Political Correctness: It<i> Can</i> Happen Here : From hyphen- Americanism to the cult of victimization, strange new rules have come to Antelope Valley College. This ‘60s-era liberal is getting frustrated.

The average person would probably think that I have my nerve to complain about my job. For 22 years I’ve taught English at Antelope Valley College. Unlike some schools, our campus is clean, green and crime-free; and I get paid to teach the world’s most beautiful and profound works of literature. So how can I possibly feel such an enormous sense of anger and frustration?

For one thing, it has gradually dawned on me that I’m not politically correct. Not being very politically astute, I was slow to realize that the current academic track turned sharply left a while back and left me behind--and bewildered.

Many people undoubtedly believe that the Antelope Valley provides a refuge from this PC madness, but believe me, they’re wrong. Nowhere in academia is there such a haven.

And what clearly is PC at the moment is to be a hyphen-American. Yes, the myth of “multiculturalism” has swept over us like a California wildfire, devouring historical and educational tradition along with reality and common sense. Present-day Americans are encouraged to identify with whatever precedes their hyphen: African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Slobovian-Americans. So our textbooks and our courses must reflect this separatist agenda.

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Even here at AVC, an African-American Faculty and Staff Assn. has recently been formed; all students must now satisfy a “diversity” requirement, and instructors must now distribute student evaluation forms that are absolutely required to query students on only one specific issue: “sensitivity to diversity.” And, predictably, the word racism , once rare on this campus, now pops up in virtually every context. E pluribus unum is out; assimilation is out; integration is out; tribalism is in.

And, although I’m a feminist, I’m angry that a recently filled administration position obviously had been slated exclusively for a woman. Call me naive, but I still think that equal opportunity should never have become preferential treatment.

Another issue that, as a feminist, I’m quite concerned about is the ever-expanding definition of “sexual harassment.”

Only a thug would be opposed to a policy absolutely forbidding genuine sexual harassment. Only a Neanderthal-American would fail to condemn a supervisor who solicits sex under the threat of reprisal, or a teacher who demands sexual favors in exchange for a grade.

However, leaping aboard the victimization bandwagon, the college trustees this month approved a policy that would make virtually any nuance definable as sexual harassment. It says, “Verbal examples include, but are not limited to: derogatory comments, innuendoes, slurs, jokes, epithets. Physical examples include . . . assault, touching, impeding or blocking movement. Visual examples include . . . leering, gestures, display of sexually offensive objects or pictures, cartoons, or posters.” Patting, hugging and making “remarks of a sexual nature about one’s clothing” are specifically warned against. The college’s personnel director is the investigator and determiner of guilt or innocence. The board ignored a Faculty Senate proposal that mediation precede any formal action, and that the policy spell out the rights of the accused.

Now, not only will I have to worry that one of my students will accuse me of not being sensitive to his particular aspect of diversity, but I’ll have to shudder whenever I glance at a student for fear that he will run to complain that he’s been sexually harassed by leer. (Of course, I realize that it’s really those beastly males that this policy is targeting.)

Another part of the PC agenda is the egalitarian notion that everyone should be in college, and succeed in college, so practically every day I must confront students whose skills and awareness are embarrassingly substandard. I wince when students in class blurt out the most inane comments, followed by the snickers of their more sophisticated classmates. It’s not PC to say so, but many people don’t belong in college, and higher education should be higher than something!

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Furthermore, I recently made an amazing discovery: I, a ‘60s-era liberal who grew up in a single-parent, blue-collar family, implicitly stand accused of being a part of the “white ruling class” that is denying access to the power in our culture by failing students “of color.” Quite to the contrary, my colleagues and I spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to ensure that these students succeed.

Everything I’m saying would be labeled by the PC crowd as “conservative,” and in PC academia, “conservative” is a nasty word. But I simply refuse to mislead my students into believing in a PC fantasy world in which unsupported “feelings” equal knowledge, all dialects are as valid as standard English, all subcultural values and practices are worthwhile and equivalent to mainstream American culture, revisionist fantasy “history” replaces established scholarship and marginal literature stands shoulder to shoulder with Ernest Hemingway or William Faulkner--or, for that matter, with Ernest Gaines or Alice Walker.

And I refuse to accept the implication that all men are predators and even a compliment from a male colleague makes me a victim of harassment, and that white males in particular are responsible for all the ills of society.

So I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I’m politically incorrect.