Worse than Illegal
Geoffrey Pullum was discussing* the possibility that soon-to-be former-Senator George Allen, a Republican of Virginia, may well have lost his re-election bid on the strength of his use of a racist slur during the campaign (the infamous "macaca" episode) — or perhaps on the strength of what the electorate saw through the curtain drawn over his racism once the tiny "macaca" tear started ripping open — when he had something very interesting to say about the status of racist language in public discourse, the freedom and responsibilities of speaking one's mind, and the emptiness of an appeal to "political correctness" as mitigation.
This is an excerpt from the original article.
Those who want to get their language use in line with current standards should understand it very clearly. It is not that racism has gone away (good heavens, surely nobody thinks that will ever happen). And it's not that racist talk has been made illegal, or ever could be: the First Amendment is simply not going to allow that. You can speak your opinions in this country, and express anything you want about the racial inferiority or utter subhuman vileness of any racial group you may want to take out after. No, it's not illegal to say racist things, it's not even a misdemeanour; it is something much worse, for racists, that has happened. Racism has become not just unfashionable (itself almost a kiss of death for those in public life) but unacceptably disgusting to most thinking people. And that's much more serious.
If you're a political candidate, then for you to say something on camera that suggests racist attitudes or beliefs is comparable to, oh, something like putting your hand down the back of your pants to scratch your asshole and then sniffing your finger. Nothing illegal there. But your campaign will take a downswing from the moment that video clip hits YouTube.
This is not about the mythical political-correctness "word police" of which the right-wingers disingenuously complain. This is about thinking people simply seeing what you do and turning away in disgust. It if were just illegal to say "nigger" or "spic", a politician could perhaps survive it (politicians do survive drunk driving arrests, and surely drunk driving is enormously more serious and dangerous than having negative opinions about some racial group). But it's worse than illegal. It picks you out as someone to stay away from. It identifies you as disgusting and fit only to be shunned. A person who would never be invited to dinner. And you won't survive that in modern American politics.
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* Geoffrey K. Pullum, "Ill-Judged Word Choice Lost Congress for GOP?", Language Log, 9 November 2006.
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on Sunday, 26 November 2006 at 01.02
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Pullum's point is essentially true, although Sen. Trent Lott seems to be coming through OK.
Along the same lines, I've held for decades that anti-abortion hard liners and those in a perpetual state of high dudgeon/angst about the illegitimacy rate pursue their ends in foolish ways that are sure to fail.
Public disapproval and the next notch up, shunning, can be far more effective than getting laws passed. Laws hold out the promise of quick gratification. Laws involve the power of the state, which is formidable, in requiring what the pressure groups want. But in the kind of things these pressure groups want, the power of the state is at best a mixed bag. Often, it's insufficient or outright incapable.
It hasn't worked worth a damn with drugs and drink, and likely never will. And yet, if we can believe statistics, beer and hard liquor sales are down sharply from those of 20 and 30 years ago. Marijuana and cocaine use seem to be down somewhat except in the underclass. I think social disapproval has a lot to do with these trends.
Same goes for smoking. The picture here is hazy (pun intended) because health Nazis seem to have state legislators by the short hairs and they yank, hard, regularly (the better to justify the health Nazis' titles and sometimes incomes). Laws and restrictions are rife, yet a whole lot of people still smoke. (If we were to believe the number of those who've quit put out by the Great American Smokeout organizers the past quarter century, I'm pretty sure the number of active smokers today would be in negative territory.
Yet, my personal observation is that public attitudes and disapproval have a lot to do with smokers being relegated to shallow ledges umpteen stories up, medians between busy traffic lanes, to outdoors in whatever foul weather prevails, and dank alleyway corners behind overflowing Dumpsters.
Obviously, falling 12 stories to one's death, being flattened by a runaway van full of pint-sized soccer players, succumbing to pneumonia or frostbite, or to some fly- or rodent-borne disease, is a noble death, whereas croaking from cancer or emphysema is the stuff of which pariahs are made.
Social pressure, as in peer disapproval, is powerful stuff. I remember reading, I believe in David Halberstam's excellent book, "The Russians," that back in the days of Stalin and Kruschev, Russian hotels and apartment buildings typically had an older woman floor warden on every floor. Drop your gum wrapper on the floor, make too much noise, fail to put your garbage can out on the appointed day, and the floor warden would come around and scold you as though you were a badly behaved child, embarrassing you in front of neighbors and passers-by. The Russians apparently weren't all that given to being neat, tidy and orderly, but the scolding-old-lady system generally worked well.
on Sunday, 26 November 2006 at 01.09
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Correction: Hedrick Smith wrote "The Russians."