Political Correctness Essay, Research Paper

The University of Southern California:

The Teddy Bear Massacre

Like so many other traditions, the burning

of the bruin was put on the chopping block recently. The long running University

of Southern California spirit activity consisted of throwing a large stuffed

bear in a bon fire the night before the football game against their rival,

the University of California at Los Angeles. The Black Student Union and

other student organizations recently questioned the event. Their concern

was that the event too closely resembled past lynching of African Americans

in the American south.

This raises the question of whether it

is appropriate to censor ideas that are not created to offend certain groups.

Political correctness, the underlying ideal, is the “particular set of

attitudes about the world that its proponents maintain should be actively

promoted.” [Clark 369] Proponents of political correctness, or PC, had

good intentions in devising the idea, but it has serious flaws. Although

political correctness was founded with good intent, it does more harm than

good.

The most noticeable example of harm is

how PC proponents try to please everyone at the same time. The burning

of the bruin was just one of many activities held during the week before

the big UCLA game. The idea being that everyone could find something that

they could identify with and rally around their school. If the burning

was intentionally created to represent or oppress the offended students,

the event would have been banned long ago. However, as Matt Hutaff stated

in his editorial in the Daily Trojan:

“It’s about school pride. It’s love for

the things that brought the university to where it is today. It is traditions

that define a school; it’s student body and its heritage. Strip the school

of its traditions and all you have is a school that isn’t worth rallying

behind.” [5]

In appeasing one group, it seems the university

neglected another group. It seems that the lesson that one cannot please

everyone all the time still needs to be learned.

Another lesson that needs to be learned

is to meet offensive language head on instead of hiding from it. This cannot

happen, however, if the college is sheltering us from it. It is the duty

of the university to teach us how to live in the real world. How are they

going to protect us from what we do not want to hear out there? The answer

is they cannot, and the sheltered individuals are left unprepared to confront

real world situations that will offend them. As Irene Clark points out,

an article by the National Association of Scholars “asserts that it is

the role of higher education to enable students to grapple with contrary

or unpleasant ideas and that to shield them from such ideas will be detrimental

in the long run.” [373] Unfortunately, there are bad things in the world.

There is no way to change that. Ignoring them will not make them go away.

Eventually the sheltered must face them. If a school hides these things

from its students, they will be unprepared to confront them.

Even if PC proponents succeeded in their

goal of eliminating offensive actions and language, they can never kill

the ideas behind them. In private these ideas can grow and fester unchecked.

In public, the offenders can be identified. When forced to hide these ideas,

the offenders will still express them in secret. When these people are

allowed to express their thoughts and opinions in public, the rest of the

world is able to watch what they are doing. If they are not aware that

they are being offensive, they can be told, also.

As Irene Clark states:

“…whether or not we agree with speech

codes, such codes, explicitly or implicitly, are not entirely new, nor

do they prevent racist or sexist thought in private.” [372]

As Clark stated earlier, PC is not a new

idea. Various social movements have tried to implement this restraint before.

It has not worked in the past and it is not gaining much ground today.

As John Ellis states in Clark’s book:

“…we can ask that people who want to

take us through the fantasy yet one more time first confront the lessons

of history that show how disastrous ‘politically correct’ ideas have proved

to be.” [378]

PC was brought up in the past and failed.

Its performance today is just as bad. It seems that history repeats itself.

History teaches us other lessons, too.

One lesson is that our country is not perfect, and it makes mistakes. For

example, Native Americans were forced to leave their land, and then the

government sold that property. The Native Americans were treated like cattle

in the name of imperialism, and the country called it “God’s will.” These

“Indians,” as they were called, were my ancestors. It bothers me that my

government could do such a thing. Should I protest a march or similar event?

It very closely resembles my ancestor’s plight, but it is not about repression

of Native Americans. Our country made many mistakes in the past, but we

have all learned from them. We should not keep reliving and suffering from

them by fearing every resemblance to the original act.

This brings up the fact that the burning

of the bruin has only a vague resemblance to past hate crimes in the south.

The resemblance would be more offensive if the toy was of human form. This

is a teddy bear in question. It is preposterous to compare the personification

of a toy animal to past crimes. An interesting fact is how the burning

does not lead to violent actions against any real bears. If either of these

happened, then there would be cause for worries.

For the defense of PC, however, the argument

that the offensive language is distracting does have value. However, the

problem with this argument is there are many things in life that are distracting.

The best way to cope is to learn how to survive the hurtful speech and

offensive actions. Gwen Thomas, a community college administrator, says

in Clark’s book that we have to teach students how to deal with adversarial

situations and how to survive offensive speech they find wounding and hurtful.

[393] It may be distracting, but if we do not learn how to deal with hurtful

speech we will remain in hiding which could harm us more.

Other things less related might come under

attack as well. The next likely candidate to be cut is Tommy Trojan, the

mascot of the school. As Matt Hutaff questions from a fictitious point

of view of Tommy:

“I’m impossibly flexed in every muscle…a

warrior, and…male. Sooner or later, that’s bound to catch up with me.

I’ll probably be melted down…’Lumpy’ they’ll call me, the mascot of bland,

unassuming and uninteresting icons that stir no emotion…in anyone.” [5]

All it would take is one offended person

and Tommy’s existence is in jeopardy. Nothing is sacred, and anything can

come under scrutiny. As Hutaff worries, what will we have to rally around,

and to have pride in? I hope we do not get that far.

In his book, 1984, George Orwell wrote

of a nation, that eliminated all “unnecessary” words and actions. This

government even went as far as to try to control thought. I am afraid that

the PC movement will some day attempt this kind of act. I am also worried

as to where this campaign will end. PC has already overstepped its original

domain and attacked an act remotely related to the offensive actions PC

was designed to fight.

The best thing to do now is for the PC

proponents to step out of their situation and see that respect goes both

ways. We cannot have everything manipulated to please each of us. When

something offends us, we need to ask ourselves if it is offensive to anyone

else. We also need to learn to face our fears, and learn to deal with acts

and language that we do not like. Let us not take the same path past generations

have taken. Let us take the good with the bad instead of ignoring the fact

that the bad does exist.

Works Cited

Clark, Irene L. Writing about Diversity.

Chap. 7: pp. 369-404.

Hutaff, Matt. Traditions Shouldn’t Need

a Return Policy. Daily Trojan: Sep 11, 1997: pp. 4-5.