Universität Osnabrück
Fachbereich Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft

Seminar: English as a Global Language

Watch your language! - The debate on political correctness

Klaus Storm

Contents

1 Introduction ... 4

2 The debate on pc ... 4

2.1 What is "political correctness"? ... 4
2.2 History of the term "pc" ... 5
2.3 Censorship and pc ... 6

3 Linguistic questions on the pc-debate ... 8

3.1 “Not pc!” – “Feminazis” and the “Republican Revolution” ... 8
3.2 “Don’t you say!” - speech codes ... 11

4 Conclusion ... 13

5. References ... 14

5.1. books and articles ... 14
5.2. Internet research (selection) ... 14

1 Introduction

Especially in the current German “Nationalstolzdebatte” the term “political correctness”¹ has it’s comeback in the 21st century. Laurenz Meyer is proud of his country. But: are you still allowed to be a German patriot (after the holocaust of the 3rd Reich took place here)? Is this pc?

His opponent in this debate is the minister for environmental issues, Juergen Trittin. He called his antagonist a “Skinhead”. Can you compare a politician with a neo-nazi that lays violent hand on somebody? Is this pc?
Generally: The question “pc or not pc” appears whenever a taboo is discussed.

But what exactly is political correctness? How did the term emerge? Where are the origins of the pc-myth? What is the history of the pc-debate? This essay will try to give the answers.

In the first chapter I will show the roots of the term “political correctness”. The historical development will be shown. The debate about censorship and political dependence of pc is portrayed as well.

Later I will focus even more on the linguistic aspects of pc. The prime linguistic questions are described and some expressions are examined. Finally there is a short analysis of the need for speech codes

2 The debate on pc

2.1 What is "political correctness"?

The term "political correctness", pc for short, made its appearance in the American media in the early 90`s. Articles and broadcasts warned against a threat to American universities and the idea of liberal education. The villains were feminists, multiculturalists and "tenured radicals" who seemed to have taken control of the universities.

"political correctness" became the cry of the conservative critics at the universities. This expression had the advantage that a variety of groups with "leftist" agendas - groups that stood for

- multiculturalism
- affirmative action
- speech codes
- feminism
- gay and lesbian rights

could be united into a single conspiracy by the conservatives.²
They saw themselves as “the defenders of Western Culture”.

The conservatives were successful in establishing pc as a term with extremely negative connotations. Many Americans would now link the phrase to a "repressive agenda" set forth by "tenured radicals".³ John Wilson recalls from his own college experience that

"whenever conservatives were criticized or a leftist expressed extreme ideas, the story quick became another anecdote of political correctness. But whenever someone on the Left was censored - often with the approval of the same conservatives who complained about the pc police - nobody called it political correctness (...)"⁴

The "pc horror" attracted more media attention than racist or homophobic attacks on campuses - and more attention than what Wilson calls "fiscal correctness": It was the wave of cutbacks in state funding of higher education and the limited access to education for poorer students.

[...]

1 „pc“ is used as a surrogate for „political correctness“ in this essay
2 John K. Wilson: The Myth of Political correctness. The Conservative Attack on Higher Education. Duke University Press, Durham 1995, p. 1
3 Richard Feldstein: Political correctness. A Response from the Cultural Left. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1997, p. 1
4 Wilson: Myth, p. XV