Political Correctness

The most familiar form that the PC debate has taken relates to campus "speech codes" that seek to bar or restrict language felt to be racist or to be demeaning and stereotyping of other groups. Thus, "one school requires that short people be called the "vertically challenged" (Beckwith & Bauman, 1993, p. 12 n. 3). However, the PC speech debate is only one aspect of a much broader debate, which in one direction has embraced a variety of restraints upon conduct (particularly sexual conduct) on campuses and in another direction has raised the question of what the core curriculum or "canon" of courses (particularly in literature and kindred fields) ought to be at American universities. It is closely linked to, though not identical with, the debate over "multiculturalism," or what traditions and perspectives ought to be considered normative on campus, in the curriculum, and more broadly in American life.

The emphasis in the following discussion is on PC language and language codes and the debate surrounding them, but, because the

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traint," in short, seems to be the centerpiece of this onslaught. (Choi & Murphy, 1992, p. 12) Setting aside the motives of the champions of PC speech and their opponents, we may suggest that the call for PC language has two fundamental defects, one relating to the nature of language and the other to the nature of college students. Taking these in order, the essential goal of PC speech codes is to heighten awareness of the offensive power of language and to discourage its use. The preamble to the Smith College list of discriminatory "isms" notes that "as groups begin the process of realizing that they are oppressed and why, new words tend to be created to express the concepts that the existing language cannot," e.g., "Abelism: oppression of the differently abled, by the temporarily able" (Beckwith & Bauman, 1993, p. 10). In this definition, "differently abled" means what would formerly have been characterized as "disabled," and in a still earlier period simply as "crippled" (or blind, etc.). The intent is of course to call attention to the fact that these individuals are not necessarily "disabled" but may well have developed different abilities to a higher pitch, e.g., the familiar ability of the blind to locate th
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Approximate Word count = 2158
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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