PC/PI, people of color, 'white'.

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 7 Feb 2001, Lynne Murphy wrote:

> History of 'PC' was well-discussed on the Linguist List, some while back.
> You can get to a relevant bit of the archive through:
>
> http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/linguist/issues/7/7-862.html

Most of the historical substance of that discussion derived from me.
Recently, I have made some more discoveries that I have not yet published.

The gist of the historical picture is as follows:  Aside from some early
collocations (going back to 1793) of the words "politically" and
"correct," the term began in unironic Communist usage.  Then leftists used
it to satirize those of their brethren and sistren who were at the farther
reaches of self-righteousness.  Finally, the right picked up on it as an
attack phrase to denounce the left, particularly feminist and
multicultural elements.

Fred Shapiro


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