Political Correctness Research Paper

David Santana

Ms. Matlen AP Language

October 19, 2015

Political Correctness in Universities

As Americans become more entitled and prone to sue at a moment’s notice, saying that we, as a society, are sensitive is a grand understatement. As a result of this sensitivity, American college students expect to have their emotional wants catered to. An effect of this is the push from students for professors to use trigger warnings which are essentially the educational equivalent of the “Parental Advisory Explicit Content” labels that you find on albums. Trigger warnings are set to tell students that a certain topic may be disturbing or traumatic for some. These forms of censoring are often set due to the fact that it may offend someone or disturb

They are becoming more spoiled and bratty than generations before and has begun to creep its way into the school setting. They are taking offense to the most trivial of things that were never meant to be taken as an offense. These unintended offenses can be referred to as microaggressions. These microaggressions can be questions such as “Where were you born?” or “Do you speak any language besides English?” These questions can be seen as offensive to some as it implies

It would be assumed that as time went on, humans would learn to embrace new knowledge and perspectives. This unfortunately is not the case with college students as they seem to be opting for a future where book burnings, both figurative and literal, are typical weekend activities. Students are walking a fine line between academic scholars and oversensitive and politically correct students. As Roger Rosenblatt puts it in his, We Are Free to Be You, Me, Stupid, and Dead, “Freedom is like a legal drug. How far will we go?”(Rosenblatt, 216). If students push their freedoms to object too far, we may just end up breeding a society of more over sensitive and entitled Americans who will eventually ruin the freedom America has come to be known