Campus controversies open up space for dialogue

Within the space of about a week, the University campus witnessed three political-correctness scandals: the infamous Nassau Weekly Holocaust list, the "Love = Love" Pride Alliance posters and Tiger Magazine's KKK references. Liberals blamed Tory conservatives for urging Dean Dunne to taken down the LGBT posters, conservatives were enraged that the posters were put up in the first place, BSU members blew up at Tiger Magazine's sense of humor and the campus Jewish community argued within itself about how far Jewish cynicism should really go.

What is impressive about these events is not that they happened, but that the whole campus seems to have been moved by them. Their effects have been so pervasive that they have been discussed not only in the editorial pages of The Daily Princetonian, but over dinner, over Instant Messenger, in the Ivy Club e-list and among friends. Indeed, few events have sparked the sort of widespread informal discussion that these incidents have succeeded in provoking.

Why do we all feel the need to talk about this? Are we genuinely surprised that a Princeton student would dare to make a Holocaust joke, to propose a comical reference to the KKK or attempt to sabotage the displaying of posters carrying the image of two men making out? We all know Princeton students who dislike homosexuality, as well as students who make comments or jokes that are politically incorrect. But, they only do so in private.

As students, we realize that our peers are a very diverse group of people, coming from different ethnicities and locations around the world and bringing with them diverse memories, traditions and experiences. Yet most of us come from high schools, backgrounds and neighborhoods that are significantly less diverse than Princeton, where we rarely, if ever, encountered groups of people different from ourselves. It was much easier to be politically incorrect when there was no one around who might get personally offended. Additionally, first encounters with new groups are difficult and can create a lot of so-called "politically incorrect" thinking. We are aware that such thoughts are inappropriate, but we still say the politically incorrect things we want to say — only now we say them behind closed doors.

When controversial or offensive ideas are only discussed in private, it is hard to know when a topic is acceptable to introduce into the public sphere. We live in a society where we cannot expect others to openly define societal norms for us; standards of what can and cannot be said must be inferred. We are forced to figure out for ourselves what is politically correct and where the thin line between the comical and the inappropriate lies. This is not a simple task, especially since the norms of political correctness can change rapidly over time.

In the rare occasion that such politically incorrect comments come to light, a "safe space" is provided for us as Princeton students. Since we did not make the comments ourselves, we can openly discuss what was said without having to actually say it ourselves. This provides a very rare opportunity for us to have a more open and frank discussion about societal norms and to get an honest sense of how others feel about issues of political correctness. It is important for us to discuss politically incorrect things because it allows us to gain a better understanding of others' perspectives on life.

It is strange to think, then, that political correctness scandals like the ones we have been witnessing can serve the Princeton community. We should make use of the attention recent events have generated in order to sustain honest discussions about political correctness on campus. Such discussions can lead us to make serious decisions about what we will and will not express publicly and perhaps even cause us to censure some of our private thoughts as we discover the extent to which they hurt and offend others.

Karen Karniol-Tambour is a Wilson School major from Netanya, Israel. She can be reached at karenkt@princeton.edu.