On The Pulse Of Morning By Kakutani

1. Michiko Kakutani opens her essay with a reference to the poem that Maya Angelou read at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, called “On the Pulse of Morning”. Her purpose of connecting a poem and an event that illustrate the “politics of inclusion” (para.1) to the “mood of political correctness” ( para. 2) is to compare the difference between the two subjects. I believe that she is trying to condemn the idea of “political correctness” by comparing it with the “politics of inclusion”. She wants her readers to understand that the logic of “political correctness” is not as valid and agreeable as the “politics of inclusion”. Kakutani references the poem and the event to describe that “politics of inclusion” means as a way to be accepting of everyone and treasuring the differences while “political correctness” tries to get rid of racism and hate, which also takes away diversity and inclusion.

By using the term “language police” (para. 5) in her essay, Kakutani conveys serious, critical, and judgmental attitude toward political correctness because she explains how “the methods and fervor of the self-appointed language police can lead to a rigid orthodoxy” (para. 5), which means that an individual has a conscious that filters their language, which lead to the development of political correctness in our society. I believe that the term is appropriate because the word “language police” relates to political correctness since it regulates what can or cannot be said based on the meaning of the words and their connection to different biased topics such as racism, sexism, and