by Barbara Stanley

Created on: June 11, 2009   Last Updated: April 02, 2012

For this discussion, it is necessary to distinguish between the politics of language and the language of politics. The language of politics concerns words used in the political sense, such as senator, governor, senate bill 240, or Supreme Court. The politics of language concern using wisdom in the words chosen to express beliefs or feelings about any matter that could be misinterpreted to show a bias or to incite hostility that divides different races of people. There are always political and social consequences of words used between groups of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

What is meant by the expression, "That word is not politically correct?" Does it mean that the word is not used in politics? Not necessarily, but it does refer to the idea that there is someone who polices speech to determine whether anyone might possibly be offended by the use of the word. There is also the factor of intent. Did the person intend to offend when the word was used? If a politician was overheard saying, "We don't need the votes of those poor white trash living in trailer parks over in Granville Subdivision," why would it be wrong to say poor white trash?

A person can be poor due to several reasons. Not having much money does not automatically make someone a trashy person. Just because a person lives in a mobile home does not mean she is trash or necessarily poor. Therefore, it is wrong to call people poor white trash, especially if the name-caller has never met the people. The public would demand an apology from the politician.

The truth, of course, is that words can sometimes hurt much more than people realize. Words such as: fatty, buck-toothed, four-eyes, ugly, stupid, and moron, are words from childhood that were used to upset another child, then laugh at him as he got angry. It was wrong to do this and children were punished when an adult found out. The punishment was meant to teach children that words can be hurtful even if some of them may be true. While a child may actually have learning disabilities, it would never be correct to call the child retarded, as in "Hey, retard." No one has the right to make another person feel inferior. There is free speech in America, but that right does not give people the green light to use words that hurt others. 

A growing problem appears to be the changing of the meaning of words. Young people say that something is sick when they mean that something is

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