The words ‘politically correct’ are now politically incorrect at this public university

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has launched a political correctness campaign to urge students to reform their insensitive use of language. One of the first linguistic casualties? The very phrase on which all else hinges: “politically correct” itself.

If you’re the kind of person who can flippantly say “politically correct” and still live with himself, the university’s Inclusive Excellence Center argues, you’re an insensitive aggressor who threatens the emotional peace of … we’re not sure who. People on the hunt for something to feel threatened by?

The university justifies its “Just Words” campaign — which handpicks for moral cleansing a wheelbarrow full of the left’s favorite bad words — by emphasizing the need “to raise awareness of microaggressions and their impact,” according to the promotional literature.

“We have provided insight into their [the bad words’] meanings and ask: Are they only words? Are they said with respect?”

What business is it of a public university’s overpopulated support staff whether any student’s language employs multiple entendre, or whether it’s overtly disrespectful? People in this country can be overtly disrespectful, can’t they? Even while they’re in college?

“Mean what you say … say what you mean,” the campaign advises.

OK, we’ll play along. Tell us what’s off limits and why.

Politically Correct (PC) Typically used surrounding issues of social identities in an attempt to avoid offense. Over time PC has become a way to deflect, say that people are being “too sensitive” and police language. It is disconnected from authentic understanding of impact.

Trash Uses class to marginalize and dismiss individuals of lower socioeconomic status. For example, “trailer trash” or “white trash.”

Third World Reinforces hierarchical attitudes toward nations around the world, establishes Westernized (industrialized) countries and cultures as the “standard” upon which to measure national well-being or economic status.

Crazy Commonly used in reference to something outlandish, odd or bizarre. Crazy creates a negative a demeaning perspective of people with mental health diagnoses and undermines their, and their families, struggle.

You get the idea. The usual low-hanging fruit of political correctness — words like “nigger,” “rape,” bitch,” “illegal alien” and “retarded” — are all there too, of course. No list of things you can’t say would be complete without those.

While UW-Milwaukee’s current campaign is making a hot mess all over the viral Internet at the moment, it’s not a new thing. In fact, it’s modeled after other PC programs at other public schools, most notably (according to the “Just Words” folks) the University of California-Davis’ “Words that Hurt and Why” campaign.

“We are not seeking to tell people what they can/cannot say,” a UW-Milwaukee bureaucrat assures.

“… I’d like to add Politically Correct (PC) to [the] program … and seek a way to succinctly outline/define PC for its basis, purpose especially how its used now to let people hide their bias but also minimize the pushback they received after contributing aggressive.”

That is what it says on the program’s Web page, so if you have any idea what any of that means — even after you’ve hired an editor to correct it — please leave a comment and let us know.

And, please, try not to be offended at all the actual abuse of the English language while you’re perusing the “Just Words” Web page.

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