In the few weeks I have spent at Dartmouth, I have found that acronyms are a vital part of any student's vocabulary. HTH, EBA's and BEMA are among the most popular. The one that bothers me, however, is PC -- politically correct.
Don't get me wrong, political correctness began as a wonderful idea. The world would be a much better place if the words that flow out of people's mouths always passed through their brains first. Lots of arguments and pain could be avoided if that were the case. But political correctness has gotten way out of hand and its original purpose has been long forgotten.
When people, such as myself, hear the term PC, we no longer think of a universal respect for all cultures, religions and lifestyles. Now we groan at the thought of the burden that has been placed upon our shoulders of tiptoeing around every syllable we utter, being careful not to offend groups we have never even heard of. We no longer watch our words out of respect, but rather, out of a sense of obligation ridden with dismay.
I find it particularly interesting that in certain circumstances, when trying to be politically correct, you can actually end up offending someone. For example, when referring to someone with dark skin, it is no longer PC to say black, but rather, African-American. What many people do not realize, however, is that many people who are black do not consider themselves to be African-American, but rather Caribbean. While these people do have African descent, it does not change the fact that they are offended by the politically correct term of African-American.
The most notable example of political correctness gone awry at Dartmouth is the wide array of terms used to refer to members of the Class of 2001. Please forgive my ignorance, but upon arriving on campus, I had simply assumed that we were freshmen. I was a freshman for my first year of high school, and although I am female, I had no problem with the term. Dartmouth is so proud of its many traditions, you can imagine my surprise when I heard that it had abandoned the traditional term for the college's newest inhabitants in favor of the more politically correct "first-year students."
I don't have a problem with being called a first-year student, and I suppose that the usage of this term is a symbol that women's rights are being recognized more and more at Dartmouth. Some people, however, have chosen to make a mockery out of this latest example of political correctness. By this I mean that many people have called myself and my classmates freshpeople, freshfolk and even freshcreatures. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I find being called a creature far more degrading than being called a man. What everyone needs to realize is that when people use the term freshmen, they generally are not trying to be hurtful in any way, they are merely standing by tradition.
These examples prove that, no matter how hard we try, we simply cannot come up with universal rules for political correctness. Every group, and every individual for that matter, has different standards of what is offensive. Thus, by trying to be as politically correct as possible, many of us have wound up offending even more people than we would have had we simply stuck to the terms we knew. The only solution that I can see to this problem is a compromise between the offendees and the offenders. The first group must learn to be a little less sensitive and realize that not everyone in the world has the primary goal of trying to hurt them. The latter group must, when in doubt, ask the particular individual what he/she prefers to be called. Because when you get down to it, that's the only truly politically correct thing to do.
