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Political Correctness: The Teddy Bear Massacre - Papers

Political Correctness: The Teddy Bear Massacre


The University of Southern California: The Teddy Bear Massacre
Like so many other traditions, the burning of the bruin was put on the chopping block recently. The long running University of Southern California spirit activity consisted of throwing a large stuffed bear in a bon fire the night before the football game against their rival, the University of California at Los Angeles. The Black Student Union and other student organizations recently questioned the event. Their concern was that the event too closely resembled past lynching of African Americans in the American south.
This raises the question of whether it is appropriate to censor ideas that are not created to offend certain ...

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one of many activities held during the week before the big UCLA game. The idea being that everyone could find something that they could identify with and rally around their school. If the burning was intentionally created to represent or oppress the offended students, the event would have been banned long ago. However, as Matt Hutaff stated in his editorial in the Daily Trojan:
"It’s about school pride. It’s love for the things that brought the university to where it is today. It is traditions that define a school; it’s student body and its heritage. Strip the school of its traditions and all you have is a school that isn’t worth rallying behind." [5]

In appeasing one group, it seems the university neglected another group. It seems that the lesson that one cannot please everyone all the time still needs to be learned.

Another lesson that needs to be learned is to meet offensive language head on instead of hiding from it. This cannot happen, however, if the college is ...

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not aware that they are being offensive, they can be told, also.

As Irene Clark states:

"…whether or not we agree with speech codes, such codes, explicitly or implicitly, are not entirely new, nor do they prevent racist or sexist thought in private." [372]

As Clark stated earlier, PC is not a new idea. Various social movements have tried to implement this restraint before. It has not worked in the past and it is not gaining much ground today. As John Ellis states in Clark’s book:

"…we can ask that people who want to take us through the fantasy yet one more time first confront the lessons of history that show how disastrous ‘politically correct’ ideas have proved to be." [378]

PC ...

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Political Correctness: The Teddy Bear Massacre. (2006, January 21). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Political-Correctness-The-Teddy-Bear-Massacre/39981
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"Political Correctness: The Teddy Bear Massacre." Essayworld.com. January 21, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Political-Correctness-The-Teddy-Bear-Massacre/39981.
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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 1/21/2006 02:46:02 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1431
Pages: 6

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