/https://books.google.com/books?id=lnU9pMbHk0sC|url-status=live}}</ref> the term is generally used as a ] with an implication that these policies are excessive or unwarranted.<ref name="Charles-Wartella"/><ref name=Hughes>{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Geoffrey|title=Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TDi-l-bsBZoC|at=|year=2011|publisher=]|isbn=978-1444360295|chapter=Origins of the Phrase|access-date=19 November 2020|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412192446/https://books.google.com/books?id=TDi-l-bsBZoC|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
'''Political correctness''' (adjectivally, '''politically correct''', commonly abbreviated to '''PC''') is an ordinarily{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} ]<ref name=Kohl/><ref name="Perry-1992a"/><ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name="willis"/><ref name="Charles-Wartella"/> term used to describe language, actions, or policies seen as being excessively calculated not to offend or disadvantage any particular group of people in society. The term had only scattered usage prior to the 1990s, usually as an ironic self-description, but entered more mainstream usage in the ] when it was the subject of a series of articles in ].<ref name=Bernstein>{{cite news|last1=Bernstein|first1=Richard|title=IDEAS & TRENDS; The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-rising-hegemony-of-the-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all|publisher=The New York Times|date=October 28, 1990}}</ref><ref name=McFadden1991>{{cite news|last1=McFadden|first1=Robert D.|title=Political Correctness: New Bias Test?|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/05/us/political-correctness-new-bias-test.html|publisher=The New York Times|date=May 5, 1991}}</ref><ref name=Berman1992>{{cite book|last1=Berman|first1=edited by Paul|title=Debating P.C. : the controversy over political correctness on college campuses|date=1992|isbn=0307801780|page=Introduction|url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=6XflI-OaALAC&lpg=PP1&dq=Berman%20Debating%20PC}}</ref><ref name=Heteren1997>{{cite book|last1=Heteren|first1=Annette Gomis van|title=Political correctness in context : the PC controversy in America|date=1997|publisher=Universidad de Almería, Servicio de Publicaciones|location=Almeria|isbn=8482400835|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1qRWJESNbsC|page=148}}</ref><ref name=Smith1999>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Dorothy E.|title=Writing the social : critique, theory, and investigations|date=1999|publisher=University of Toronto press|location=Toronto (Ont.)|isbn=0802081355|page=175|edition=Repr.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XICxNH7EH_MC|accessdate=22 October 2015}}</ref><ref name=Schwartz>{{cite journal|last1=Schwartz|first1=Howard S.|title=Psychodynamics of Political Correctness|journal=Journal of Applied Behavioral Science|date=1997|volume=33 (2)|pages=133–149|url=http://www.sba.oakland.edu/faculty/schwartz/pcjabs.htm|accessdate=21 October 2015}}</ref> The phrase was widely used in the debate about the 1987 book ] by ],<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name=Bloom>{{cite book|last1=Bellow|first1=Allan Bloom ; foreword by Saul|title=The closing of the American mind|date=1988|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=New York|isbn=0671657151|edition=1st Touchstone ed.|url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Closing_of_the_American_Mind.html?id=AMuZvBwfRYMC&redir_esc=y}}</ref><ref name=Robinson2000>{{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=Sally|title=Marked men white masculinity in crisis|date=2000|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=023150036X|pages=17, 55–86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fA5eFUAO_AC}}</ref> and gained further currency in response to conservative author ],<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name=Robinson2000/> who condemned what he saw as liberal efforts to advance ] through language, ] and changes to the content of school and university curriculums.<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name="Charles-Wartella"/><ref name="D'Souza1992">{{cite book|last=D'Souza|first=Dinesh|title=Illiberal Education: Political Correctness and the College Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FPX5eqTQd8C|year=1992|publisher=John m Ashbrook Center for Public|isbn=978-1-878802-08-8}}</ref><ref name="Wilson"/> | |||
The phrase ''politically correct'' first appeared in the 1930s, when it was used to describe dogmatic adherence to ideology in ], such as ] and ].<ref name=Gibson /> Early usage of the term ''politically correct'' by ] in the 1970s and 1980s was as self-critical ];<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/> usage was ironic, rather than a name for a serious ].<ref name="Perry-1992a"/><ref name=SchultzPerry>Schultz citing Perry (1992) p. 16</ref><ref name="willis"/> It was considered an in-joke among leftists used to satirise those who were too rigid in their adherence to political ].<ref name=Hall/> The modern pejorative usage of the term emerged from ] criticism of the ] in the late 20th century, with many describing it as a form of ].<ref name="Ford">{{cite thesis |last=Ford |first=Becky R. |date=2017 |title=An Empirical Test of the Effects of Political Correctness: Implications for Censorship, Self-Censorship, and Public Deliberation |publication-place=University of California, Santa Barbara |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/12f562b0#author |access-date=11 June 2022 |archive-date=11 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611071318/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/12f562b0#author |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Scholars on the political left have said that ] and ] pushed the term in order to divert attention from more substantive matters of discrimination and as part of a broader ] against ].<ref name="Wilson"/><ref name="Messer–Davidow"/><ref name="Hutton"/> They have also said that conservatives have their own forms of political correctness, which are generally ignored.<ref name="WilsonConservativeCorrectness"/><ref name="DonWilliams"/><ref name="Krugman"/> | |||
Commentators on the ] contend that conservatives use the concept of political correctness to downplay and divert attention from substantively discriminatory behavior against disadvantaged groups.<ref name="Wilson"/><ref name="Messer–Davidow"/><ref name="mink">{{cite news|last1=Mink|first1=Eric|title=Trump's Political-Correctness Con Job|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-mink/trumps-political-correctn_b_12316240.html|work=]|access-date=8 November 2016|date=6 October 2016|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019083630/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-mink/trumps-political-correctn_b_12316240.html|url-status=live}}</ref> They also argue that the ] enforces its own forms of political correctness to suppress criticism of its favored constituencies and ideologies.<ref name="WilsonConservativeCorrectness">"Conservative Correctness" chapter, in Wilson, John. 1995. ''.'' Durham, North Carolina: ]. p. 57.</ref><ref name=DonWilliams>{{cite web |url=http://www.mach2.com/williams/index.php?t=1&c=20060602120901 |title=Don Williams comments – Dixie Chicks Were Right |access-date=20 May 2017 |website=mach2.com |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402132346/http://www.mach2.com/williams/index.php?t=1&c=20060602120901 }}</ref><ref name="Krugman">{{cite news|last=Krugman|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Krugman|title=The New Political Correctness|url=https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/the-new-political-correctness/|access-date=17 February 2013|newspaper=]|date=26 May 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130327082408/https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/the-new-political-correctness/|archive-date=27 March 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> In the United States, the term has played a major role in the ] between ] and ].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-personality-of-political-correctness/|title=The Personality of Political Correctness; The idea of political correctness is central to the culture wars of American politics|last=Kaufman|first=Scott Barry|date=20 November 2016|work=]|access-date=2 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927222216/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-personality-of-political-correctness/|archive-date=27 September 2019}}</ref> | |||
==History== | ==History== | ||
The term "politically correct" was used infrequently in the U.S. until the latter part of the 20th century, and its earlier use did not communicate the social disapproval inherent in more recent usage. In 1793, the term "politically correct" appeared in a ] judgment of a political-lawsuit.<ref>In the 18th century, the term "politically correct" occurs in the case of '']'', 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419 (1793), wherein the term meant "in line with prevailing political thought or policy". In that legal case, the term ''correct'' was applied literally, with no reference to socially offensive language; thus the comments of Associate Justice ], of the U.S. Supreme Court: "The states, rather than the People, for whose sakes the States exist, are frequently the objects which attract and arrest our principal attention... Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language. Is a toast asked? 'The United States', instead of the 'People of the United States', is the toast given. This is not politically correct." ''Findlaw.com'' – Accessed 6 February 2007.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last= Flower|first=Newmas|title=The Journals of Arnold Bennett|publisher=READ BOOKS, |year=2006|isbn=978-1-4067-1047-2|url=https://books.google.com/?id=kRJblj1e4zsC&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&dq=%22Political+correctness%22+%22arnold+bennett%22}}</ref> ] states that the first recorded use of the term in the modern sense is by ] in the 1970 ] ''The Black Woman''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Safire|first1=William|authorlink=William Safire|title=Safire's political dictionary|date=2008|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press|location=New York |isbn=0195343344|edition=Rev.}}</ref> The term probably entered use in the United Kingdom around 1975.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Geoffrey|title=Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Zzw9WabmmVwC|at=""|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-6029-5|chapter=Origins of the Phrase|chapterurl=https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=Zzw9WabmmVwC&pg=PT48&dq=%22origins+of+the+phrase%22}}</ref> | |||
===Early-to-mid 20th century=== | ===Early-to-mid 20th century=== | ||
{{Main|Party line (politics)}} | |||
In the early-to-mid 20th century, the phrase "politically correct" was associated with the ] application of ] doctrine, debated between ] Party members and ]. This usage referred to the Communist ], which provided for "correct" positions on many matters of politics. According to American educator ], writing about debates in New York in the late 1940s and early 1950s, | |||
In the early-to-mid 20th century, the phrase ''politically correct'' was used to describe strict adherence to a range of ideological orthodoxies within politics. In 1934, '']'' reported that Nazi Germany was granting reporting permits "only to pure 'Aryans' whose opinions are politically correct".<ref name=Gibson /> | |||
The term ''political correctness'' first appeared in Marxist–Leninist vocabulary following the Russian Revolution of 1917. At that time, it was used to describe strict adherence to the policies and principles of the ], that is, the ].<ref name="EBPC">{{cite web |title=political correctness |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-correctness |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=9 April 2022 |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407080901/https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-correctness |url-status=live }}</ref> Later in the United States, the phrase came to be associated with accusations of ] in debates between communists and socialists. According to American educator ], writing about debates in New York in the late 1940s and early 1950s. | |||
{{Quote|The term "politically correct" was used disparagingly, to refer to someone whose loyalty to the CP line overrode compassion, and led to bad politics. It was used by Socialists against Communists, and was meant to separate out Socialists who believed in egalitarian moral ideas from dogmatic Communists who would advocate and defend party positions regardless of their moral substance.|"Uncommon Differences"|The Lion and the Unicorn Journal<ref name=Kohl>{{cite web|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/uni/summary/v016/16.1.kohl.html|title=Project MUSE - Uncommon Differences: On Political Correctness, Core Curriculum and Democracy in Education|work=jhu.edu}}</ref>}} | |||
{{blockquote|The term "politically correct" was used disparagingly, to refer to someone whose loyalty to the CP line overrode compassion, and led to bad politics. It was used by Socialists against Communists, and was meant to separate out Socialists who believed in egalitarian moral ideas from dogmatic Communists who would advocate and defend party positions regardless of their moral substance.|"Uncommon Differences"|'']''<ref name=Kohl/>}} | |||
In March 1968, the French philosopher ] is quoted as saying: "a political thought can be politically correct ('politiquement correcte') only if it is scientifically painstaking", referring to leftist intellectuals attempting to make Marxism scientifically rigorous rather than relying on orthodoxy.<ref name=FOUCAULT>{{cite journal|last1=Foucault|first1=Michel|title=Foucault répond à Sartre|journal=La Quinzaine littéraire|date=March 1968|issue=46|url=http://1libertaire.free.fr/MFoucault419.html|accessdate=15 January 2015}}</ref> | |||
===1970s=== | ===1970s=== | ||
{{Main|New Left}} | |||
In the 1970s, the ] began using the term "politically correct",<ref name="Perry-1992a">Ruth Perry, (1992), "A Short History of the Term 'Politically Correct'", in ''Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding'', by Patricia Aufderheide, 1992</ref> in the essay ''The Black Woman: An Anthology'' (1970), ] said that "a man cannot be politically correct and a chauvinist]], too." Thereafter, the term was often used as self-critical ], Debra L. Shultz said that "throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the New Left, ], and ]... used their term 'politically correct' ironically, as a guard against their own orthodoxy in social change efforts."<ref name="Perry-1992a"/><ref name="Schultz-1993a">{{cite web |first=Debra L. |last=Schultz |year=1993 |title=To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the 'Political Correctness' Debates in Higher Education |work= New York: National Council for Research on Women |url=http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/13/34/5d.pdf |format=PDF}}</ref><ref>Schultz citing Perry (1992) p.16</ref> As such, PC is a popular usage in the comic book ''Merton of the Movement'', by ], which then was followed by the term ''ideologically sound'', in the comic strips of ].<ref name="Perry-1992a" /><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3027/a_politically_correct_lexicon/ |title=A Politically Correct Lexicon |journal=In These Times |author=Joel Bleifuss |date=February 2007}}</ref> In her essay "Toward a feminist Revolution" (1992) ] said: "In the early eighties, when feminists used the term 'political correctness', it was used to refer sarcastically to the ]'s efforts to define a 'feminist sexuality.' "<ref name="willis">Ellen Willis, "Toward a Feminist Revolution", in ''No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays'' (1992) Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-8195-5250-X, p. 19.</ref> | |||
In the 1970s, the American ] began using the term ''politically correct''.<ref name="Perry-1992a">Ruth Perry, (1992), "A Short History of the Term 'Politically Correct'", in ''Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding'', by Patricia Aufderheide, 1992, {{ISBN|978-1555971649}}</ref> In the essay ''The Black Woman: An Anthology'' (1970), ] said that "a man cannot be politically correct and a chauvinist]], too". ] records this as the first use in the typical modern sense.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Safire |first1=William |url=https://archive.org/details/safirespolitical00safi |title=Safire's political dictionary |date=2008 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0195343342 |edition=Rev. |location=New York |author-link=William Safire |url-access=registration}}</ref> The term ''political correctness'' was believed to have been revived by the New Left through familiarity in the West with ], in which ] stressed holding to the correct party line. The term rapidly began to be used by the New Left in an ironic or self-deprecating sense.<ref>{{cite book |last= Hughes |first= Geoffrey|date=2011 |title=Political Correctness A History of Semantics and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zzw9WabmmVwC&dq=political+correctness+communist+party&pg=PT49 |publisher= Wiley |isbn=9781444360295}}</ref> | |||
Thereafter, the term was often used as self-critical ]. Debra L. Shultz said that "throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the New Left, ], and ]... used their term 'politically correct' ironically, as a guard against their own orthodoxy in social change efforts".<ref name="Schultz-1993a">{{Cite book |first=Debra L. |last=Schultz |year=1993 |title=To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the 'Political Correctness' Debates in Higher Education |location=New York |publisher=National Council for Research on Women |isbn=978-1880547137 |url=http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED364170.pdf |access-date=28 March 2016 |archive-date=10 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310085256/http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED364170.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Perry-1992a"/><ref name=SchultzPerry/> ''PC'' is used in the comic book ''Merton of the Movement'', by ], which was followed by the term ''ideologically sound'', in the comic strips of ].<ref name="Perry-1992a" /><ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3027/a_politically_correct_lexicon/ |title=A Politically Correct Lexicon |journal=] |first=Joel |last=Bleifuss |date=February 2007 |access-date=20 March 2010 |archive-date=29 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629085359/http://inthesetimes.com/article/3027/a_politically_correct_lexicon/ }}</ref> In her essay "Toward a feminist Revolution" (1992) ] said, "In the early eighties, when feminists used the term 'political correctness', it was used to refer sarcastically to the ]'s efforts to define a 'feminist sexuality'."<ref name="willis">]. "Toward a Feminist Revolution", in ''No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays'' (1992) ], {{ISBN|081955250X}}, p. 19.</ref> | |||
] suggests one way in which the original use of the term may have developed into the modern one: | ] suggests one way in which the original use of the term may have developed into the modern one: | ||
{{ |
{{blockquote|According to one version, political correctness actually began as an in-joke on the left: radical students on American campuses acting out an ironic replay of the Bad Old Days BS (Before the Sixties) when every revolutionary groupuscule had a party line about everything. They would address some glaring examples of sexist or racist behaviour by their fellow students in imitation of the tone of voice of the Red Guards or Cultural Revolution Commissar: "Not very 'politically correct', Comrade!"<ref name=Hall>{{cite web |first=Stuart |last=Hall |author-link=Stuart Hall (cultural theorist) |year=1994 |url=http://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf |title=Some 'Politically Incorrect' Pathways Through PC |work=S. Dunant (ed.) The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate |pages=164–84 |access-date=30 May 2013 |archive-date=19 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719135226/https://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/hall/some%20politically%20incorrect%20pathways.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>}} | ||
===1980s=== | ===1980s and 1990s=== | ||
]'s '']'', a book first published in 1987,<ref name=Bloom/> heralded a debate about "political correctness" in American higher education in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name=Robinson2000/><ref name=Kamiya>{{cite journal|last1=Kamiya|first1=Gary|title=Civilization & Its Discontents|journal=]|date=22 January 1995|url=http://www.sfgate.com/magazine/article/Civilization-Its-Discontents-3152155.php|access-date=16 November 2015|archive-date=28 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228042025/https://www.sfgate.com/magazine/article/Civilization-Its-Discontents-3152155.php|url-status=live}}</ref> Professor of English literary and cultural studies at ] Jeffrey J. Williams wrote that the "assault on ... political correctness that simmered through the Reagan years, gained bestsellerdom with Bloom's ''Closing of the American Mind''".<ref name=Williams>{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Jeffrey|title=PC Wars: Politics and Theory in the Academy|date=2013|publisher=]|isbn=978-1136656231|page=11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VaVlAgAAQBAJ|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010142522/https://books.google.com/books?id=VaVlAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Z.F. Gamson, Bloom's book "attacked the faculty for 'political correctness'".<ref name=Gamson>{{cite journal |last1= Gamson|first1=Z.F.|title=The Stratification of the Academy|journal= Social Text|date= 1997|volume=51|issue=51|pages=67–73|doi=10.2307/466647|jstor=466647}}</ref> Prof. of Social Work at ] Tony Platt says the "campaign against 'political correctness'" was launched by Bloom's book in 1987.<ref name=Platt>{{cite journal|last1=Platt|first1=Tony|title=Desegregating Multiculturalism: Problems in the Theory and Pedagogy of Diversity Education|journal=Pedagogies for Social Change|via=]|volume=29|issue=4 (90)|url=http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/archive/90_29_4/90_04Platt.pdf|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=7 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007175758/http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/archive/90_29_4/90_04Platt.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
An October 1990 '']'' article by ] is credited with popularizing the term.<ref name=Berman1992/><ref name=Smith1999/><ref name=Schwartz/><ref name=Crossroads>{{cite book|editor-last1=Valdes|editor-first1=Francisco|editor-last2=Culp|editor-first2=Jerome McCristal|editor-last3=Harris|editor-first3=Angela P.|title=Crossroads, directions, and a new critical race theory|date=2002|publisher=]|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-1566399302|pages=59, 65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCedxQu542UC|access-date=21 October 2015|archive-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730022119/https://books.google.com/books?id=dCedxQu542UC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Browne">Browne, Anthony (2006). " {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503050240/http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/Browne_cs47.php|date=3 May 2014}}". Civitas. {{ISBN|1903386500}}.</ref> At this time, the term was mainly being used within academia: "Across the country the term p.c., as it is commonly abbreviated, is being heard more and more in debates over what should be taught at the universities."<ref name=Bernstein/> ] citations in "arcnews/curnews" reveal only seventy total citations in articles to "political correctness" for 1990; but one year later, Nexis records 1,532 citations, with a steady increase to more than 7,000 citations by 1994.<ref name=Crossroads/><ref name=Cho>{{cite journal|last1=Cho|first1=Sumi|title=Essential Politics|journal=]|date=1997 |volume= 433}}</ref> In May 1991, ''The New York Times'' had a follow-up article, according to which the term was increasingly being used in a wider public arena: | |||
1987 saw the publication of ] ],<ref name=Bloom/> Synopsis accompanying the 1988 ] republication: "Bloom argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are part of a larger intellectual crisis: the result of a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites."<ref name=SS>{{cite web|title = The Closing of the American Mind|url=http://books.simonandschuster.com/Closing-of-the-American-Mind/Andrew-Ferguson/9781451683202|website=simonandschuster|publisher=Simon and Schuster}}</ref> ] called it "an extraordinary meditation on the fate of liberal education in this country."<ref>''New York Times''. Arts. "The Groves of Ignorance". April 5, 1987. url: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4DC1131F936A35757C0A961948260</ref> ] wrote that Closing was a morally corrupt book that “decent people would be ashamed of having written.”<ref name=Liel>{{cite web|last1=Leibovitz|first1=Liel|title=RE-OPENING THE AMERICAN MIND|url=http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/96601/allan-bloom|publisher=Tablet}}</ref> Many critics have pointed to it as the likely beginning of the modern debate.<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name=Robinson2000/> ] wrote in 1988: "'The Closing of the American Mind' has provoked a fantastic amount of debate. Even now, 10 months after its publication, large-scale attacks continue unabated."<ref name="NYT2">{{cite news| last = Atlas| first = James| title = CHICAGO'S GRUMPY GURU| work = New York Times| accessdate = 2008-05-08| date = 1988-01-03| url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DB153EF930A35752C0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all}}</ref> Critic ] called it "the first shot in the culture wars."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/july97/columnists/paglia2970722.html|title=Ask Camille|date=July 1997|publisher=]|accessdate=2008-05-09|last=Paglia |first=Camille| archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20080411071450/http://www.salon.com/july97/columnists/paglia2970722.html| archivedate= 11 April 2008}}</ref> | |||
{{blockquote|What has come to be called "political correctness", a term that began to gain currency at the start of the academic year last fall, has spread in recent months and has become the focus of an angry national debate, mainly on campuses, but also in the larger arenas of American life.|Robert D. McFadden, "Political Correctness: New Bias Test?", 1991<ref name=McFadden1991 />}} | |||
The first articles on political correctness appeared towards the end of the 1980's. Mass media use of the term is generally attributed to journalist ]'s series of articles for ] between 1988 and 1990.<ref name=Berman1992/><ref name=Heteren1997/><ref name=Schwartz/><ref name=Weir>{{cite book|last1=Richer|first1=edited by Stephen|last2=Weir|first2=Lorna|title=Milton and the puritan dilemma, 1641-1660.|date=1942|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=0802050255|page=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kVobAQAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref name=Crossroads>{{cite book|last1=Valdes|first1=edited by Francisco|last2=Culp,|first2=Jerome McCristal|last3=Harris|first3=Angela P.|title=Crossroads, directions, and a new critical race theory|date=2002|publisher=Temple University Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=1566399300|pages=59, 65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCedxQu542UC}}</ref> But Lorna Weir, in a word search on the database Infomart of six "regionally representative Canadian metropolitan newspapers," found no less than 153 articles in which the terms "politically correct" or "political correctness" appeared between January 1, 1987 and October 27, 1990.<ref name=Heteren1997/><ref name=Weir/> | |||
The previously obscure far-left term became common currency in the lexicon of the conservative social and political challenges against ] and curriculum changes in the secondary schools and universities of the U.S.<ref name="Charles-Wartella">{{cite journal | title=Media Coverage of the "Political Correctness" Debate |last1=Whitney |first1=D. Charles |last2=Wartella |first2=Ellen |name-list-style=amp | journal=] | year=1992 | volume=42 | issue=2 |pages=83 | doi = 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1992.tb00780.x }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|D'Souza|1991}}, {{harvnb|Berman|1992}}, {{harvnb|Schultz|1993}}, {{harvnb|Messer-Davidow|1995}}, {{harvnb|Scatamburlo|1998}}</ref> Policies, behavior, and speech codes that the speaker or the writer regarded as being the imposition of a liberal orthodoxy, were described and criticized as "politically correct".<ref name="Wilson"/> In May 1991, at a commencement ceremony for a graduating class of the University of Michigan, then U.S. President ] used the term in his speech: "The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones. It declares certain topics off-limits, certain expression off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits."<ref>], at the ] (4 May 1991), {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040516105827/http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1991/91050401.html |date=16 May 2004 }}, 4 May 1991. ].</ref><ref> | |||
===1990s=== | |||
{{cite book|last=Aufderheide|first=Patricia|title=Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding|date=1992|publisher=]|location=Saint Paul, Minn.|isbn=978-1555971649|page=|url=https://archive.org/details/beyondpctowardpo00aufd/page/227}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Meaghan|first1=Morris|title=New Keywords a Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society.|date=2013|publisher=]|location=]|isbn=978-1118725412|url=http://www.springerin.at/dyn/heft_text.php?textid=1599&lang=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118005632/http://www.springerin.at/dyn/heft_text.php?textid=1599&lang=en|archive-date=18 November 2015}}</ref> | |||
After 1991, its use as a pejorative phrase became widespread amongst conservatives in the US.<ref name="Charles-Wartella"/> It became a key term encapsulating conservative concerns about the left in cultural and political debates extending beyond academia. Two articles on the topic in late 1990 in '']'' and '']'' both used the term "]" in their headlines, exemplifying the tone of the new usage, but it was Dinesh D'Souza's ''Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus'' (1991) which "captured the press's imagination".<ref name="Charles-Wartella"/> These trends were at least in part a response to multiculturalism and the rise of ], with movements such as feminism, gay rights movements and ethnic minority movements. That response received funding from conservative foundations and think tanks such as the ], which funded several books such as D'Souza's.<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name="Wilson">Wilson, John. 1995. ''.'' Durham, North Carolina: ]. p. 26.</ref> | |||
The 1990 ] article by Richard Bernstein is described as influential to the term:<ref name=Smith1999/><ref name=Schwartz/><ref name=Crossroads/>{{clarify|influental in disseminating the term?|date=October 2015}} ] citations in "arcnews/curnews" reveal only seventy total citations in articles to "political correctness" for all of 1990; but one year later, after the Bernstein article, Nexis records more than 1500 citations, with a steady increase to more than 7000 citations by 1994.<ref name=Crossroads/> The New York Times had a follow-up on the topic in 1991, and the difference between two quotes from the articles showcases how the term was increasingly being used in a wider public arena: | |||
{{quote|Across the country the term p.c., as it is commonly abbreviated, is being heard more and more in debates over what should be taught at the universities.|"Ideas & Trends; The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct" - Richard Bernstein<ref name=Bernstein/>}} | |||
{{quote|What has come to be called "political correctness," a term that began to gain currency at the start of the academic year last fall, has spread in recent months and has become the focus of an angry national debate, mainly on campuses, but also in the larger arenas of American life.|"Political Correctness: New Bias Test?" - Robert D. McFadden<ref name=McFadden1991/>}} | |||
], in 1992, commented that a number of ] who promoted the use of the term "politically correct" in the early 1990s were former ] members, and, as a result, familiar with the ] use of the phrase. He argued that in doing so, they intended "to insinuate that egalitarian democratic ideas are actually authoritarian, orthodox, and Communist-influenced, when they oppose the right of people to be racist, sexist, and homophobic".<ref name="Kohl"/> | |||
The previously obscure term became common-currency in the lexicon of the ] social and political challenges against ] teaching methods and curriculum changes in the secondary schools and universities of the U.S.<ref>D'Souza 1991; Berman 1992; Schultz 1993; Messer Davidow 1993, 1994; Scatamburlo 1998</ref> In 1991, at a commencement ceremony for a graduating class of the University of Michigan, the then U.S. President ] spoke out against: "... a movement declare certain topics 'off-limits', certain expressions 'off-limits', even certain gestures 'off-limits'..."<ref>U.S. President H.W. Bush, at the University of Michigan (4 May 1991), , 4 May 1991. George Bush Presidential Library.</ref> | |||
During the 1990s, conservative and ] politicians, think tanks, and speakers adopted the phrase as a pejorative descriptor of their ideological enemies, especially in the context of the ] about ] and the content of public-school curricula. ], in ''Tenured Radicals'', endorsed ]'s view that PC is best described as "Left Eclecticism", a term defined by Kimball as "any of a wide variety of anti-establishment modes of thought from structuralism and poststructuralism, deconstruction, and Lacanian analyst to feminist, homosexual, black, and other patently political forms of criticism".<ref name=Kimball/><ref name=Williams/> | |||
In 1990s, the term was adopted by the right, with its use as a pejorative phrase becoming widespread in 1991.<ref name="Charles-Wartella">{{cite journal | title=Media Coverage of the "Political Correctness" Debate | author=Whitney, D. Charles and Wartella, Ellen | journal=Journal of Communication | year=1992 | volume=42 | issue=2 | doi = 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1992.tb00780.x }}</ref> It became a key term encapsulating conservative concerns about the left in academia in particular, and in culture and political debate more broadly. Two articles on the topic in late 1990 in '']'' and '']'' both used the term "]" in their headlines, exemplifying the tone of the new usage, but it was ]'s ''Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus'' (1991) which "captured the press's imagination."<ref name="Charles-Wartella"/>{{clarify | date = October 2015 | reason = The source also mentions Bloom and the NYT article, so why is D'Souza being singled out?}} Similar terminology was used by D'Souza for a range of policies in academia around supporting ] through ], sanctions against anti-minority ], and revising curricula (sometimes referred to as "canon busting").<ref name="Charles-Wartella"/><ref>In ''The New York Times'' newspaper article "The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct", the reporter ] said that: {{Quote|The term "politically correct", with its suggestion of Stalinist orthodoxy, is spoken more with irony and disapproval than with reverence. But, across the country the term "P.C.", as it is commonly abbreviated, is being heard more and more in debates over what should be taught at the universities.|The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct, NYT (28 October 1990) {{Cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-rising-hegemony-of-the-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all |title=IDEAS & TRENDS; The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct – The New York Times|work= |accessdate= 22 May 2010|first=Richard|last=Bernstein|date=28 October 1990}}}} Bernstein also reported about a meeting of the Western Humanities Conference in Berkeley, California, on the subject of ''"Political Correctness" and Cultural Studies'' that examined "what effect the pressure to conform to currently fashionable ideas is having on scholarship". </ref> These trends were at least in part a response to ] and the rise of ], with movements such as feminism, gay rights movements and ethnic minority movements. That response received funding from conservative foundations and think tanks such as the ], which funded several books such as D'Souza's.<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name="Wilson">Wilson, John. 1995. ''.'' Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p26</ref> | |||
Liberal commentators have argued that the conservatives and reactionaries who used the term did so in an effort to divert political discussion away from the substantive matters of resolving societal discrimination,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lauter |first=Paul |date=1993 |title='Political Correctness' and the Attack on American Colleges |journal=The Radical Teacher |issue=44 |pages=34–40 |jstor=20709784 |issn=0191-4847}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Axtell |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ca6-q60ig5kC |title=The Pleasures of Academe: A Celebration & Defense of Higher Education |date=1998-01-01 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-1049-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Soldiers of Misfortune: The New Right's Culture War and the Politics of Political Correctness |url=https://archive.org/details/soldiersofmisfor0000scat |url-access=registration |first=Valerie L. |last=Scatamburlo |date=1998 |location=New York|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=9780820430126 }}</ref> such as ], ], ], and legal inequality, against people whom conservatives do not consider part of the social mainstream.<ref name="Schultz-1993a" /><ref name="Messer–Davidow">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Messer-Davidow |first=E. |date=1995 |title=Manufacturing the Attack on Liberalized Higher Education: The Humanities and Society in the 1990s |editor-first1=C. |editor-last1=Newfield |editor-first2=R. |editor-last2=Strickland |encyclopedia=After Political Correctness: The Humanities and Society in the 1990s |pages=38-78 |publisher=Westview}} | |||
], in 1992, commented that a number of ] who promoted the use of the term "politically correct" in the early 1990s were former ] members, and, as a result, familiar with the ] use of the phrase. He argued that in doing so, they intended "to insinuate that egalitarian democratic ideas are actually authoritarian, orthodox and Communist-influenced, when they oppose the right of people to be racist, sexist, and homophobic."<ref name="Kohl"/> | |||
</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, & So Much More |first=Barry |last=Glassner |date=5 January 2010 }}</ref> ] wrote that "that phrase was born to live between scare-quotes: it suggests that the operative considerations in the area so called are ''merely'' political, steamrolling the genuine reasons of principle for which we ought to be acting...".<ref name=Friedman/> Commenting in 2001, one such British journalist,<ref name="Tomlinson, Race And Education: Policy And Politics In Britain, p. 161.">{{cite book|last1=Tomlinson|first1=Sally|title=Race and education: policy and politics in Britain|date=2008|publisher=]|location=Maidenhead |isbn=978-0335223077|page=161|edition=.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-0jqaa-73mgC&pg=PA161|access-date=5 October 2015|archive-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730112845/https://books.google.com/books?id=-0jqaa-73mgC&pg=PA161|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Paying Our High Public Officials: Evaluating the Political Justifications of Top Wages in the Public Sector, p. 119">{{cite book|last1=Dekker|first1=Teun J.|title=Paying Our High Public Officials: Evaluating the Political Justifications of Top Wages in the Public Sector|date=2013|publisher=]|series=Research in Public Administration and Public Policy|isbn=978-1135131265|page=119|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bx9h0XuYSlUC&pg=PA119|access-date=16 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010134734/https://books.google.com/books?id=bx9h0XuYSlUC&pg=PA119|url-status=live}}</ref> ], said "the phrase is an empty, right-wing smear, designed only to elevate its user",<ref>]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070811125942/http://society.guardian.co.uk/regeneration/comment/0,7941,617436,00.html |date=11 August 2007 }}, '']'', 12 December 2001 – Accessed 6 February 2007.</ref> and in 2010 she wrote "the phrase 'political correctness' was born as a coded cover for all who still want to say '']'', '']'', or '']''".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/28/toynbee-equality-bill-welfare|work=]|location=London|title=This Bold Equality Push is just what We Needed. In 1997|first=Polly|last=Toynbee|author-link=Polly Toynbee|date=28 April 2009|access-date=22 May 2010|archive-date=5 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105201608/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/28/toynbee-equality-bill-welfare|url-status=live}}</ref> Another British journalist, ],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Albrow|first1=Martin|title=The global age state and society beyond modernity|date=1997|publisher=]|location=Stanford, Calif.|isbn=978-0804728706|pages=215|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwmdxMMjOd4C&pg=PA215|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729144344/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwmdxMMjOd4C&pg=PA215|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The Economist: Will Hutton, p. 81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbtIAAAAYAAJ|newspaper=]|publisher=]|date=2002|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010141432/https://books.google.com/books?id=tbtIAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gyuris|first1=Ferenc|title=The Political Discourse of Spatial Disparities Geographical Inequalities Between Science and Propaganda|date=2014|publisher=]|location=Cham|isbn=978-3319015088|pages=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzG8BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=20 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920144856/https://books.google.com/books?id=BzG8BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hutton|first1=Will|author-link=Will Hutton|title=How Good We Can Be: Ending the Mercenary Society and Building a Great Country|date=2015|isbn=978-1408705322|publisher=]|page=80|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=01fXBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT80|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=19 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919151104/https://books.google.com/books?id=01fXBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT80|url-status=live}}</ref> wrote in 2001:<ref>]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131211145/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,619644,00.html |date=31 January 2008 }} '']'', Sunday 16 December 2001 – Accessed 6 February 2007.</ref> | |||
{{blockquote|Political correctness is one of the brilliant tools that the American Right developed in the mid–1980s, as part of its demolition of American liberalism.... What the sharpest thinkers on the American Right saw quickly was that by declaring war on the cultural manifestations of liberalism – by levelling the charge of "political correctness" against its exponents – they could discredit the whole political project.|], "Words Really are Important, Mr Blunkett", 2001}} | |||
Mainstream usages of the term ''politically correct'', and its derivatives – "political correctness" and "PC" – began in the 1990s, when ] politicians, think-tanks, and speakers adopted the phrase as a pejorative descriptor of their ideological enemies – especially in the context of the ]s about ] and the content of public-school curricula. Policies, behavior, and speech codes that the speaker or the writer regarded as being the imposition of a liberal orthodoxy, were described and criticized as "politically correct".<ref name="Wilson"/> ] wrote that "that phrase was born to live between scare-quotes: it suggests that the operative considerations in the area so called are ''merely'' political, steamrolling the genuine reasons of principle for which we ought to be acting..."<ref>] (1995), "Politics, Ethics, and Political Correctness", in Friedman, Marilyn and Narveson, Jan (1995), ''Political correctness: for and against'', Rowman & Littlefield. p47</ref> | |||
] wrote in 1994 that to address the subject of "political correctness" when power and authority within the academic community is being contested by parties on either side of that issue, is to invite scrutiny of one's arguments by would-be "friends" and "enemies". Combatants from the left and the right will try to assess whether a writer is "for them" or "against them".<ref name=Loury>{{cite journal|url= http://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/Glenn_Loury/louryhomepage/papers/Loury_Political_Correctness.pdf|last1=Loury|first1=G. C.|author-link=Glenn Loury|title=Self-Censorship in Public Discourse: A Theory of "Political Correctness" and Related Phenomena|journal=]|date=1 October 1994|volume=6|issue=4|pages=428–61|doi= 10.1177/1043463194006004002|s2cid=143057168|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151123003439/http://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/Glenn_Loury/louryhomepage/papers/Loury_Political_Correctness.pdf|archive-date=23 November 2015}}</ref> Geoffrey Hughes suggested that debate over political correctness concerns whether changing language actually solves political and social problems, with critics viewing it less about solving problems than imposing censorship, intellectual intimidation and demonstrating the moral purity of those who practice it. Hughes also argues that political correctness tends to be pushed by a minority rather than an organic form of language change.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Geoffrey|year=2015|title=An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World|publisher=Routledge|pages=348–349}}</ref> | |||
] commentators have argued that the conservatives and reactionaries who used the term did so in effort to divert political discussion away from the substantive matters of resolving societal discrimination – such as ], ], ], and legal inequality – against people whom the right-wing do not consider part of the social mainstream.<ref name="Schultz-1993a" /><ref name="Messer–Davidow">{{cite journal |last=Messer-Davidow |first=Ellen |date=1995 |title=Manufacturing the Attack on Liberalized Higher Education: The Humanities and Society in the 1990s |access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="Lauter">{{cite journal |last=Lauter |first=Paul |date=1993 |title='Political Correctness' and the Attack on American Colleges |access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="Stimpson">{{cite journal |first=Catharine R. |last=Stimpson |title=New 'Politically Correct' Metaphors Insult History and Our Campuses. |date=May 29, 1991 |access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="Axtell">{{cite book |first=Axtell |last=James |title=The Pleasures of Academe: A Celebration & Defense of Higher Education |date=1998 |access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="Scatamburlo">{{cite book |title=Soldiers of Misfortune: The New Right's Culture War and the Politics of Political Correctness |first=Valerie L. |last=Scatamburlo |date=1998 |access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="Glassner">{{cite book |title=The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, & So Much More |first=Barry |last=Glassner |date=Jan 5, 2010 |access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref> Commenting in 2001, one such British journalist,<ref name="Tomlinson, Race And Education: Policy And Politics In Britain, p. 161.">{{cite book|last1=Tomlinson|first1=Sally|title=Race and education : policy and politics in Britain|date=2008|publisher=Open Univ. Press|location=Maidenhead |isbn=0335223079|pages=161|edition=.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-0jqaa-73mgC&pg=PA161}}</ref><ref name="Paying Our High Public Officials: Evaluating the Political Justifications of Top Wages in the Public Sector, p. 119">{{cite book|last1=Dekker|first1=Teun J.|title=Paying Our High Public Officials: Evaluating the Political Justifications of Top Wages in the Public Sector|date=2013|publisher=Routledge Research in Public Administration and Public Policy|isbn=1135131260|pages=119|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bx9h0XuYSlUC&pg=PA119}}</ref> ], said "the phrase is an empty, right-wing smear, designed only to elevate its user", and, in 2010 "...the phrase "political correctness" was born as a coded cover for all who still want to say '']'', '']'', or '']''..."<ref name="Tomlinson, Race And Education: Policy And Politics In Britain, p. 161."/><ref name="Paying Our High Public Officials: Evaluating the Political Justifications of Top Wages in the Public Sector, p. 119"/><ref>Polly Toynbee, , ''The Guardian'', Sunday 12 December 2001 – Accessed 6 February 2007.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/28/toynbee-equality-bill-welfare|work=The Guardian|location=London|title=This Bold Equality Push is just what We Needed. In 1997|first=Polly|last=Toynbee|date=28 April 2009|accessdate=22 May 2010}}</ref> Another British journalist, ],<ref name="How Good We Can Be: Ending the Mercenary Society and Building a Great Country, p. 80">{{cite book|last1=Hutton|first1=Will|title=How Good We Can Be: Ending the Mercenary Society and Building a Great Country|date=2015|ISBN=140870532X|publisher=Hachette UK|page=80|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=01fXBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT80}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Albrow|first1=Martin|title=The global age state and society beyond modernity|date=1997|publisher=Stanford Univ. Press|location=Stanford, Calif.|isbn=0804728704|pages=215|edition=1st ed.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwmdxMMjOd4C&pg=PA215}}</ref><ref name="The Economist: Will Hutton, p. 81">{{cite news|title=The Economist: Will Hutton, p. 81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbtIAAAAYAAJ|agency=The Economist|publisher=Economist Newspaper Limited|date=2002}}</ref><ref name="The Political Discourse of Spatial Disparities Geographical Inequalities Between Science and Propaganda, p. 68">{{cite book|last1=Gyuris|first1=Ferenc|title=The Political Discourse of Spatial Disparities Geographical Inequalities Between Science and Propaganda|date=2014|publisher=Springer International Publishing|location=Cham|isbn=3319015087|pages=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzG8BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68}}</ref> in 2001, wrote: | |||
===Right-wing political correctness=== | |||
{{quote|Political correctness is one of the brilliant tools that the American Right developed in the mid–1980s, as part of its demolition of American liberalism.... What the sharpest thinkers on the American Right saw quickly was that by declaring war on the cultural manifestations of liberalism – by levelling the charge of "political correctness" against its exponents – they could discredit the whole political project.|"Words Really are Important, Mr Blunkett"<ref name="Hutton">Will Hutton, ''The Observer'', Sunday 16 December 2001 – Accessed February 6, 2007.</ref>}} | |||
"Political correctness" is a label typically used to describe liberal or left-wing terms and actions but rarely used for analogous attempts to mold language and behavior on the right.<ref name="Adams">{{cite web|last1=Adams|first1=Joshua|title=Time for equal media treatment of 'political correctness'|url=https://www.cjr.org/criticism/political-correctness-journalism.php?curator=MediaREDEF|work=]|date=12 June 2017|access-date=15 June 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170831092315/https://www.cjr.org/criticism/political-correctness-journalism.php|archive-date=31 August 2017}}</ref> ] of the ] referred to the right's own version of political correctness as "patriotic correctness".<ref name="nowrasteh">{{cite news|last1=Nowrasteh|first1=Alex|title=The right has its own version of political correctness. It's just as stifling.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/07/the-right-has-its-own-version-of-political-correctness-its-just-as-stifling/|access-date=19 December 2016|newspaper=]|date=7 December 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20161208211732/https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/07/the-right-has-its-own-version-of-political-correctness-its-just-as-stifling/|archive-date=8 December 2016}}</ref> | |||
== |
==Usage== | ||
The modern pejorative usage of the term emerged from ] criticism of the ] in the late 20th century. This usage was popularized by a number of articles in '']'' and other media throughout the 1990s,<ref name=Berman1992>{{cite book|editor-last1=Berman|editor-first1=Paul|title=Debating P.C.: the controversy over political correctness on college campuses|date=1992|isbn=978-0307801784|page=Introduction|publisher=Random House Publishing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XflI-OaALAC&q=Berman%20Debating%20PC&pg=PP1|access-date=2 January 2022|archive-date=3 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103133600/https://books.google.com/books?id=6XflI-OaALAC&q=Berman+Debating+PC&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Smith1999>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Dorothy E.|title=Writing the social: critique, theory, and investigations|date=1999|publisher=]|location=Toronto (Ont.)|isbn=978-0802081353|page=175|edition=Repr.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XICxNH7EH_MC|access-date=22 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010134937/https://books.google.com/books?id=XICxNH7EH_MC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Schwartz>{{cite journal|last1=Schwartz|first1=Howard S.|title=Psychodynamics of Political Correctness|journal=]|date=1997|volume=33|issue=2|pages=133–49|doi=10.1177/0021886397332003|s2cid=144305581|url=http://www.sba.oakland.edu/faculty/schwartz/pcjabs.htm|access-date=21 October 2015|archive-date=3 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003123819/http://www.sba.oakland.edu/faculty/schwartz/PCJABS.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Bernstein>{{cite news|last1=Bernstein|first1=Richard|title=Ideas & Trends: The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-rising-hegemony-of-the-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all|author-link=Richard Bernstein (journalist)|work=]|date=28 October 1990|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-date=12 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211012023341/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-rising-hegemony-of-the-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=McFadden1991>{{cite news|last1=McFadden|first1=Robert D.|title=Political Correctness: New Bias Test?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/05/us/political-correctness-new-bias-test.html|work=]|date=5 May 1991|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-date=23 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023033910/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/05/us/political-correctness-new-bias-test.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Heteren1997>{{cite book|last1=Heteren|first1=Annette Gomis van|title=Political correctness in context: the PC controversy in America|date=1997|publisher=], Servicio de Publicaciones|location=]|isbn=978-8482400839|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1qRWJESNbsC|page=148|access-date=19 October 2015|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412192446/https://books.google.com/books?id=s1qRWJESNbsC|url-status=live}}</ref> and was widely used in the debate surrounding ]'s 1987 book '']''.<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name=Bloom>{{cite book|last1=Bellow|first1=Allan Bloom; foreword by Saul|title=The closing of the American mind|date=1988|publisher=]|location=New York|isbn=978-0671657154|edition=1st Touchstone|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AMuZvBwfRYMC|access-date=19 November 2020|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412192444/https://books.google.com/books?id=AMuZvBwfRYMC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Robinson2000>{{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=Sally|title=Marked men white masculinity in crisis|date=2000|publisher=]|location=New York|isbn=978-0231500364|pages=17, 55–86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fA5eFUAO_AC|access-date=19 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010135850/https://books.google.com/books?id=1fA5eFUAO_AC|url-status=live}}</ref> The term gained further currency in response to ]'s ''Tenured Radicals'' (1990),<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name="Wilson"/><ref name=Kimball>{{cite book |last1= Kimball|first1=Roger|title=Tenured radicals: how politics has corrupted our higher education |date=1990 |publisher=] – Originally ]|location=New York|isbn=978-0060161903|edition=1st}}</ref> and conservative author ]'s 1991 book ''Illiberal Education''.<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/><ref name="Charles-Wartella"/><ref name="Wilson"/><ref name=DSouza1991>{{cite book|last1=D'Souza|first1=Dinesh|author-link=Dinesh D'Souza|title=Illiberal education: the politics of race and sex on campus|date=1991|publisher=]|location=New York|isbn=978-0684863849|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUcWaePccnkC|access-date=20 November 2015|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412192443/https://books.google.com/books?id=WUcWaePccnkC|url-status=live}}</ref> Supporters of politically correct language have been pejoratively referred to as the "language police".<ref>{{Cite web |title=On the Follies of the Politically Correct Language Police {{!}} Psychology Today |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/homo-consumericus/201312/the-follies-the-politically-correct-language-police |access-date=2022-07-11 |website=www.psychologytoday.com |language=en |archive-date=16 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816100227/https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/homo-consumericus/201312/the-follies-the-politically-correct-language-police |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
===Education=== | ===Education=== | ||
Modern debate on the term was sparked by conservative critiques of perceived ] and education,<ref name="Schultz-1993a" /> and conservatives have since used it as a major line of attack.<ref name="Charles-Wartella" /> | |||
Preliminary research published in 2020 indicated that students at a large U.S. public university generally felt instructors were open-minded and encouraged free expression of diverse viewpoints; nonetheless, most students worried about the consequences of voicing their political opinions, with "nxieties about expressing political views and self-censorship ... more prevalent among students who identify as conservative".<ref>Larson, Jennifer, Mark McNeilly, and Timothy J. Ryan. " {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223145026/https://fecdsurveyreport.web.unc.edu/files/2020/02/UNC-Free-Expression-Report.pdf |date=23 December 2020 }}." Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina (5 February 2020).</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/evidence-conservative-students-really-do-self-censor/606559/|title=Evidence That Conservative Students Really Do Self-Censor|last=Friedersdorf|first=Conor|date=16 February 2020|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=16 February 2020|archive-date=11 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111230142/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/evidence-conservative-students-really-do-self-censor/606559/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
One of the first to begin the academic debate on the matter was conservative-described ] in his book ].<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/> Accusations of liberal bias in academia and education were core to Dinesh D'Souza's arguments when he "helped revive the degree of controversy originally generated by Bloom,"<ref name="Schultz-1993a"/> and conservatives have used it as a major line of attack since.<ref name="Charles-Wartella"/> | |||
University of Pennsylvania professor ] and lawyer ] connect political correctness to philosopher ]. They claim that ] create a "climate of repression", arguing that they are based on "Marcusean logic". The speech codes, "mandate a redefined notion of "freedom," based on the belief that the imposition of a moral agenda on a community is justified", a view which, "requires less emphasis on individual rights and more on assuring "historically oppressed" persons the means of achieving equal rights." They claim: | |||
<blockquote>Our colleges and universities do not offer the protection of fair rules, equal justice, and consistent standards to the generation that finds itself on our campuses. They encourage students to bring charges of harassment against those whose opinions or expressions "offend" them. At almost every college and university, students deemed members of "historically oppressed groups"--above all, women, blacks, gays, and Hispanics--are informed during orientation that their campuses are teeming with illegal or intolerable violations of their "right" not to be offended. Judging from these warnings, there is a racial or sexual bigot, to borrow the mocking phrase of McCarthy's critics, "under every bed."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kors|first1=A. C.|last2=Silverglate|first2=H|title=Codes of silence – who's silencing free speech on campus – and why|journal=Reason Magazine|date=November 1998|url=http://reason.com/9811/fe.kors.shtml|accessdate=20 August 2015|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20040803210709/http://reason.com/9811/fe.kors.shtml|archivedate=2004-08-03}}</ref></blockquote> | |||
Kors and Silverglate later established the ] (FIRE), which campaigns against infringement of rights of due process, rights of religion and speech, in particular "speech codes".<ref>{{cite news |first=John |last=Leo |authorlink=John Leo |title=Free Inquiry? Not on Campus |url=http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_1_free_speech.html |work=] |publisher=] |date=Winter 2007 |accessdate=2008-03-25 }}</ref> Similarly, a common conservative criticism of higher education in the United States is that ] are much more liberal than the general population, and that this situation contributes to an atmosphere of political correctness.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hess|first1=Frederick M.|last2=Maranto|first2=Robert|last3=Redding|first3=Richard E.|title=The politically correct university : problems, scope, and reforms|date=2009|publisher=AEI Press|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=0844743178}}</ref> | |||
===As a conspiracy theory=== | |||
] in academia have sometimes been compared to political correctness; but ], the president of FIRE, and ], a social psychologist, writing in ], said that they were subtly different. They felt that political correctness, while it restricted hate speech aimed at marginalized groups, also added more diverse perspectives to academia; whereas in their opinion, trigger warnings were a distinct phenomenon that aimed to protect individuals from any speech that might create emotional distress based upon personal history.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/| title=The Coddling of the American Mind| author1=Greg Lukianoff| author2=Jonathan Haidt| date=September 2015| publisher=The Atlantic}}</ref> | |||
{{Main|Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory}} | |||
Some conservative commentators in the ] argue that "political correctness" and multiculturalism are part of a conspiracy with the ultimate goal of undermining ]. This theory, which holds that political correctness originates from the ] of the ] as part of a conspiracy that its proponents call "Cultural Marxism".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate|last=Jamin|first=Jérôme|publisher=]|year=2014|isbn=978-1137396198|editor1-last=Shekhovtsov|editor1-first=A.|location=]|pages=84–103|chapter=Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right|doi=10.1057/9781137396211.0009|doi-broken-date=15 November 2024 |editor2-last=Jackson|editor2-first=P.|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/postwarangloamer0000unse/page/84 |chapter-url-access=registration |access-date=31 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Cultures of Post-War British Fascism|last=Richardson|first=John E.|date=2015|isbn=9781317539360|editor1-last=Copsey|editor1-first=Nigel|chapter='Cultural-Marxism' and the British National Party: a transnational discourse|publisher=Routledge |editor2-last=Richardson|editor2-first=John E.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIwGCAAAQBAJ|access-date=12 August 2015|archive-date=29 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929062019/https://books.google.com/books?id=HIwGCAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The theory originated with Michael Minnicino's 1992 essay "New Dark Age: Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness'", published in a ] movement journal.<ref>] (2010), "". '']'' (Fall 2010–Winter 2011, 168–69): 30–40.</ref> In 2001, conservative commentator ] wrote in '']'' that "political correctness is cultural Marxism", and that "its trademark is intolerance".<ref>]. '']'', p. 89.</ref> | |||
=== |
===Media=== | ||
{{See also| |
{{See also|Media bias}} | ||
In the US, the term has been widely used in books and journals, but in Britain the usage has been confined mainly to the popular press.<ref name="Lea">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKmTAgAAQBAJ|title=Political Correctness and Higher Education: British and American Perspectives|last1=Lea|first1=John|date=2010|publisher=]|isbn=978-1135895884|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412201758/https://books.google.com/books?id=pKmTAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> Many such authors and popular-media figures, particularly on the right, have used the term to criticize what they see as bias in the media.<ref name=Friedman /><ref name="Wilson"/> William McGowan argues that journalists get stories wrong or ignore stories worthy of coverage, because of what McGowan perceives to be their liberal ideologies and their fear of offending minority groups.<ref name="McGowan">{{cite book|title=Coloring the news: how political correctness has corrupted American journalism|last1=McGowan|first1=William|date=2003|publisher=]|isbn=978-1893554603|edition=.|location=San Francisco, Calif.}}</ref> Robert Novak, in his essay "Political Correctness Has No Place in the Newsroom", used the term to blame newspapers for adopting language use policies that he thinks tend to excessively avoid the appearance of bias. He argued that political correctness in language not only destroys meaning but also demeans the people who are meant to be protected.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-16805698/political-correctness-has-no-place-in-the-newsroom|title=Political Correctness Has No Place in the Newsroom|last1=Novak|first1=Robert|date=March 1995|access-date=28 October 2015|work=]|archive-date=29 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629061809/https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-16805698/political-correctness-has-no-place-in-the-newsroom|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FK7hAAAAMAAJ|title=Mass Media|last1=Gorham|first1=Joan|date=1996|publisher=Dushkin Publishing Group, ]|isbn=9780697316110|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104213031/https://books.google.com/books?id=FK7hAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Media Bias|last1=Sloan|first1=David |last2=Mackay|first2=Jenn |date=2007 |publisher=]|isbn=978-0786455058|page=112}}</ref> | |||
Groups who oppose certain generally accepted scientific views about ], ], ], ], ], and other politically contentious scientific matters have said that PC liberal orthodoxy of academia is the reason why their perspectives of those matters have been rejected by the scientific community.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Bethell, Tom |title=The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science |publisher=Regnery Publishing |location=Washington, D.C |year= 2005|pages= |isbn=0-89526-031-X |oclc= |doi=}}</ref> For example, in ''Lamarck's Signature: How Retrogenes are Changing Darwin's Natural Selection Paradigm'' (1999), Prof. ] said: | |||
{{Quote|We now stand on the threshold of what could be an exciting new era of genetic research.... However, the 'politically correct' thought agendas of the ] are ideologically opposed to the idea of ], just as the Church was opposed to the idea of evolution based on natural selection in the 1850s!<ref name="isbn0-7382-0171-5">{{Cite book|author=Robert V. Blanden; Steele, Edward David; Lindley, Robyn A. |title=Lamarck’s Signature: How Retrogenes are Changing Darwin's Natural Selection Paradigm |publisher=Perseus Books |location=Reading, Mass |year=1999 |pages= |isbn=0-7382-0171-5 |oclc= |doi=}}</ref>}} | |||
===Right-wing political correctness=== | |||
"Political correctness" is a label normally used for left-wing terms and actions, but not for equivalent attempts to mold language and behavior on the right. However the term "right-wing political correctness" is sometimes applied by commentators drawing parallels; one author used the term "conservative correctness", arguing in 1995 (in relation to ]) that "critics of political correctness show a curious blindness when it comes to examples of conservative correctness. Most often, the case is entirely ignored or censorship of the Left is justified as a positive virtue. ... A balanced perspective was lost, and everyone missed the fact that people on all sides were sometimes censored."<ref name="WilsonConservativeCorrectness">"Conservative Correctness" chapter, in Wilson, John. 1995. ''.'' Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 57</ref> | |||
In 2003, ], a U.S. country music group, ], George W. Bush, for launching ].<ref>At a concert in London, on 10 March 2003, Natalie Maines introduced the song "]", by saying "Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war … we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." . ''Democracy Now!''. February 15, 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007.</ref> Subsequently, they were criticized<ref name="Dixie sluts">{{cite web | url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/apr/25/arts.usa | title=Dixie sluts' fight on with naked defiance | publisher=The Guardian | date=25 April 2003 | accessdate=21 August 2015 | author=Campbell, Duncan}}</ref> and labelled "treasonous" by some US rightwing commentators (including ] and ]).<ref name=DonWilliams/> The newspaper columnist Don Williams said that "The campaign against the Chicks represents political correctness run amok" continuing "the ugliest form of political correctness occurs whenever there's a war on" claiming that three years before, "a virulent strain of right wing political correctness had all but shut down debate about the war in Iraq."<ref name=DonWilliams>{{cite web|url=http://www.mach2.com/williams/index.php?t=1&c=20060602120901 |title=Don Williams Insights – Dixie Chicks Were Right |accessdate=November 9, 2007 |work=}}</ref> | |||
] in 2012 wrote that “the big threat to our discourse is right-wing political correctness, which – unlike the liberal version – has lots of power and money behind it. And the goal is very much the kind of thing ] tried to convey with his notion of ]: to make it impossible to talk, and possibly even think, about ideas that challenge the established order”.<ref name="Krugman">{{cite news|last=Krugman|first=Paul|title=The New Political Correctness|url=http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/the-new-political-correctness/|accessdate=17 February 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=26 May 2012}}</ref> | |||
In 2003, ] were renamed “]” in the U.S. Congress cafeterias in response to France's opposition to the proposed ], this was described as "polluting the already confused concept of political correctness".<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.parisvoice.com/voicearchives/03/apr/html/tips/tips1.html|title=Freedom fries and French toast}}</ref> In 2004, then ] leader ] described conservative calls for “civility” in politics as “The New Political Correctness”.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.australianpolitics.com/news/2002/08/02-08-26.shtml |title=The New Political Correctness: Speech By Mark Latham [August 26, 2002] |publisher=Australianpolitics.com |date= |accessdate=June 1, 2009}}</ref> | |||
===As a conspiracy theory=== | |||
Some radical ] groups argue that "political correctness" and multiculturalism are part of a conspiracy with the ultimate goal of undermining ] western values. This theory, which holds that political correctness originates from the ] of the ] as part of a conspiracy that its proponents call "Cultural Marxism", is generally known as the ] by academics.<ref name=Richardson>{{cite book |editor1-last=Copsey |editor1-first=Nigel |editor2-last=Richardson |editor2-first=John E. |last=Richardson |first=John E. |title=Cultures of Post-War British Fascism |chapter=‘Cultural-Marxism’ and the British National Party: a transnational discourse |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIwGCAAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref name=JAMIN>{{cite book |editor1-last=Shekhovtsov |editor1-first=A. |editor2-last=Jackson |editor2-first=P. |last=Jamin |first=Jérôme |title=The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate |chapter=Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Basingstoke |isbn=978-1-137-39619-8 |doi=10.1057/9781137396211.0009 |pages=84–103 |chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=VbLSBAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA84 |work=The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate |year=2014 |accessdate=18 January 2015}}</ref> The theory originated with Michael Minnicino's 1992 essay "New Dark Age: Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness'", published in a ] movement journal.<ref name=Jay>] (2010), "". ] (Fall 2010-Winter 2011, 168–169): 30–40.</ref> It is popular with many conservative commentators; for instance, in 2001, ], in ''],'' wrote that "Political Correctness is Cultural Marxism, a régime to punish dissent, and to stigmatize social heresy, as the Inquisition punished religious heresy. Its trademark is intolerance."<ref>Buchanan, Patrick ''The Death of the West'', p. 89</ref> | |||
Authors David Sloan and Emily Hoff claim that in the US, journalists shrug off concerns about political correctness in the newsroom, equating the political correctness criticisms with the old "liberal media bias" label.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c6LhAAAAMAAJ|title=Contemporary media issues|last1=Sloan|first1=David|last2=Hoff|first2=Emily|date=1998|publisher=Vision Press, ]|isbn=978-1885219107|location=Northport|page=63|ref=Sloan|access-date=28 October 2015|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010135551/https://books.google.com/books?id=c6LhAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> According to author John Wilson, left-wing forces of "political correctness" have been blamed for unrelated censorship, with '']'' citing campaigns against violence on network television in the US as contributing to a "mainstream culture has become cautious, sanitized, scared of its own shadow" because of "the watchful eye of the p.c. police", protests and advertiser boycotts targeting TV shows are generally organized by right-wing religious groups campaigning against violence, sex, and depictions of homosexuality on television.<ref>Wilson, John. 1995. ''''. Durham, North Carolina: ]. p. {{ISBN|978-0822317135}}.</ref> | |||
=== False accusations === | |||
{{See also|Loony left}} | |||
In the United States, left forces of "political correctness" have been blamed for actions largely carried out by right-wing groups, with ''Time'' citing campaigns against violence on network television as contributing to a "mainstream culture has become cautious, sanitized, scared of its own shadow" because of "the watchful eye of the p.c. police", even though protests and advertiser boycotts targeting TV shows are generally organized by right-wing religious groups campaigning against violence, sex, and depictions of homosexuality on television.<ref>Wilson, John. 1995. ''.'' Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p.</ref> | |||
===Inclusive language=== | |||
In the United Kingdom, some newspapers reported that a school had altered the nursery rhyme ] to read "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Blair|first=Alexandra|title=Why black sheep are barred and Humpty can't be cracked|publisher=The Times|date=7 March 2006|url=http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article738220.ece|accessdate=October 5, 2007|location=London}}</ref> But it was later reported that in fact the Parents and Children Together (PACT) nursery had the children "turn the song into an action rhyme.... They sing happy, sad, bouncing, hopping, pink, blue, black and white sheep etc."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4782856.stm |title=Nursery opts for 'rainbow' sheep |accessdate=October 6, 2007 |work=BBC News | date=March 7, 2006}}</ref> This nursery rhyme story was widely circulated and later extended to suggest that other language bans applied to the terms "black coffee" and "blackboard".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://teenink.com/talk/showthread.php?s=cb96eb0a024fd73bbc9080f5184fd151&postid=322528 |title=Teen Ink – Bah, Bah, Rainbow Sheep |accessdate=October 6, 2007 |work=}}</ref> The ] magazine reported that similar stories, had been published in the British press since '']'' first ran them in 1986.<ref name = "BaaBaa-Bollocks">{{cite web|url=http://www.septicisle.info/2006/03/baa-baa-rainbow-bollocks.html |title=Obsolete: Baa Baa Rainbow Bollocks. |accessdate=October 6, 2007 |work=}}</ref> See also ]. | |||
{{Main|Inclusive language}} | |||
] is a ] that avoids expressions that its proponents perceive as expressing or implying ideas that are ], ], or otherwise ], ], or insulting to any particular group of people; and instead uses language intended to avoid offense and fulfill the ideals of ]. This language style is sometimes referred to as a type of "political correctness", either as a neutral description or with negative connotations by its opponents.<ref name="Think!">{{Cite podcast |title=The Limits Of Political Correctness (panel discussion) |date=17 February 2015 |url=https://think.kera.org/2015/02/17/the-battle-over-political-correctness/ |access-date=30 May 2022 |website=Think |publisher=] |first=Krys |last=Boyd |language=en-US}}</ref> At least some supporters deny an association between the two ("Political correctness is focused on not offending whereas inclusive language is focused on honoring people's identities.").<ref name="UD-ILS">{{cite web |title=Inclusive Language Standards |url=https://www1.udel.edu/itwebdev/help/dei.html#:~:text=%22Inclusive%20language%20is%20not%20the,focused%20on%20honoring%20people's%20identities. |website=University of Delaware |access-date=25 April 2023}}</ref> | |||
===Satirical use=== | ===Satirical use=== | ||
Political correctness is often ], for example in ''The PC Manifesto'' (1992) by Saul Jerushalmy and Rens Zbignieuw X,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fiction.net/tidbits/politics/pc.html|title=TidBits: The PC Manifesto|publisher=Fiction.net|access-date=1 June 2009|archive-date=7 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007193505/http://www.fiction.net/tidbits/politics/pc.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and '']'' (1994) by ], which presents ]s re-written from an exaggerated politically correct perspective. In 1994, the comedy film '']'' took a look at political correctness on a college campus. Other examples include the television program '']'', ]'s "]s" routine,{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} and ''The Politically Correct Scrapbook''.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.capc.co.uk/PC%20_Scrapbook_Main.htm|title=Book – Buy Now |publisher=Capc.co.uk|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090530054012/http://www.capc.co.uk/PC%20_Scrapbook_Main.htm|archive-date=30 May 2009|access-date=1 June 2009}}</ref> The popularity of the '']'' cartoon program led to the creation of the term "]" by ],{{cn|date=July 2023}} and later the book '']'' by ].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rich|first1=Frank|title=Conservatives ♥ 'South Park'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/opinion/conservatives-south-park.html|work=The New York Times|date=May 1, 2005}}</ref> In its ] (2015), ''South Park'' introduced the character ], who embodies the principle, to poke fun at the principle of political correctness.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/2273831/south-park-caitlyn-jenner-joke/|title='South Park' Perfectly Showed How To Do A Caitlyn Jenner Joke Right|last1=Bell|first1=Crystal|date=17 September 2015|newspaper=]|access-date=29 January 2016|archive-date=10 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010120846/http://www.mtv.com/news/2273831/south-park-caitlyn-jenner-joke/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/pc-principal-rides-line-between-hero-and-villain-s-229588|title=PC Principal rides the line between hero and villain on the season finale of ''South Park''|last1=Caffrey|first1=Dan|work=]|date=10 December 2015|access-date=29 January 2016|archive-date=14 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814044254/http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/pc-principal-rides-line-between-hero-and-villain-s-229588|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Political correctness is often satirized, for example in the ''Politically Correct Manifesto'' (1992), by Saul Jerushalmy and Rens Zbignieuw X,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fiction.net/tidbits/politics/pc.html |title=TidBits: The PC Manifesto |publisher=Fiction.net |date= |accessdate=June 1, 2009}}</ref> and '']'' (1994), by ], presenting ]s re-written from an exaggerated politically correct perspective. In 1994, the comedy film '']'' took a look at political correctness on a college campus. | |||
'']'''s host ] often talked, satirically, about the "PC Police".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Steinberg|first1=Dan|date=27 March 2014|title=Colbert Report on Redskins' new foundation|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/03/27/colbert-report-on-redskins-new-foundation/|newspaper=]|access-date=3 December 2015|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804181605/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/03/27/colbert-report-on-redskins-new-foundation/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/stephen_colbert_jokes_about_cancelcolbert_the_system_worked/|title=Stephen Colbert jokes about #CancelColbert: 'The system worked!'|last1=D'addario|first1=Daniel|website=]|date=1 April 2014|access-date=3 December 2015|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225135818/https://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/stephen_colbert_jokes_about_cancelcolbert_the_system_worked/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Other examples include the television program ''Politically Incorrect'', ]’s "Euphemisms" routine, and ''The Politically Correct Scrapbook''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capc.co.uk/PC%20_Scrapbook_Main.htm |title=Book – Buy Now |publisher=Capc.co.uk |date= |accessdate=June 1, 2009}}</ref> The popularity of the '']'' cartoon program led to the creation of the term '']'' by ], and later the book '']'' by ].<ref name = "anderson">{{Cite journal| last = Anderson | first = Brian C. | title = We're Not Losing the Culture Wars Anymore | url = http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_4_were_not_losing.html | date = Autumn 2003 | accessdate = November 9, 2007}}</ref> | |||
===Science=== | |||
British comedian ] satirized the phrase "it's political correctness gone mad", in particular, criticizing ] columnist ] for his overzealous use of it.<ref>{{cite news|author=Sean O'Hagan |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/dec/06/stewart-lee-comedy-interview |title=The Guardian Online – Stewart lee Interview |publisher=Guardian |date= December 6, 2009|accessdate=2011-05-28 |location=London}}</ref> | |||
{{See also|Politicization of science}} | |||
Groups who oppose certain generally accepted scientific views about ], ], ], ], ] and other politically contentious scientific matters have used the term ''political correctness'' to describe what they view as unwarranted rejection of their perspective on these issues by a scientific community that they believe has been corrupted by liberal politics.<ref name=Bethell>{{Cite book |last=Bethell |first=Tom |title=The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science |publisher=] |location=Washington, D.C. |year=2005 |isbn=978-0895260314 |url=https://archive.org/details/politicallyincor00beth_0 }}</ref> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
{{Commons category-inline}} | |||
{{portal|Language|Politics}} | |||
{{Wiktionary-inline|political correctness|patriotic correctness|politically incorrect|politically correct}} | |||
{{div col|cols=3}} | |||
{{Wikiquote-inline}} | |||
* ] | |||
{{Portal|Language|Politics}} | |||
* ] | |||
{{div col|colwidth=20em}} | |||
* ] (German expression for "do-gooder") | |||
* {{Annotated link |Agenda-setting theory}} | |||
* ] (Japanese political correctness) | |||
* {{Annotated link |Anti-bias curriculum}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Binnen-I |{{lang|de | Binnen-I |nocat=yes}}}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Campaign Against Political Correctness}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Cancel culture}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Christmas controversies}} | |||
* '']'' (1946 essay by ]) | |||
* {{Annotated link |Common sense}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Conventional wisdom}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Cultural Bolshevism}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Cultural Marxism}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Distancing language}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Framing (social sciences)}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Groupthink}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Gutmensch |{{lang|de | Gutmensch |nocat=yes}}}} | |||
* {{Annotated link | Kotobagari |{{lang|ja | Kotobagari |nocat=yes}}}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Linguistic relativity}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Logocracy}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Microaggression}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Newspeak}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Pensée unique |{{lang|fr | Pensée unique |nocat=yes}}}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |People-first language}} | |||
* '']''{{snd}} 1946 essay by ] | |||
* {{Annotated link |Red-baiting}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Reverse discrimination}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Self-censorship}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Snowflake (slang)}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Social justice warrior}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Speech code}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Sprachregelung |{{lang|de | Sprachregelung |nocat=yes}}}} | |||
* ] – Meaning either to conform to a rule or standard, or to stand in formation along a line | |||
* {{Annotated link |Trigger warnings}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Truthiness}} | |||
* {{Annotated link |Woke}} | |||
{{div col end}} | {{div col end}} | ||
==Notes== | |||
{{Notelist}} | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{Reflist |
{{Reflist}} | ||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
* ] (2003). ''You Can't Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws''. ], 180 pages. {{ISBN|1930865538}}. | |||
* Aufderheide, Patricia. (ed.). 1992. Beyond P.C.: Toward a Politics of Understanding. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press. | |||
* ] (1992). ''Free Speech for Me – But Not for Thee''. ]. {{ISBN|006019006X}}. | |||
* Berman, Paul. (ed.). 1992. Debating P.C.: The Controversy Over Political Correctness on College Campuses. New York, New York: Dell Publishing. | |||
* ] (1998). '']''. ], revised edition. {{ISBN|0393318540}}. | |||
* ], "You Can't Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws", Cato Institute 2003, 180 pages ISBN 1-930865-53-8 | |||
* Debra L. Schultz (1993). ''To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the "Political Correctness" Debates in Higher Education''. New York: National Council for Research on Women. {{ISBN|978-1880547137}}. | |||
* ], "The Origins of Political Correctness", Accuracy in Academia, 2000. | |||
* John Wilson (1995). ''The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on High Education''. Durham, North Carolina: ]. {{ISBN|978-0-8223-1713-5}}. | |||
* ], ''Free Speech for Me – But Not for Thee'', HarperCollins, 1992, ISBN 0-06-019006-X | |||
* Geoffrey Hughes (2009), , John Wiley, ISBN 978-1-4051-5279-2 | |||
* ], ''The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn'', Knopf, 2003, hardcover, 255 page. | |||
* Nigel Rees, ''The Politically Correct Phrasebook: what they say you can and cannot say in the 1990s'', Bloomsbury, 1993, 192 pages, ISBN 0-7475-1426-7 | |||
* ], ''The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society'', W.W. Norton, 1998 revised edition, ISBN 0-393-31854-0 | |||
* Debra L. Schultz. 1993. ''To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the "Political Correctness" Debates in Higher Education.'' New York: National Council for Research on Women. | |||
* Wilson, John. 1995. ''The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on High Education.'' Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. | |||
==External links== | |||
{{wiktionary|politically correct}} | |||
* | |||
* | |||
{{Discrimination}} | {{Discrimination}} | ||
Line 136: | Line 145: | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Political Correctness}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Political Correctness}} | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] |
Latest revision as of 20:17, 8 January 2025
Measures to avoid offense or disadvantage "Politically correct" and "Politically incorrect" redirect here. For other uses, see Politically Correct (disambiguation) and Politically Incorrect (disambiguation).
"Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. Since the late 1980s, the term has been used to describe a preference for inclusive language and avoidance of language or behavior that can be seen as excluding, marginalizing, or insulting to groups of people disadvantaged or discriminated against, particularly groups defined by ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. In public discourse and the media, the term is generally used as a pejorative with an implication that these policies are excessive or unwarranted.
The phrase politically correct first appeared in the 1930s, when it was used to describe dogmatic adherence to ideology in totalitarian regimes, such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Early usage of the term politically correct by leftists in the 1970s and 1980s was as self-critical satire; usage was ironic, rather than a name for a serious political movement. It was considered an in-joke among leftists used to satirise those who were too rigid in their adherence to political orthodoxy. The modern pejorative usage of the term emerged from conservative criticism of the New Left in the late 20th century, with many describing it as a form of censorship.
Commentators on the political left in the United States contend that conservatives use the concept of political correctness to downplay and divert attention from substantively discriminatory behavior against disadvantaged groups. They also argue that the political right enforces its own forms of political correctness to suppress criticism of its favored constituencies and ideologies. In the United States, the term has played a major role in the culture war between liberals and conservatives.
History
Early-to-mid 20th century
Main article: Party line (politics)In the early-to-mid 20th century, the phrase politically correct was used to describe strict adherence to a range of ideological orthodoxies within politics. In 1934, The New York Times reported that Nazi Germany was granting reporting permits "only to pure 'Aryans' whose opinions are politically correct".
The term political correctness first appeared in Marxist–Leninist vocabulary following the Russian Revolution of 1917. At that time, it was used to describe strict adherence to the policies and principles of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, that is, the party line. Later in the United States, the phrase came to be associated with accusations of dogmatism in debates between communists and socialists. According to American educator Herbert Kohl, writing about debates in New York in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The term "politically correct" was used disparagingly, to refer to someone whose loyalty to the CP line overrode compassion, and led to bad politics. It was used by Socialists against Communists, and was meant to separate out Socialists who believed in egalitarian moral ideas from dogmatic Communists who would advocate and defend party positions regardless of their moral substance.
— "Uncommon Differences", The Lion and the Unicorn
1970s
Main article: New LeftIn the 1970s, the American New Left began using the term politically correct. In the essay The Black Woman: An Anthology (1970), Toni Cade Bambara said that "a man cannot be politically correct and a chauvinist, too". William Safire records this as the first use in the typical modern sense. The term political correctness was believed to have been revived by the New Left through familiarity in the West with Mao's Little Red Book, in which Mao stressed holding to the correct party line. The term rapidly began to be used by the New Left in an ironic or self-deprecating sense.
Thereafter, the term was often used as self-critical satire. Debra L. Shultz said that "throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the New Left, feminists, and progressives... used their term 'politically correct' ironically, as a guard against their own orthodoxy in social change efforts". PC is used in the comic book Merton of the Movement, by Bobby London, which was followed by the term ideologically sound, in the comic strips of Bart Dickon. In her essay "Toward a feminist Revolution" (1992) Ellen Willis said, "In the early eighties, when feminists used the term 'political correctness', it was used to refer sarcastically to the anti-pornography movement's efforts to define a 'feminist sexuality'."
Stuart Hall suggests one way in which the original use of the term may have developed into the modern one:
According to one version, political correctness actually began as an in-joke on the left: radical students on American campuses acting out an ironic replay of the Bad Old Days BS (Before the Sixties) when every revolutionary groupuscule had a party line about everything. They would address some glaring examples of sexist or racist behaviour by their fellow students in imitation of the tone of voice of the Red Guards or Cultural Revolution Commissar: "Not very 'politically correct', Comrade!"
1980s and 1990s
Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, a book first published in 1987, heralded a debate about "political correctness" in American higher education in the 1980s and 1990s. Professor of English literary and cultural studies at CMU Jeffrey J. Williams wrote that the "assault on ... political correctness that simmered through the Reagan years, gained bestsellerdom with Bloom's Closing of the American Mind". According to Z.F. Gamson, Bloom's book "attacked the faculty for 'political correctness'". Prof. of Social Work at CSU Tony Platt says the "campaign against 'political correctness'" was launched by Bloom's book in 1987.
An October 1990 New York Times article by Richard Bernstein is credited with popularizing the term. At this time, the term was mainly being used within academia: "Across the country the term p.c., as it is commonly abbreviated, is being heard more and more in debates over what should be taught at the universities." Nexis citations in "arcnews/curnews" reveal only seventy total citations in articles to "political correctness" for 1990; but one year later, Nexis records 1,532 citations, with a steady increase to more than 7,000 citations by 1994. In May 1991, The New York Times had a follow-up article, according to which the term was increasingly being used in a wider public arena:
What has come to be called "political correctness", a term that began to gain currency at the start of the academic year last fall, has spread in recent months and has become the focus of an angry national debate, mainly on campuses, but also in the larger arenas of American life.
— Robert D. McFadden, "Political Correctness: New Bias Test?", 1991
The previously obscure far-left term became common currency in the lexicon of the conservative social and political challenges against progressive teaching methods and curriculum changes in the secondary schools and universities of the U.S. Policies, behavior, and speech codes that the speaker or the writer regarded as being the imposition of a liberal orthodoxy, were described and criticized as "politically correct". In May 1991, at a commencement ceremony for a graduating class of the University of Michigan, then U.S. President George H. W. Bush used the term in his speech: "The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones. It declares certain topics off-limits, certain expression off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits."
After 1991, its use as a pejorative phrase became widespread amongst conservatives in the US. It became a key term encapsulating conservative concerns about the left in cultural and political debates extending beyond academia. Two articles on the topic in late 1990 in Forbes and Newsweek both used the term "thought police" in their headlines, exemplifying the tone of the new usage, but it was Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (1991) which "captured the press's imagination". These trends were at least in part a response to multiculturalism and the rise of identity politics, with movements such as feminism, gay rights movements and ethnic minority movements. That response received funding from conservative foundations and think tanks such as the John M. Olin Foundation, which funded several books such as D'Souza's.
Herbert Kohl, in 1992, commented that a number of neoconservatives who promoted the use of the term "politically correct" in the early 1990s were former Communist Party members, and, as a result, familiar with the Marxist use of the phrase. He argued that in doing so, they intended "to insinuate that egalitarian democratic ideas are actually authoritarian, orthodox, and Communist-influenced, when they oppose the right of people to be racist, sexist, and homophobic".
During the 1990s, conservative and right-wing politicians, think tanks, and speakers adopted the phrase as a pejorative descriptor of their ideological enemies, especially in the context of the culture wars about language and the content of public-school curricula. Roger Kimball, in Tenured Radicals, endorsed Frederick Crews's view that PC is best described as "Left Eclecticism", a term defined by Kimball as "any of a wide variety of anti-establishment modes of thought from structuralism and poststructuralism, deconstruction, and Lacanian analyst to feminist, homosexual, black, and other patently political forms of criticism".
Liberal commentators have argued that the conservatives and reactionaries who used the term did so in an effort to divert political discussion away from the substantive matters of resolving societal discrimination, such as racial, social class, gender, and legal inequality, against people whom conservatives do not consider part of the social mainstream. Jan Narveson wrote that "that phrase was born to live between scare-quotes: it suggests that the operative considerations in the area so called are merely political, steamrolling the genuine reasons of principle for which we ought to be acting...". Commenting in 2001, one such British journalist, Polly Toynbee, said "the phrase is an empty, right-wing smear, designed only to elevate its user", and in 2010 she wrote "the phrase 'political correctness' was born as a coded cover for all who still want to say Paki, spastic, or queer". Another British journalist, Will Hutton, wrote in 2001:
Political correctness is one of the brilliant tools that the American Right developed in the mid–1980s, as part of its demolition of American liberalism.... What the sharpest thinkers on the American Right saw quickly was that by declaring war on the cultural manifestations of liberalism – by levelling the charge of "political correctness" against its exponents – they could discredit the whole political project.
— Will Hutton, "Words Really are Important, Mr Blunkett", 2001
Glenn Loury wrote in 1994 that to address the subject of "political correctness" when power and authority within the academic community is being contested by parties on either side of that issue, is to invite scrutiny of one's arguments by would-be "friends" and "enemies". Combatants from the left and the right will try to assess whether a writer is "for them" or "against them". Geoffrey Hughes suggested that debate over political correctness concerns whether changing language actually solves political and social problems, with critics viewing it less about solving problems than imposing censorship, intellectual intimidation and demonstrating the moral purity of those who practice it. Hughes also argues that political correctness tends to be pushed by a minority rather than an organic form of language change.
Right-wing political correctness
"Political correctness" is a label typically used to describe liberal or left-wing terms and actions but rarely used for analogous attempts to mold language and behavior on the right. Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute referred to the right's own version of political correctness as "patriotic correctness".
Usage
The modern pejorative usage of the term emerged from conservative criticism of the New Left in the late 20th century. This usage was popularized by a number of articles in The New York Times and other media throughout the 1990s, and was widely used in the debate surrounding Allan Bloom's 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind. The term gained further currency in response to Roger Kimball's Tenured Radicals (1990), and conservative author Dinesh D'Souza's 1991 book Illiberal Education. Supporters of politically correct language have been pejoratively referred to as the "language police".
Education
Modern debate on the term was sparked by conservative critiques of perceived liberal bias in academia and education, and conservatives have since used it as a major line of attack.
Preliminary research published in 2020 indicated that students at a large U.S. public university generally felt instructors were open-minded and encouraged free expression of diverse viewpoints; nonetheless, most students worried about the consequences of voicing their political opinions, with "nxieties about expressing political views and self-censorship ... more prevalent among students who identify as conservative".
As a conspiracy theory
Main article: Cultural Marxism conspiracy theorySome conservative commentators in the West argue that "political correctness" and multiculturalism are part of a conspiracy with the ultimate goal of undermining Judeo-Christian values. This theory, which holds that political correctness originates from the critical theory of the Frankfurt School as part of a conspiracy that its proponents call "Cultural Marxism". The theory originated with Michael Minnicino's 1992 essay "New Dark Age: Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness'", published in a Lyndon LaRouche movement journal. In 2001, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan wrote in The Death of the West that "political correctness is cultural Marxism", and that "its trademark is intolerance".
Media
See also: Media biasIn the US, the term has been widely used in books and journals, but in Britain the usage has been confined mainly to the popular press. Many such authors and popular-media figures, particularly on the right, have used the term to criticize what they see as bias in the media. William McGowan argues that journalists get stories wrong or ignore stories worthy of coverage, because of what McGowan perceives to be their liberal ideologies and their fear of offending minority groups. Robert Novak, in his essay "Political Correctness Has No Place in the Newsroom", used the term to blame newspapers for adopting language use policies that he thinks tend to excessively avoid the appearance of bias. He argued that political correctness in language not only destroys meaning but also demeans the people who are meant to be protected.
Authors David Sloan and Emily Hoff claim that in the US, journalists shrug off concerns about political correctness in the newsroom, equating the political correctness criticisms with the old "liberal media bias" label. According to author John Wilson, left-wing forces of "political correctness" have been blamed for unrelated censorship, with Time citing campaigns against violence on network television in the US as contributing to a "mainstream culture has become cautious, sanitized, scared of its own shadow" because of "the watchful eye of the p.c. police", protests and advertiser boycotts targeting TV shows are generally organized by right-wing religious groups campaigning against violence, sex, and depictions of homosexuality on television.
Inclusive language
Main article: Inclusive languageInclusive or Equity Language is a language style that avoids expressions that its proponents perceive as expressing or implying ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or insulting to any particular group of people; and instead uses language intended to avoid offense and fulfill the ideals of egalitarianism. This language style is sometimes referred to as a type of "political correctness", either as a neutral description or with negative connotations by its opponents. At least some supporters deny an association between the two ("Political correctness is focused on not offending whereas inclusive language is focused on honoring people's identities.").
Satirical use
Political correctness is often satirized, for example in The PC Manifesto (1992) by Saul Jerushalmy and Rens Zbignieuw X, and Politically Correct Bedtime Stories (1994) by James Finn Garner, which presents fairy tales re-written from an exaggerated politically correct perspective. In 1994, the comedy film PCU took a look at political correctness on a college campus. Other examples include the television program Politically Incorrect, George Carlin's "Euphemisms" routine, and The Politically Correct Scrapbook. The popularity of the South Park cartoon program led to the creation of the term "South Park Republican" by Andrew Sullivan, and later the book South Park Conservatives by Brian C. Anderson. In its Season 19 (2015), South Park introduced the character PC Principal, who embodies the principle, to poke fun at the principle of political correctness.
The Colbert Report's host Stephen Colbert often talked, satirically, about the "PC Police".
Science
See also: Politicization of scienceGroups who oppose certain generally accepted scientific views about evolution, second-hand tobacco smoke, AIDS, global warming, race and other politically contentious scientific matters have used the term political correctness to describe what they view as unwarranted rejection of their perspective on these issues by a scientific community that they believe has been corrupted by liberal politics.
See also
Media related to Political correctness at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of patriotic correctness at Wiktionary Quotations related to Political correctness at Wikiquote
- Agenda-setting theory – Ability of the mass media to influence the public agenda of a society
- Anti-bias curriculum – Educational plan meant to reduce perceived racism and sexism in education
- Binnen-I – Style for gender-neutral written German
- Campaign Against Political Correctness – Defunct minor British lobby group
- Cancel culture – Modern form of ostracism
- Christmas controversies – Christmas ideological, political and religious disputes
- Common sense – Sound practical judgement in everyday matters
- Conventional wisdom – Ideas generally accepted by experts or the public
- Cultural Bolshevism – Nazi slogan opposing modernist and progressive cultural movements
- Cultural Marxism – Far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory
- Distancing language – Phrasing technique which disassociates speaker from subject
- Framing (social sciences) – Effect of how information is presented on perception
- Groupthink – Psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people
- Gutmensch – Pejorative German term for a sanctimonious do-gooder
- Kotobagari – Japanese term for euphemistic speech
- Linguistic relativity – Hypothesis of language influencing thought
- Logocracy – Form of government by use of words
- Microaggression – Term for commonplace slights
- Newspeak – Fictional language in the novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four"
- Pensée unique – Pejorative term for ideological conformism
- People-first language – Putting the person before the diagnosis
- Politics and the English Language – 1946 essay by George Orwell
- Red-baiting – Discrediting opponent's argument by accusing them of being a radical leftist
- Reverse discrimination – Discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group
- Self-censorship – Act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse
- Snowflake (slang) – Pejoratively, an easily offended person
- Social justice warrior – Pejorative term for a progressive person
- Speech code – Non-statutory restriction on word choice
- Sprachregelung – German term for prescribed form of official communication
- Toe the line – Meaning either to conform to a rule or standard, or to stand in formation along a line
- Trigger warnings – Warnings that a work may cause distress
- Truthiness – Quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than actual truth
- Woke – Political slang term
Notes
References
- "'politically correct' definition". Cambridge English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 6 April 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- "Definition of political correctness in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
- "'Politically Correct' definition". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
- ^ Kohl, Herbert (1992). "Uncommon Differences: On Political Correctness, Core Curriculum and Democracy in Education". The Lion and the Unicorn. 16 (1): 1–16. doi:10.1353/uni.0.0216. S2CID 145173687.
- ^ Gibson, Caitlin (13 January 2016). "How 'politically correct' went from compliment to insult". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 26 June 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
- Florence, Joshua (30 October 2015). "A Phrase in Flux: The History of Political Correctness". Harvard Political Review. Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
- Chow, Kat (14 December 2016). "'Politically Correct': The Phrase Has Gone From Wisdom To Weapon". National Public Radio (NPR). Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
- ^ Schultz, Debra L. (1993). To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the 'Political Correctness' Debates in Higher Education (PDF). New York: National Council for Research on Women. ISBN 978-1880547137. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
- ^ Friedman, Marilyn; Narveson, Jan (1995). Political correctness: for and against. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0847679867. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
- ^ Whitney, D. Charles & Wartella, Ellen (1992). "Media Coverage of the "Political Correctness" Debate". Journal of Communication. 42 (2): 83. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1992.tb00780.x.
- Hughes, Geoffrey (2011). "Origins of the Phrase". Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture. John Wiley & Sons. 1975 – Peter Fuller. ISBN 978-1444360295. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
- ^ Ruth Perry, (1992), "A Short History of the Term 'Politically Correct'", in Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding, by Patricia Aufderheide, 1992, ISBN 978-1555971649
- ^ Schultz citing Perry (1992) p. 16
- ^ Willis, Ellen. "Toward a Feminist Revolution", in No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays (1992) Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 081955250X, p. 19.
- ^ Hall, Stuart (1994). "Some 'Politically Incorrect' Pathways Through PC" (PDF). S. Dunant (ed.) The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate. pp. 164–84. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
- Ford, Becky R. (2017). An Empirical Test of the Effects of Political Correctness: Implications for Censorship, Self-Censorship, and Public Deliberation (Thesis). University of California, Santa Barbara. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- ^ Wilson, John. 1995. The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on High Education. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 26.
- ^ Messer-Davidow, E. (1995). "Manufacturing the Attack on Liberalized Higher Education: The Humanities and Society in the 1990s". In Newfield, C.; Strickland, R. (eds.). After Political Correctness: The Humanities and Society in the 1990s. Westview. pp. 38–78.
- Mink, Eric (6 October 2016). "Trump's Political-Correctness Con Job". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- "Conservative Correctness" chapter, in Wilson, John. 1995. The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on Higher Education. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 57.
- "Don Williams comments – Dixie Chicks Were Right". mach2.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
- Krugman, Paul (26 May 2012). "The New Political Correctness". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 March 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
- Kaufman, Scott Barry (20 November 2016). "The Personality of Political Correctness; The idea of political correctness is central to the culture wars of American politics". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
- "political correctness". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
- Safire, William (2008). Safire's political dictionary (Rev. ed.). New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195343342.
- Hughes, Geoffrey (2011). Political Correctness A History of Semantics and Culture. Wiley. ISBN 9781444360295.
- Bleifuss, Joel (February 2007). "A Politically Correct Lexicon". In These Times. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
- ^ Bellow, Allan Bloom; foreword by Saul (1988). The closing of the American mind (1st Touchstone ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0671657154. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Robinson, Sally (2000). Marked men white masculinity in crisis. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 17, 55–86. ISBN 978-0231500364. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
- Kamiya, Gary (22 January 1995). "Civilization & Its Discontents". San Francisco Chronicle Magazine. Archived from the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
- ^ Williams, Jeffrey (2013). PC Wars: Politics and Theory in the Academy. Routledge. p. 11. ISBN 978-1136656231. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- Gamson, Z.F. (1997). "The Stratification of the Academy". Social Text. 51 (51): 67–73. doi:10.2307/466647. JSTOR 466647.
- Platt, Tony. "Desegregating Multiculturalism: Problems in the Theory and Pedagogy of Diversity Education" (PDF). Pedagogies for Social Change. 29 (4 (90)). Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2015 – via Social Justice.
- ^ Berman, Paul, ed. (1992). Debating P.C.: the controversy over political correctness on college campuses. Random House Publishing. p. Introduction. ISBN 978-0307801784. Archived from the original on 3 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
- ^ Smith, Dorothy E. (1999). Writing the social: critique, theory, and investigations (Repr. ed.). Toronto (Ont.): University of Toronto Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-0802081353. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
- ^ Schwartz, Howard S. (1997). "Psychodynamics of Political Correctness". Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 33 (2): 133–49. doi:10.1177/0021886397332003. S2CID 144305581. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- ^ Valdes, Francisco; Culp, Jerome McCristal; Harris, Angela P., eds. (2002). Crossroads, directions, and a new critical race theory. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 59, 65. ISBN 978-1566399302. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- Browne, Anthony (2006). "The Retreat of Reason: Political Correctness and the Corruption of Public Debate in Modern Britain Archived 3 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine". Civitas. ISBN 1903386500.
- ^ Bernstein, Richard (28 October 1990). "Ideas & Trends: The Rising Hegemony of the Politically Correct". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 October 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
- Cho, Sumi (1997). "Essential Politics". Harvard Law Review. 433.
- ^ McFadden, Robert D. (5 May 1991). "Political Correctness: New Bias Test?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
- D'Souza 1991, Berman 1992, Schultz 1993, Messer-Davidow 1995, Scatamburlo 1998
- George H. W. Bush, at the University of Michigan (4 May 1991), Remarks at the University of Michigan Commencement Ceremony in Ann Arbor Archived 16 May 2004 at the Wayback Machine, 4 May 1991. George Bush Presidential Library.
- Aufderheide, Patricia (1992). Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding. Saint Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-1555971649.
- Meaghan, Morris (2013). New Keywords a Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Hoboken: Wiley. ISBN 978-1118725412. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015.
- ^ Kimball, Roger (1990). Tenured radicals: how politics has corrupted our higher education (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row – Originally University of Michigan. ISBN 978-0060161903.
- Lauter, Paul (1993). "'Political Correctness' and the Attack on American Colleges". The Radical Teacher (44): 34–40. ISSN 0191-4847. JSTOR 20709784.
- Axtell, James (1 January 1998). The Pleasures of Academe: A Celebration & Defense of Higher Education. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-1049-3.
- Scatamburlo, Valerie L. (1998). Soldiers of Misfortune: The New Right's Culture War and the Politics of Political Correctness. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 9780820430126.
- Glassner, Barry (5 January 2010). The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, & So Much More.
- Tomlinson, Sally (2008). Race and education: policy and politics in Britain (. ed.). Maidenhead : Open University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0335223077. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- Dekker, Teun J. (2013). Paying Our High Public Officials: Evaluating the Political Justifications of Top Wages in the Public Sector. Research in Public Administration and Public Policy. Routledge. p. 119. ISBN 978-1135131265. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- Toynbee, Polly. "Religion Must be Removed from all Functions of State" Archived 11 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 12 December 2001 – Accessed 6 February 2007.
- Toynbee, Polly (28 April 2009). "This Bold Equality Push is just what We Needed. In 1997". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
- Albrow, Martin (1997). The global age state and society beyond modernity (1st ed.). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0804728706. Archived from the original on 29 July 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
- "The Economist: Will Hutton, p. 81". The Economist. Economist Newspaper Limited. 2002. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
- Gyuris, Ferenc (2014). The Political Discourse of Spatial Disparities Geographical Inequalities Between Science and Propaganda. Cham: Springer International Publishing. p. 68. ISBN 978-3319015088. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
- Hutton, Will (2015). How Good We Can Be: Ending the Mercenary Society and Building a Great Country. Hachette UK. p. 80. ISBN 978-1408705322. Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
- Hutton, Will. "Words really are important, Mr Blunkett" Archived 31 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine The Observer, Sunday 16 December 2001 – Accessed 6 February 2007.
- Loury, G. C. (1 October 1994). "Self-Censorship in Public Discourse: A Theory of "Political Correctness" and Related Phenomena" (PDF). Rationality and Society. 6 (4): 428–61. doi:10.1177/1043463194006004002. S2CID 143057168. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- Hughes, Geoffrey (2015). An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World. Routledge. pp. 348–349.
- Adams, Joshua (12 June 2017). "Time for equal media treatment of 'political correctness'". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
- Nowrasteh, Alex (7 December 2016). "The right has its own version of political correctness. It's just as stifling". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 8 December 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- Heteren, Annette Gomis van (1997). Political correctness in context: the PC controversy in America. Almería: Universidad de Almería, Servicio de Publicaciones. p. 148. ISBN 978-8482400839. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
- D'Souza, Dinesh (1991). Illiberal education: the politics of race and sex on campus. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0684863849. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- "On the Follies of the Politically Correct Language Police | Psychology Today". www.psychologytoday.com. Archived from the original on 16 August 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- Larson, Jennifer, Mark McNeilly, and Timothy J. Ryan. "Free Expression and Constructive Dialogue at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Archived 23 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine." Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina (5 February 2020).
- Friedersdorf, Conor (16 February 2020). "Evidence That Conservative Students Really Do Self-Censor". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- Jamin, Jérôme (2014). "Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right". In Shekhovtsov, A.; Jackson, P. (eds.). The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 84–103. doi:10.1057/9781137396211.0009 (inactive 15 November 2024). ISBN 978-1137396198. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link) - Richardson, John E. (2015). "'Cultural-Marxism' and the British National Party: a transnational discourse". In Copsey, Nigel; Richardson, John E. (eds.). Cultures of Post-War British Fascism. Routledge. ISBN 9781317539360. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
- Jay, Martin (2010), "Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe". Salmagundi (Fall 2010–Winter 2011, 168–69): 30–40.
- Buchanan, Patrick. The Death of the West, p. 89.
- Lea, John (2010). Political Correctness and Higher Education: British and American Perspectives. Routledge. ISBN 978-1135895884. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- McGowan, William (2003). Coloring the news: how political correctness has corrupted American journalism (. ed.). San Francisco, Calif.: Encounter Books. ISBN 978-1893554603.
- Novak, Robert (March 1995). "Political Correctness Has No Place in the Newsroom". USA Today. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- Gorham, Joan (1996). Mass Media. Dushkin Publishing Group, Indiana University. ISBN 9780697316110. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- Sloan, David; Mackay, Jenn (2007). Media Bias. McFarland & Company. p. 112. ISBN 978-0786455058.
- Sloan, David; Hoff, Emily (1998). Contemporary media issues. Northport: Vision Press, Indiana University. p. 63. ISBN 978-1885219107. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- Wilson, John. 1995. The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on High Education. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 7 ISBN 978-0822317135.
- Boyd, Krys (17 February 2015). "The Limits Of Political Correctness (panel discussion)". Think (Podcast). KERA (FM). Retrieved 30 May 2022.
- "Inclusive Language Standards". University of Delaware. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
- "TidBits: The PC Manifesto". Fiction.net. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
- "Book – Buy Now". Capc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 May 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
- Rich, Frank (1 May 2005). "Conservatives ♥ 'South Park'". The New York Times.
- Bell, Crystal (17 September 2015). "'South Park' Perfectly Showed How To Do A Caitlyn Jenner Joke Right". MTV. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
- Caffrey, Dan (10 December 2015). "PC Principal rides the line between hero and villain on the season finale of South Park". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
- Steinberg, Dan (27 March 2014). "Colbert Report on Redskins' new foundation". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
- D'addario, Daniel (1 April 2014). "Stephen Colbert jokes about #CancelColbert: 'The system worked!'". Salon. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
- Bethell, Tom (2005). The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-0895260314.
Further reading
- Bernstein, David E. (2003). You Can't Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws. Cato Institute, 180 pages. ISBN 1930865538.
- Hentoff, Nat (1992). Free Speech for Me – But Not for Thee. HarperCollins. ISBN 006019006X.
- Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M. (1998). The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. W.W. Norton, revised edition. ISBN 0393318540.
- Debra L. Schultz (1993). To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the "Political Correctness" Debates in Higher Education. New York: National Council for Research on Women. ISBN 978-1880547137.
- John Wilson (1995). The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on High Education. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-1713-5.