Political Correctness

The social and cultural phenomenon known as political correctness emerged on American college campuses during the 1980s and became a part of the larger cultural scene in the 1990s.  Political correctness was neither a social movement nor a coherent political platform, but rather a tendency among governing bodies, especially in academic institutions, to police the spoken, written, or implied beliefs of those with whom they disagreed.  Organizations and individuals behaved in a politically correct, or PC, manner when they attempted to restrict the rights of others to espouse opposing beliefs or to use offensive language.  To its critics, primarily conservatives, political correctness was censorship, pure and simple; to its proponents, primarily liberals, it was an attempt to create an environment in which no one gave or took offense. 

The historical origins of the term political correctness are unclear but telling.  Some trace the origins of political correctness to Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung, who debated the origins of correct ideas in his Little Red Book.  The term was used even earlier, however, when in 1793 a U.S. Supreme Court justice wrote in an opinion, "This is not politically correct."  In Russia in the 1930s, Stalinists used the phrase to evoke a "sense of historical certitude."  Leninists used the phrase to describe those steadfast to their party affiliations.  The phrase was used in the 1960s to describe people who altered their manners and beliefs to fit the prevailing political movements.  But political correctness at the end of the twentieth century took on its meaning beginning in the 1980s, when conservative campus advocates began using the phrase to describe the leftist movement to increase multicultural, gay, and feminist studies and to impose codes of conduct that would eliminate behaviors deemed racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise unacceptable.  Political correctness was thus a pejorative term used by conservatives to describe what they perceived as an attempt to undermine their values. 

Whatever its origins, it is clear that political correctness was born of political power, and exerted by socially or politically powerful blocs attempting to establish norms for behavior and speech.  When those politically powerful groups first emerged on college campuses in the 1980s, they were largely identified with the generation of academics who had come of age in the 1960s and had recently acquired enough power, through tenure or academic leadership, to enact their agenda.  Under the banner of a celebration of American multiculturalism, politically correct academics encouraged the study of feminism, homosexuality, and ethnicity, all in an attempt to give oppressed groups a stronger voice in society.  Politically correct theorists proposed that oppressive white males of European descent had dominated American history for long enough, and that it was time to value the contributions of other social and cultural groups. 

The concrete impact of political correctness on college campuses came in the creation of codes of conduct and the establishment of courses and departments dedicated to the study of previously marginalized topics.  Codes of conduct took many forms across college campuses.  Speech and harassment codes punished verbal or physical conduct (epithets, slurs, graphic materials, etc.)  that offended an individual or group of individuals.  While most such codes were inherently reasonable—how could one favor date rape?—critics claimed that they were used to silence the opinions of conservative white males and that they were enforced, often without regard to due process, by governing bodies eager to serve the needs of the so-called oppressed minorities.  As politically correct ideals were mandated, open and honest debate declined.  Students and faculty feared being labeled incorrect and faced serious punishment if they violated broadly defined and sometimes subjective speech codes.  Although conduct codes were created with good intentions, many students and faculty felt the codes limited academic freedoms and constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly. 

Multicultural studies were intended to make higher education more demographically and culturally inclusive.  Feminist and homosexual studies followed the multicultural movement, and quickly became established in college curricula.  Supporters of political correctness claimed that they were attempting to broaden the canons of classical texts and studies by including works by women and minority groups.  Conservatives and traditionalists argued that politically correct professors taught the ideas of inferior female or minority authors instead of civilization's greatest authors and philosophers.  Stanford University, for one, engaged in a very public and divisive debate over which books to include in its curriculum in the late 1980s. 

Political correctness did not descend on campuses overnight, nor did it change college curriculums without a fight.  As they began to perceive the ill effects of political correctness, social and political conservatives and liberal proponents of free expression began to articulate their opposition to the changing political atmosphere.  Opponents of political correctness decried the inclusion of what they deemed inferior subject matter into the curriculum, charged that politically correct professors were intimidating students into expressing only politically correct beliefs, and hailed the crackdown on anything politically incorrect as a new kind of McCarthyism.  These fights between liberals and conservatives were soon carried out in public debates, in articles and books, and on talks shows, thus bringing political correctness to the attention of mainstream culture. 

Many governmental organizations soon found themselves facing similar issues to those debated on college campuses in the 1980s as they attempted to define how they would deal with such issues as gays in the workplace and the military, sexual harassment, and hate crimes.  On both a state and a national level, legislatures argued over whether to adjust laws to extend special protections to women, homosexuals, or minorities.  The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, the backlash against any form of sexual harassment that followed the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill Senate Hearings in 1991, and the passage of hate crime legislation all seemed to indicate that political correctness had found its way into American law.  But the passage of anti-Affirmative Action legislation in California and Washington in the late 1990s indicated that the tide might be turning against legislation intended to protect minority groups. 

Perhaps the most pervasive impact of political correctness on American culture came with regard to language.  In an effort to show no disrespect for anyone, promoters of political correctness largely succeeded in reducing the number of offensive or inaccurate names used to refer to people.  For example, descendants of historically oppressed groups are now called "Native Americans" instead of "Indians" and "African Americans" instead of "blacks." ( But descendants of groups that are predominantly of European origin—Italians, Germans, Irish, etc.—did not receive new classifications.)  Euphemistic language emerged as a means to prevent offending the sensitivities of others.  Examples include using the term "sanitation engineer" instead of garbage man, and "firefighter" instead of fireman.  The mentally retarded or physically handicapped became "challenged."  It also became politically correct behavior to recycle, to oppose wearing fur, and to accept homosexuality as an "alternative lifestyle."  Though such language became the source of frequent jokes—short people became known as "vertically challenged," for example—its impact was far reaching. 

By the late 1990s, open public discussion of political correctness had largely ended, in large part because it had been naturalized into the cultural landscape.  To its credit, political correctness helped create a new politeness and sensitivity to differences among American cultural groups.  However, by pointing out the differences and mandating codes of behavior, it also heightened hostilities between opposing political sides and contributed to the culture wars of the late twentieth century. 

—Debra Lucas Muscoreil

Further Reading:

Berman, Paul, editor.  Debating P.C.: The Controversy over Political Correctness on College Campuses.  New York, Dell Publishing, 1992. 

CQ Researcher.  Academic Politics.  Washington, D.C., Congressional Quarterly Reports, 1996. 

Darnovsky, Marcy, Barbara Epstein, and Richard Flacks.  Cultural Politics and Social Movements.  Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1995. 

Dickman, Howard, editor.  The Imperiled Academy.  New Brunswick, Transaction Publishers, 1993. 

D'Sousa, Dinesh.  Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus.  New York, Free Press, 1991. 

Gitlin, Todd.  The Twilight of Common Dreams.  New York, Holt, 1995. 

Henthoff, Nat.  Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee.  New York, Harper Collins, 1992. 

Sacks, David O., and Peter A. Thiel.  The Diversity Myth: "Multiculturalism" and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford.  Oakland, Independent Institute, 1995. 

Wilson, John.  The Myth of Political Correctness.  North Carolina, Duke University Press, 1995.