From: prs9k@brain.med.virginia.edu (Phil Scarr)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Political Correctness + Sci-fi
Date: 30 Dec 92 12:51:12 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Neuroclinical Trials Center, University of Virginia

In article <1992Dec30.094024.24327@netcom.com> mvp@netcom.com (Mike Van Pelt) writes:
>In article <1992Dec27.220152.3293@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> prs9k@brain.med.virginia.edu (Phil Scarr) writes:
>>To open this discussion, I would like to ask Michael to define PC
>>because it is clear to me that he is using the tokenized PC concocted by
>>the now-defunct Republican spin-machine to talk about a body of thought
>>of which they had precious little comprehension.
>
>A good example of PC-ness of the most brain-dead sort is the people who
>consider William Shockley a racist, but do *not* consider Leonard
>Jeffries to be a racist.  (My opinion -- racists are racists, no matter
>what color sheet they're wearing.)

Well, there is an argument which can be made to varying degrees of
success that minorities, while the can certainly be bigots (like
Jeffries or Farakahn) cannot be racists because racism is an exercise in
prejudice combined with power to enforce that prejudice.  Ergo,
disempowered people like African-Americans cannot, by definition, be
racists.  But they can be bigots.

>
>>In a nutshell, this body of thought which has emerged over the last 10
>>years seeks to broaden the literary cannon to include works by non-DWM
>>(dead white males) which deserve inclusion but which have been
>>traditionally excluded due to institutional bias, racism, or just plain
>>ignorance of their existance.
>
>I don't see how anyone could reasonably argue against this.
>
>>Now there is also a harder edge to this thought, a more radical side
>>which seeks to undermine the cannon, to toss it out as fundamentally
>>flawed.  I don't agree with this argument, but I still consider myself
>>to be "politically correct."
>
>How about all the Stanford students and faculty parading around
>chanting "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Western Culture's got to go." It seems
>to me that the "radical fringe" is more mainstream among the
>"multiculturists" than you seem to believe.

Aside from the humor value of such an image, and the shock value it
presents to those who feel that the literary and cultural canon is "just
fine the way it is, thank you", I see nothing wrong with what they did.
It seems a bit naive, but otherwise a noble effort to raise the
collective academic conscience to the cries of the un-represented.  I
think that most faculty recognize the need to INTEGRATE new works,
rather than REPLACE old ones.  It simply means that english majors will
have more to read before they can get their degrees.  :)


>-- 
>Mike Van Pelt          | What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth?
>mvp@netcom.com         | Judging from realistic simulations involving a
>                       | sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we
>                       | can assume it will be pretty bad. -- Dave Barry

	-Phil
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