How did the term "politically correct" come into being?

Question

Was it politically engineered?

Answer 1

The often quoted "earliest cited usage of the term" comes from the U.S. Supreme Court decision Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), where it clearly means that the statement it refers to is not literally correct, owing to the political status of the United States as it was understood at that time:

The states, rather than the People, for whose sakes the States exist, are frequently the objects which attract and arrest our principal attention. Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language. Is a toast asked? 'The United States,' instead of the 'People of the United States,' is the toast given. This is not politically correct.

The first recorded use in the twentieth century was in 1912 in Chapter 1 of Senator Robert La Follette's autobiography. Speaking of his education at the University of Wisconsin, he says:

In those days we did not so much get correct political and economic views, for there was then little teaching of sociology or political economy worthy of the name, but what we somehow did get, and largely from [John] Bascom, was a proper attitude toward public affairs. And when all is said, this attitude is more important than any definite views a man may hold.
Again, this clearly refers to what, in the speaker's own opinion, are incorrect political views, as opposed to the current usage of "politically incorrect".

The contemporary use of the term political correctness is said to derived from Marxist-Leninist vocabulary to describe the Party Line.

The term was transformed and used jokingly within the Left by the early 1980s, possibly earlier. In this context, the phrase was applied to either an over-commitment to various left-wing political causes, especially within Marxism or the feminist movement; or to a tendency by some of those dedicated to these causes to be more concerned with rhetoric and vocabulary than with substance.

The term again became popular in the early 1990s as part of a conservative challenge to curriculum and teaching methods on college campuses in the United States (D'Souza 1991; Berman 1992; Schultz 1993; Messer Davidow 1993, 1994; Scatamburlo 1998). In a commencement address at the University of Michigan in 1991, President George H. W. Bush spoke out against administrators and academics who would "declare certain topics off-limits, certain expressions off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits" (Glassner 1999). Conservatives picked up and once again transformed the notion of political correctness to claim that a left-wing movement based in liberal academic circles was attempting to create a new doctrinaire political orthodoxy through social engineering which included changing words and phrases that some groups found offensive. Use of the term then declined in the late 1990s, and it is now mostly seen in comedy or as a political slur with questionable meaning. More recently, the term has been reclaimed by a tiny subset of multiculturalist writers and speakers who reject (or are oblivious to) its controversial connotations and origins. In a bit of tit-for-tat inversion, it is also occasionally employed by leftists to deride what they regard as clichéd or disingenuous conservative themes such as "family values," "compassionate conservatism," or "God and country".

Answer 2

Some liberal and progressive commentators, however, argue that the term "political correctness" was fabricated by United States conservatives around 1980 and defined as a way to reframe the political scene in the United States.

They say that there never was a "Political Correctness movement" in the United States, and that many who use the term are attempting to distract attention from substantive debates over discrimination and unequal treatment based on race, class, and gender (Messer-Davidow 1993, 1994; Schultz 1993; Lauter 1995; Scatamburlo 1998; Glassner 1999).

Answer 3

That term is basically asserting that our ancestors got here from Africa, no longer unavoidably the persons alive in the present day that are stated as that. I do hate the word Black(like crayon color) nevertheless, I recommend technically, we are brown, and that i've got on no account seen a guy or woman who became easily Black, I basically think of it would be a darker color of brown. i assume i might desire to be certain the place you're coming from nevertheless, yet in elementary terms somewhat. to boot, its been occurring for this long, why replace it in elementary terms to complicate issues. The solutions you get would be in line with individuality, meaning that some human beings like it, and others do no longer. i do no longer understand what to declare proper to the full rely, I recommend as long because it somewhat is not any longer racial, then i'm cool with it.

Answer 4

Can't say for sure. But I think it's fairly apt to say that, "being politically correct is the art of almost saying something."

Answer 5

It came into being in order to describe the caving in to the madness of liberals, as opposed to adhering to common sense.

Answer 6

it's the politically correct way of saying "censorship."

Answer 7

Bill Maher probably had something to do with it with his old show "inpolitically correct" way back when...

Answer 8

ALTHOUGH THIS TERM WAS USED EARLIER BUT BUSH FAMILY IS THE MAIN PROPAGATOR OF THIS IN THESE TIMES.

Answer 9

Truth Teller... Check the Phrase Finder. ;)


No need to quote it, just read it...

Answer 10

I don't know, maybe it was afro engineered