QOTD: Cornel West on Political Correctness

“Political correctness was coined by a slice of intelligensia known to trivialize other people’s injuries.”
– Cornel West in an awesome 2004 Stanford Aurora Forum Talk

It’s a long talk, but worth it during a long walk, day in, or traffic hell. Lyrical delivery, reflections on the limitations of academic discourse in the pursuit of social justice, and much more. Video, transcript, and mp3 link available at the bottom of Stanford Aurora Forum: Cornel West

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  1. I agree entirely with West’s definition. The problem is that some injuries really are trivial.

    At my university, in the early 90s (the height of PC insanity) there was a woman who protested the name of her “master’s” degree, saying she only wanted to be known as a “mistress” of arts. Because, she claimed, the word “master” was a slaveowner word associated with colonialism.

    And, never mind that the word “mistress”, in its contemporary meaning, is a subordinate sexual relationship. Furthermore in pretty much every other field, we try for non-sexist terms, like “firefighter” over “fireman”. I asked one of these women if she meant to say that her knowledge and qualifications were somehow different from a man’s and she said yes.

    Anyway, she and a very small cabal of like-minded people forced the administration to have whole new policies about the naming of degrees; now you can get “magisteriate” degrees instead. I ask you, is this really a victory for feminism? Or anybody?

    I agree that the concept of PC has often been invoked to cover real injuries and truly offensive behaviour (but I’ve always called my students “dollface”!) That said, there is, or was, a real phenomenon, and it wasn’t a good thing for the left.