{"id":241,"date":"2016-08-28T17:35:11","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T21:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/landishouse\/?p=241"},"modified":"2016-08-28T17:43:01","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T21:43:01","slug":"political-correctness-civility-not-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/2016\/08\/28\/political-correctness-civility-not-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Correctness: Civility, Not Censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contempt for political correctness has been pervasive this summer. It has been a continuing thread in the political rhetoric of the Presidential election (see here<\/a> and here<\/a> for examples). Political correctness has been a common theme in the plethora of blog posts and media coverage about trigger warnings in the classroom (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>). The University of Chicago\u2019s welcome letter to its incoming class<\/a> is one of the most recent entries into public discourse, prompting many responses decrying the letter, including this<\/a>, this<\/a> and this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one version<\/a> of the history of the term \u201cpolitical correctness,\u201d which reflects how malleable and fluid the term has been. This interesting project<\/a> from the Seattle Times provides a range of perspectives on the notion of political correctness from a wide variety of people. Many of their comments are similar to these: \u201cIt\u2019s just basic human decency that we treat others with respect.\u201d \u201cHow do I make sure I say things that respect the dignity and humanity of the person in front of me?\u201d But there are also comments that are hostile to the term or invoke the idea of free speech being threatened by political correctness.<\/p>\n

In BJ Gallagher\u2019s column<\/a>, he echoes this concern, arguing that political correctness interrupts \u201cauthentic speech.\u201d He goes on to suggest that \u201c[w]e will never rid our country of prejudice, racism, sexism, bigotry, and xenophobia by prohibiting uncomfortable, painful conversations.\u201d Alyssa Rosenberg<\/a> counters this point, noting that the \u201csad thing about so much supposed truth-telling is that their supposed transgressions aren\u2019t remotely risky.\u00a0They\u2019re just rude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today was Dickinson College\u2019s<\/a> Convocation. As Interim President Weissman welcomed our incoming class of 2020, he talked about the importance of civility in spaces where we want to \u2013 and should \u2013 have healthy, robust dialogue and discussion. As an educator, I know that sometimes the deepest learning comes from a place of discomfort. But there is a difference between sitting with discomfort in order to learn and to have courageous conversations, and the continued misguided and hostile insistence on having the right to use offensive and inflammatory language. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a> notes that \u201c[o]ur country needs more sensitivity, not less.\u201d I agree.<\/p>\n

Written by Donna M. Bickford, Ph.D., Director, Women\u2019s and Gender Resource Center<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contempt for political correctness has been pervasive this summer. It has been a continuing thread in the political rhetoric of the Presidential election (see here and here for examples). Political correctness has been a common theme in the plethora of blog posts and media coverage about trigger warnings in the classroom (see here and here)….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2971,"featured_media":253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126322,126323,2765,126304],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-civility","category-political-correctness","category-social-justice","category-wgrc","alt-left"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2971"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/officeofequityandinclusivity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}