A Politically Correct Lexicon: Your ‘how-to’ guide to avoid offending anyone
By Joel Bleifuss
In the late ’70s, “politically correct,” “PC” for short, entered the public lexicon. Folks on the left used the term to dismiss views that were seen as too rigid and, also, to poke fun at themselves for the immense care they took to neither say nor do anything that might offend the political sensibilities of others. “You are so PC,” one would say with a smile. In the ’80s, the right, taking the words at face value, latched on to the term and used it to deride leftish voices. Beleaguered progressives, ever earnest, then defended political correctness as a worthy concept, thus validating conservatives’ derision. Today, on both the left and the right, being PC is no laughing matter; three decades of culture wars have generated a bewildering thicket of terminology.
To help me parse what’s PC and what’s not, I had help from people attuned to the nuances of words, particularly those that describe race, ethnicity and sexual identity. Rinku Sen is a 40-year-old South Asian woman. She is the publisher of Colorlines, a national magazine of race and politics, for which she has developed a PC style manual. Tracy Baim is a 44-year-old white lesbian. She grapples with the ever-evolving nomenclature of sexual identity and politics as the executive editor of Windy City Times, a Chicago-based gay weekly. Lott Hill is a 36-year-old white gay male who works at Center for Teaching Excellence at Columbia College in Chicago. He interacts with lots of young people—the font from which much new language usage flows.
Some excerpts:
African American: In 1988 Jesse Jackson encouraged people to adopt this term over the then-used “black.” As he saw it, the words acknowledged black America’s ties to Africa. “African American,” says Hill, is now “used more by non-African-American people, who cling to it because they are unsure what word to use.” Sen says, “African American” is favored by “highly educated people who are not black. Whether one uses ‘black’ or ‘African American’ indicates how strong your social relations are with those communities.” And Chris Raab, founder of Afro-Netizen, says, “People who are politically correct chose to use African American, but I don’t recall any mass of black folks demanding the use of African American.”
Asian: The correct term to use for anyone of Asian ancestry. When accuracy is desired, nationality of origin is appended to “American,” as in “Korean American.” Sen, who describes herself as South Asian or Indian American, says that there is “some push around not conflating everybody into Asian. This is mostly an issue among new immigrants. If there hasn’t been time for a generation, it seems to be hard to move those folks to the Asian category.”
Bitch: A word, says Baim, which is “absolutely being reclaimed by a younger generation of women who are asserting their sexuality and control of their sexuality.” Successfully repurposed by Bitch magazine over the past decade, ‘Bitch’ is now becoming passé as less edgy writers like Cathi Hanauer, author of The Bitch in the House, adopt it. Similarly, though more slowly, “slut,” “whore” and “cunt” are being reappropriated. “The young people use those terms all the time teasingly and sometimes to even refer to themselves,” says Hill. “It is more common to hear someone say ‘I am a slut’ than ‘I am a whore.’ ” “Cunt” is gaining currency among some young lesbians, though Baim says it is a word that gets stuck in her throat. “While it is a reclaimed word, it is one I can hardly say, the same way some older blacks have trouble saying the n-word.” [READ FULL STORY]
Politics
From Mother Jones, everything you've always wanted to know about Iraq but were afraid to ask. Pretty informative for those who don't read the world news everyday.
From Counterpunch: Changing the World, One Laugh at a Time: The Daily Show and Political Activism
Entertainment
Idi Amin's son lashes out at The Last King of Scotland
Forest WhitakerKAMPALA, Uganda - Forest Whitaker is hotly tipped to win an Oscar on Sunday for his portrayal of Idi Amin in the movie "The Last King of Scotland."
But for the former tyrant's son Jaffar, the performance failed to capture the tall, powerful man he still describes as his "Big Daddy." The Amin family has shunned the media for over two decades, but now that the film has put the Ugandan dictator back into the spotlight, his son wants to set the record straight.
"Dad is the only person that has ever been accused and sentenced, incarcerated by opinion, without it ever reaching any courthouse," Jaffar Amin said in an interview with the Associated Press, calling for a truth and reconciliation committee to investigate that dark period in Uganda's history.
Jaffar Amin, a 40-year-old father of five with broad shoulders, confident demeanor and rich baritone voice, bears a striking resemblance to his father.
Though he doesn't deny the atrocities attributed to his father during his reign of terror, he says the film will compound many of the negative images on which he is now trying to shed light.
He acknowledges he faces a difficult battle trying to humanize Idi Amin.
"Dad's image cannot be changed," he sighed. "If I bring an understanding, it will be very little because he's in a compartment and getting him out of there will take a thousand years. But I believe my father would take it on the chin whatever they say about him." [READ FULL STORY]
Interview with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Many people see the Internet as being somehow dangerous. How can the goodness of people be harnessed in the Web?
Newmark: You can let people vote. You can give people a voice for saying what they have to say. Blogging technologies give everyone a printing press. There are people who have good opinions and are very eloquent, and who can sometimes have great influence. I understand there was a very good blogger in Germany 500 or 600 years ago called Martin Luther, and he was very influential -- using an earlier version of the Internet.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Church doors?
Newmark: Yes. Some years later, John Locke in Britain spoke out, using blogging in the sense of publishing his own opinion, and helped create and justify the Glorious Revolution in Britain -- which led to a greater distribution of power. The same goes for Thomas Paine in the US later on. The Internet is just fostering that sort of thing today. It's already happening..."[READ FULL STORY]
'Civilization' and Its Contents: A video game for the ages
"...Since the first version of Civilization came out in 1991, about 8 million units have been sold. The current edition, Civilization IV, has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide in the last two years. Search the word "civilization" in Google and over 42 million hits will result, with an astonishing proportion of them dedicated to the game. Civilization's adherents are found in college dorms, faculty lounges, boardrooms, army barracks, and probably in the cubicle next to yours, where your co-worker seems to spend an inhuman number of uninterrupted hours hunched over his keyboard. The players are about 90 percent male, most between the ages of 18 and 45. Many pick the game up in college but continue playing for years afterwards. Their ranks include celebrities such as Will Smith, Robin Williams, and Drew Carey." [READ FULL STORY]
Music
Featured Performance: Tokyo Police Club Live at Great Scott
"Cheer it On"
"Box"
"If It Works"
"Cut Cut Paste"
"Citizens of Tomorrow"