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.