A Plaguing Political Correctness

In his famous treatise On Liberty, John Stuart Mill addresses the issue of censorship, writing: “It is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”

In essence, this is the argument against political correctness. Groups who seek to censor perceived obscenities on the grounds that they are not politically correct are actually hurting their cause by depriving society of the ability to better understand the truth. This pitfall loomed large on Tuesday, when the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA) and other student groups took action to stop the sale of the “Yale Sucks, Jeter Swallows” T-shirt sold by Satire V.

For a student body used to Harvard-Yale T-shirts with bulldogs fellating a pilgrim, the outrage BGLTSA expressed over this particular shirt came to us as a surprise. While saying “Yale Sucks” does seem to stigmatize the actions of homosexual males and heterosexual females, the graphic and anthropomorphic representation thereof would seem to be even more offensive. Yet there has been no outrage over Harvard-Yale T-shirts until now. Why? Perhaps because in the past students recognized that these shirts are made without malicious intent (the shirt in question was sold by a humor magazine). Or perhaps because political correctness continues to shift from being a tool to correct egregious obscenity into an end in itself.

BGLTSA is behind some extremely important accomplishments on campus. Last year, its campaign to create ungendered bathrooms for transgender students brought an important issue to the fore that the University had not properly addressed. That said, trying to shut down Satire V’s T-shirt sale goes too far. It’s just plain over-sensitivity. These shirts weren’t meant to be demeaning, and, in the parlance of pop culture where “swallows” is quickly becoming as commonplace as “sucks,” they aren’t (except if you’re a Yalie). By blowing this small issue out of proportion, BGLTSA seems to signal that it will be just as aggressive in the future. This unnecessarily vehement peer pressure will promote unneeded self-censorship—relatively benign in this case, perhaps, but potentially a huge problem in an academic community based on free and open discourse, not on allowing groups of students to enforce their perception of what is politically correct on everyone else just by yelling the loudest.

Though this is a minor case—Satire V hasn’t even stopped selling the T-shirts, they just aren’t doing so publicly—the actions of the BGLTSA reflect a trend towards greater political correctness at Harvard and across the country. But trying to censor public discourse, obscene or otherwise, on the grounds of political correctness should never become something to be done lightly.

Doubtless, some students at Harvard objected to BGLTSA’s demonstrations outside of the Science Center on “Coming-Out Day.” Surely many students believed Harvard Right-to-Life’s flag display last year was obscene. Had any of these students succeeded in disrupting these exercises of free speech, public outcry would rightfully have been tremendous. In successfully censoring Satire V’s T-shirt, BGLTSA is taking advantage of a double-standard in what it is politically correct to be politically correct about to impose the views of a small subset of the Harvard population on the entire student body. It is using the “anti-gay” label to scare Satire V into removing its shirts and stifling campus debate, all over an issue of questionable merit. John Stuart Mill had it right 135 years ago. It’s time for all student groups to adhere to his wisdom.