Political Correctness
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political correctness John Jay Press, 1985. Sections on discretion, under- women and racial minorities. Major universities like cover operations, deadly force, etc. Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the Uni- Kerner, Otto. Report of the National Advisory Commis- versity of Wisconsin instituted speech codes aimed sion on Civil Disorders. Introduction by Tom Wicker. New York: Dutton, 1968. Originally published, Wash- at controlling hate speech. The political correctness ington, D.C.: GPO, 1968. debates (also referred to as the culture wars) sub- Kleinig, John. The Ethics of Policing. Cambridge: Cam- sequently took off in 1990 and 1991 in a series of bridge University Press, 1996. The most comprehen- articles in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, sive and astute treatment of issues in police ethics. the New York Times, Time, the Village Voice, and ———, ed. Handled with Discretion: Ethical Issues in Po- Atlantic Monthly about the new political correctness lice Decision Making. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and on campuses. In May 1991, President George Bush Littlefield, 1996. See Michael Davis (pp. 13–35) on types of discretion. delivered his commencement address at the Univer- Pollock, Joycelyn M. Ethics in Crime and Justice: Dilem- sity of Michigan on the dangers of political correct- mas and Decisions. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1994. ness. Since then, “politically correct” has come to be Section 6 (pp. 91–135) on “Ethics and Law Enforce- used to characterize curriculum revisions, campus ment.” speech codes, harassment policies, affirmative ac- Scarman, Leslie George. The Brixton Disorders, 10–12 tion in college admissions and hiring, the use of new April 1981: Report of an Inquiry. Harmondsworth, descriptors for minorities (e.g., African American, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1982. The Scarman Re- port. Remainder of title: Presented to Parliament by the Native American, learning disabled), new NORMS for Secretary of State for the Home Department by Com- interacting with women and racial or cultural mi- mand of Her Majesty, November 1981. Originally pub- norities (e.g., avoiding genteel “ladies first” policies), lished, London: HMSO, 1981. and generally, to any change in language, policy, so- Whren et al. v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996). cial behavior, and cultural representation that is Timothy Stroup aimed at avoiding or correcting a narrowly Eurocen- tric world view and the long-standing subordination political correctness of some social groups. Originating in debates over the content of higher education, the terms “politi- cally correct” or “PC” are now routinely used outside History and Definition of the academy. The term “politically correct” appears to have The current political correctness debates were originally been used in leftist circles either approv- preceded by a set of social (or identity politics) ingly to refer to someone who correctly adheres to movements, legislative initiatives, and theoretical the party line, or more often ironically and disap- developments that motivated members of the acad- provingly to someone whose adherence to the Com- emy to become mindful of the politics of education. munist Party line was excessive, tiresome, and be- The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s that was yond good sense. Confessions of being politically followed by the women’s rights movement, gay and incorrect might also be used self-deprecatingly to re- lesbian liberation movement, animal liberation move- fer to one’s own backsliding. ment, and public attention to the culturally dises- In the mid- to late-1980s, neoconservative schol- teemed status of Native Americans, various ethnic ars, many of whom were members of the National minorities, and the physically and mentally disabled Association of Scholars, began to use “political cor- all had substantial cultural and legal impacts that in rectness” as a term of disparagement for a variety of turn affected the academy. Cumulatively, these move- curriculum transformation projects. Women’s stud- ments have underscored the significance of the femi- ies programs, ethnic studies programs, and curric- nist slogan “the personal is political.” That is, areas ulum revisions designed to make college courses, es- of social life that were conventionally taken to be pecially in literature and history, more multicultural apolitical, such as everyday language, the canon of were charged with being part of a new wave of po- literary classics, jokes, advertising, norms of polite- litical correctness on college and university cam- ness, hiring decisions, and sports funding, came in- puses. In 1989, Stanford University made a much creasingly to be seen as potential sites for enacting publicized revision in its core Western Civilization racism, sexism, and Eurocentrism. Attention to the courses to de-emphasize the West and to include politics of traditional university curricula was a nat- 1337 political correctness ural outgrowth of this expanded sense of the politi- given precedence over other goals. For instance, cal. These social movements also issued in a set of women’s studies and African American studies pro- legal initiatives that significantly affected educa- grams have been described as prioritizing political tional policy, most notably, the desegregation of edu- aims at the expense of educational ones. The term cation mandated in Brown v. Board of Education of “politically correct,” partly in virtue of its historical Topeka (1954), Title IV of the Civil Rights Act association with the Communist Party, also implies (1964) that prohibited DISCRIMINATION against mem- that democratic liberties are being interfered with, bers of “suspect categories,” and Title IX of the Edu- most notably free speech and academic freedom. In- cational Amendments (1972) that prohibited sex deed, political correctness has been equated with discrimination in education. Finally, the rise of POST- “thought police” and a “new McCarthyism.” MODERNISM and deconstructionism, particularly in Because the term “politically correct” implies literature departments, provided the theoretical ap- dogmatic, illiberal toeing of a party line and because paratus for analyzing the politics of claims to truth “politically incorrect” implies a refusal to give poli- and objectivity and for investigating the role that tics priority, both terms exclude what defenders of scholarship plays in the social construction of reality. curriculum transformation projects, speech codes, Critics of foundationalist epistemology argued that antiharassment policies, new social norms, and new knowledge is perspectival and historically and cul- descriptors for women and minorities in fact advo- turally situated. More importantly, it was argued that cate—political thoughtfulness. the sciences, social sciences, and humanities have historically excluded the perspectives of nonwest- Moral Language and Cultural Criticism ern, nonwhite and nonmale people, have used biased standards for what counts as good scholarship, and Becoming thoughtful about the social construc- have produced theories and “factual” narratives dis- tion of culturally disesteemed gender, racial, ethnic, torted by the cultural ideologies that sustain domi- economic, national, sexual, religious, age, and ability nance systems. If truth claims themselves can serve identities and the ways in which prejudice and a political function, the academy could not claim to second-class citizenship are socially institutionalized be politically neutral simply because it was devoted is necessarily a political matter. It is thoughtfulness to the pursuit of truth. about the way that POWER—economic, epistemic, “Politically correct” now carries a complex set of cultural, and legal—is sustained for some and de- meanings. To describe an academic program, a bit nied to others. It is thoughtfulness about what it of social behavior, or a new descriptor (e.g., “chair” would take to realize two of our most basic political rather than “chairman”) as politically correct is to values: EQUALITY and democratic decision making. imply that while it correctly conforms to a liberal From the late 1880s through the 1970s, political academic party line, it is incorrect by some other thoughtfulness about inequality was heavily devoted more important or more substantive measure; it is to critiquing the formal differential treatment of ra- educationally unsound, unjust, an illegitimate inter- cial minorities and women in law and policy. In ac- ference with free speech, or simply unnecessary or ademia, that originally meant opening college and silly. “Politically correct” also implies the presence university doors to blacks, women, and Jews; and of a sufficient power base to enforce compliance later, enforcing antidiscrimination policies. Although with whatever is politically correct, either through formal RIGHTS are critical to securing equality for formal penalties or informal disapproval and shun- disadvantaged social groups, extralegal cultural fac- ning. That is, it implies the presence of political cor- tors affect individuals’ ability to exercise those rights rectors and the threat of being corrected. As a result, and have them respected. Extralegal cultural factors political correctness is implicitly linked with author- also determine whether or not equal rights translate itarianism, COERCION, CENSORSHIP, and the bad into equally dignified treatment generally, freedom taste to correct others’ manners. from bias-motivated violence, equal engagement in To describe an academic program, a bit of social the production