ACCUTE NL Supplement - March 1992

7/30/2019 ACCUTE NL Supplement - March 1992

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ACCUTENEWSLETTERDepartment of EnglishUniversity of AlbertaEdmonton, Alberta T6G 2E5

Supplement on the "PoliticalCorrectness" ControversyAt the May 1991 Annual GeneralMeeting of ACCUTE, which tookplace shortly after the Maclean'sissue on "pol i t ical correctness"appeared, a motion from the floorcalled upon ACCUTE to "considerresponding to Maclean's *TheSilencers' with an art icle ratherthan simply a letter to theeditor." That motion was passedby a majority of members presentat the meeting.The Executive delegated Vice-President Professor Michael Keeferto respond to Maclean's and to asimi lar, i f br iefer, p iece, in theGlobe and Mal l , Nei ther agreed toprint Professor Reefer's responsebut an extended version did appearin the Bulletin of the CanadianFederation for the Humanities,which is sent to about 12,000people in universit ies, grantingagencies, ministries of educationand parliaments across thecountry.The so-called "pc" debate isnot, of course, a black-and-white,us-and-them issue. The range ofthe criticisms levelled under theaccusat ion of "po l i t ica lcorrectness" is sufficient ly broadthat many thinking people can find

themselves on different sides the issue depending on what thspecific object of the accusais on any given occasion. NorACCUTE members all of a mind othis issue. A majority of themembers attending the AGM did us to take it on; others havesince written to complain abouour having done so. What iscertain is that much of thediscussion on the issue is beiconducted in terms of polemic not argument, opinion and notin fo rmat ion . Th is i s par t i cutrue of discussion in the presWhat is also certain is that tdiscussion is one which draws and divides, our discipline sothoroughly that it is one we should be informed about. To end, the ACCUTE executive decito prepare and distribute thisSupplement to the Newsletter.The Supplement contains foudocuments. The first is anannotated list of books, essayand occasional pieces byjournalists and scholars about"po l i t i ca l cor rec tness. " Thesecond begins to address the fthat material realities such afunding are at stake in thisdebate; it gives a brief accouof recent interventions in theAmerican university system. Bthese sections have been prepaby Michael Keefer. The last twdocuments are reprints of the"Statement on the CurriculumDebate" issued by the ExecutiveCouncil of the Modern LanguageAssociation in May 1991 and the"Statement on the Pol i t icalCorrectness' Controversy" issuein July 1991 by a specialcommittee of the AmericanAssociation of UniversityProfessors. The inclusion ofthese last two documents is in sense an attempt to "americanizthe debate in Canada. Rather reflects the fact that the"pol i t ical correctness" debate


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Documents

ACCUTE NL Supplement - March 1992