I'm all in favor of politeness (unless I'm speaking truth to power,
something I don't do enough of), and of empirically-accurate terminology
("chair" rather than "chairman"). But I think that there's too much
sensitivity floating around the left and liberal communities. I can't see
how "Buddha, can you spare a dime?" is a phrase to be avoided (except that
its repetition is getting boring).
I think the current mood of excessive sensitivity is piss-poor
progressiveness, a substitution of changing terminology and language for
changing social reality. I highly prefer the attitude of "you call us
freaks, so we'll use the term ironically to refer to ourselves" (as the
hippies did) to that of "how dare you call us freaks?" The latter is
moralistic garbage. Let's get beyond words to deal with the real problem.
(BTW, why is "people of color" superior to "colored people"?)
There was an op-ed article I read awhile back (and I don't remember the
author's name) that argued that replacing the term "Black" with "African
American" was fine (and I agree), but that since racism was likely to
persist despite the change in terminology, eventually the term "African
American" would take on negative connotations (so that a new term would
have to be invented). The connotations that we don't like and are trying to
avoid are not inherent in the word, but instead are imposed by people and
situations. If we can't change the context, the words will once again fail us.
Also, excessive sensitivity encourages revolt. I can't see how any
professor could favor the imposition of "speech codes" on adolescents, who
will turn the system around, using "correct" terms in racist or sexist
ways. (For example, I recently glanced at a note that someone had stuck
under the windshield wiper of a car next to mine in the parking lot: "John,
you are such a homosexual!" it said before I stopped reading. It was
clearly using "homosexual" as a slur.) Or it will encourage universities to
be even more authoritarian, to keep those adolescents in line.
in pen-l solidarity,
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://clawww.lmu.edu/fall%201997/ECON/jdevine.html
Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ.
7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA
310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950
"Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way
and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.
