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The pressures of p.c. and multiculturalism are by no means limited to the campus. They are almost as intense among cultural institutions, charities and the media, which increasingly earmark jobs for Hispanics, Asians or other target groups. After the San Diego Opera was cited by a state arts agency for not having enough Hispanic employees, it set aside for only Hispanic candidates its next opening for a publicist. The September convention of the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association turned into a recruitment center for major national media seeking to diversify newsrooms. Insiders say the National Book Awards and even the Pulitzer Prizes have at times bowed to political correctness rather than pure merit, seeking to honor blacks, Hispanics and women.
The same principles often lead to strictures on content. When the Guthrie Theater revived The Front Page, it debated whether to edit out racist language. Jewish leaders told the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, albeit unsuccessfully, that The Merchant of Venice was irredeemably anti-Semitic and should never be produced.
- The greatest intellectual danger of political correctness is its assumption that there are some ideas too dangerous to be heard, some words too hurtful to be allowed, some opinions no one is ever again permitted to hold. It assumes that all advances in the rights of the downtrodden are final victories, and that questioning those victories is tantamount to colonialism, night riding and the sword.
Children are taught to fear sticks and stones but chant that names will never hurt them. Names, and the ideas behind them, do hurt people. Political correctness argues that the price of peace in a racially diverse America may be suppressing ideas that cause such pain. Perhaps that could mean a more civilized nation. Up to now, though, America's genius has not been in its civility, but rather in its raucous barroom brawl in search of the truth.