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Political correctness ('''PC''' or '''politically correct''') is a term used to describe language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen as seeking to minimize offense to racial, cultural, or other identity groups. The term is also used in a broader sense to describe adherence to any political or cultural Orthodoxy . Conversely, the term '''politically incorrect''' is used to refer to language or ideas that may cause offense; or that are unconstrained by orthodoxy. The term itself and its usage are hotly contested. The term "political correctness" is used almost exclusively in a Pejorative sense.Schultz, Debra L. (1993). To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the “Political Correctness” Debates in Higher Education. New York: National Council for Research on Women.Ruth Perry, (1992), "A short history of the term 'politically correct' " in ''Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding '' by Aufderheide, Patricia 1992 Those who use the term in a critical fashion often express a concern that public discourse, academia, and the sciences have been dominated by liberal, anti-religious viewpoints.See for example 1 Some commentators, usually on the political left, have argued that the term "political correctness" is a Straw Man invented by the New Right to discredit progressive social change, especially around issues of race and gender.Schultz, Debra L. (1993). To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the “Political Correctness” Debates in Higher Education. New York: National Council for Research on Women.Messer-Davidow 1993, 1994; Schultz 1993; Lauter 1995; Scatamburlo 1998; Glassner 1999. HISTORY The often quoted earliest cited usage of the term (in the form "not politically correct") comes from the U.S. Supreme Court decision '' Chisholm V. Georgia '' (1793), where it clearly means that the statement it refers to is not literally correct, owing to the political status of the United States as it was understood at that time. Chisholm v State of GA, 2 US 419 (1793) ''Findlaw.com'' - Accessed February 6, 2007. "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." , commonly referred to as the "correct line" 3. The term was used in Communist countries, and by communist and Trotskyist parties: ''"Instead of proving his political correctness and mobilizing the masses, he often chose the path of Repression and physical annihilation, not only against actual enemies, but also against individuals who had not committed any crimes against the party and the Soviet Government . Here we see no wisdom but only a demonstration of the brutal force which had once so alarmed V.I Lenin . . . ."'' [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1956khrushchev-secret1.html Nikita S. Khrushchev: The Secret Speech - On the Cult of Personality, 1956 It was then adopted in several related meanings by some in the U.S. political Left . One example cited by Ruth Perry is in 1970, in Toni Cade's The Black Woman: "And a man cannot be politically correct and a chauvinist too". This example illustrates the later usage of the term to focus on gender and identity issues rather than on political orthodoxy in general. By the late 1970s this term, re-appropriated as a satirical form of criticism, was being used by some on the Left to dismiss the views of other Leftists whom they deemed too doctrinaire and rigid. It was in this sense that the popular usage of the phrase in English derived, Ruth Perry, (1992), "A short history of the term 'politically correct' " in Aufderheide 19924 and was employed by such narrators as Bobby London in his Underground Comic '' Merton Of The Movement ''. The alternative term "ideologically sound" followed a similar trajectory to this point, appearing in satirical works such as Bart Dickon comic strips. In an example typical of use within the left, Ellen Willis records that "in the early '80s, 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'". Ellen Willis , "Toward a Feminist Revolution", in ''No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays'', Wesleyan University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8195-5250-X, p. 19. In the 1990s, the term became part of a conservative challenge to curriculum and teaching methods on college campuses in the United States (D'Souza 1991; Berman 1992; Schultz 1993; Messer Davidow 1993, 1994; Scatamburlo 1998). In a commencement address at the 1991 . George Bush Presidential Library. |
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