'Political correctness' :
By: AHLUWALIA, Pal
.
Contributor(s): MCCARTHY, Politics.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Oxford : Blackwell Publishers Limited, September 1998Australian Journal of Public Administration 57, 3, p. 79-85Abstract: In Australia there has been a great deal of discussion in recent years of something called 'political coorectness'.This term is an insidious phrase applied to academic humanists, who, it is frequently said, do not think independently but rather according to norms established by a cabal of 'correct-thinking' leftists. These norms are supposed to be overly sensitive to racism, sexism and the like, instead of allowing people to debate in what is supposed to be an 'open'manner(Said 1994:58). This article asks why Australia has witnessed a backlash against 'political correcyness' at this point of time. Why has Hanson been able to mount a sustained attack on 'political correctness' and why has John Howard's response been muted? The article suggests notions of identity and difference are at the centre of the recent debate - the rhetoric has highlighted the politics of division while obsuring the issues of those marginal to the mainstream
In Australia there has been a great deal of discussion in recent years of something called 'political coorectness'.This term is an insidious phrase applied to academic humanists, who, it is frequently said, do not think independently but rather according to norms established by a cabal of 'correct-thinking' leftists. These norms are supposed to be overly sensitive to racism, sexism and the like, instead of allowing people to debate in what is supposed to be an 'open'manner(Said 1994:58). This article asks why Australia has witnessed a backlash against 'political correcyness' at this point of time. Why has Hanson been able to mount a sustained attack on 'political correctness' and why has John Howard's response been muted? The article suggests notions of identity and difference are at the centre of the recent debate - the rhetoric has highlighted the politics of division while obsuring the issues of those marginal to the mainstream
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