I posted yesterday on why I thought Cumberbatch's use of the word colored shouldn't be easily dismissed. Predictably--although maybe not, because this is a liberal website--I was accused of political correctness.
Right on the heels of that comes Jonathan Chait's essay in New York magazine arguing that political correctness has gotten out of control among liberals:
Political correctness is a style of politics in which the more radical members of the left attempt to regulate political discourse by defining opposing views as bigoted and illegitimate... Today’s political correctness flourishes most consequentially on social media, where it enjoys a frisson of cool and vast new cultural reach. And since social media is also now the milieu that hosts most political debate, the new p.c. has attained an influence over mainstream journalism and commentary beyond that of the old.
Ironically, Chait uses the same sleight of hand to make his argument that the right does when proclaiming there's a war against Christmas or saying that welfare recipients are cheats--he cites a few egregious examples as proof of a larger social phenomenon. But as a journalism professor once told me, the exception does not prove the rule.
We need a better definition of political correctness. I would say it's instilling an awareness in people that what you say can be differently interpreted by people of a different race, class, sex, and ethnicity.
I can't see what's particularly objectionable about that. It's no different than when you travel to Saudi Arabia and refrain from crossing your legs because you know the Saudis consider it culturally offensive. It should be forgiven if it happens once or twice, but it's still insensitive. Just because African Americans or Hispanics live in this country doesn't mean their culture lacks equally legitimate strictures or conventions.
I'm not going to say that the forces of political correctness do not go overboard, especially on college campuses where youth have always been inclined to get overzealous. But what doesn't get mentioned are the instances of political correctness' success: men not bragging of their sexual conquests in the workplace; a grade school student understanding how we mistreated Native Americans; a white college student realizing the original version of the Constitution was racist.
Again, all this is about acknowledging that other people have had different experiences than our own and that our choice of words can either recognize or deny these differences.