In the past year, a fierce debate has emerged concerning how to best reconcile the desire to promote inclusive educational institutions while also respecting an individual’s freedoms of expression. In response to requests that administrators become more proactive in dissuading intolerant behavior, critics have retorted that coddled, politically correct students are threatening individual liberties. Such an argument is absurd, as it lacks nuance and a genuine understanding of the ordeals which many minority students frequently experience. Indeed, political correctness is a direct and logical response to those very hardships.
It is not difficult to understand why many students look favorably upon political correctness. In many ways, it appears to be a natural reaction to a series of events that marginalize or insult minority groups. While we are all aware of such notable incidents as those which occurred at the Universities of Oklahoma and Missouri, it is not hard to identify similarly egregious incidents that have occurred within our own community. Just last week, multiple offensive chalkings targeting black and LGBT students were found near the amphitheatre. One of these messages proudly claimed, “wealth gap explained. Average white IQ = 102. Average black IQ = 87.” Another said, “Confused about your gender? Look down your pants.” It’s easy to imagine what inferences a prospective student would make about the University community from seeing such bigotry proudly displayed in public.
The fact that such an event could occur on Grounds is not surprising in the slightest. Since coming to the University I have grown accustomed to seeing anonymous bigoted messages targeting minority communities. This was all too apparent last year, when individuals derided protests that occurred after a student was bloodied and arrested by Alcoholic Beverage Control officers on the Corner. In the year prior, individuals repeatedly berated black students protesting police brutality, with one individual going so far as to refer to the students as “farm equipment” on the popular social media application Yik Yak. For me, events such as these evoke an all too familiar series of responses: exasperation, acceptance — other universities likely experience similar phenomena — and finally anger. Why do such incidents happen at all? Clearly these occurrences do not represent the viewpoints of the majority of the student body, yet I must question how many students are part of this vocal minority. Clearly this is not the work of a single individual, or else I would not frequently hear an entire crowd proudly chant “not gay” while singing the Good Old Song at public events. The actions of one individual did not cause a school administrator to leave last year’s Lighting of the Lawn because he became intimate with his partner. The fact that incidents such as these are so recurring suggests that prejudiced attitudes on Grounds are more prevalent than we’d like to admit.
It is in this context that I cannot respect the notion that political correctness is inherently “mendacious and intolerant.” While I admit there are some examples in which students have used political correctness to rationalize their overreaction to seemingly trivial issues, these cases are few and far between and should not be used to dismiss the notion as a whole. Ultimately, adherents of political correctness expect one to simply refrain from engaging in behavior that ridicules, marginalizes or insults others on account of their race, sexual orientation or other political identities. In this sense, I’d argue political correctness is ultimately a new way of denoting the same sense of empathy and decency that most of us have expected to be shown since birth. While some critics regard such a concept as an abridgement of an individual’s freedom of speech and expression, I argue such a defense is not applicable to actions that are clearly intended to harass and intimidate minority students (as appeared to be the intent of last week’s second chalking incident, in which individuals defaced messages written by the Queer Student Union and Black Student Alliance promoting inclusivity). I cannot conceive of any other explanation of why an individual would feel obligated to vandalize messages promoting a more open and accepting community.
Brandon Brooks is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at b.brooks@cavalierdaily.com.
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