In defense of political correctness.

last updated 8 January 2015

United Kingdom

Will Hutton

There’s a good reason to refrain from calling people “niggers” or “bitches,” said Will Hutton in the London Observer. It used to be called “courtesy.” But now those who eschew “derogatory words laden with prejudice” are sneeringly accused of political correctness. Conservatives in Britain have been protesting that hypersensitive liberals are stifling free expression and “privileging undeserving minorities.” The right-wing think tank Civitas just issued a pamphlet arguing that the PC atmosphere prevailing in Britain encourages minorities to blame discrimination for their own failures. That argument may have some merit; after all, it is always tempting to find a scapegoat. In fact, that’s exactly what the conservatives are doing in blaming political correctness for the loss of their license to insult blacks, gays, and women. But using slurs to denigrate people has always been wrong, even if it was commonplace. Today people simply feel free to call such open expressions of bigotry by their real name. “The reason liberal attitudes have such force is not because of the thought police or the BBC. It is because the British generally try to cap their prejudices with tolerance.”