Political correctness

政治正确性

Racist comment is taboo. But there are many more minefields that people try to avoid in daily life to avoid public offense.

带有种族主义色彩的评论是一大禁忌。但日常生活中存在更多的雷区，人们需要尽量回避以免引发众怒。

Former Harvard president Lawrence Summers in 2005 explained why there were fewer female scientists in elite universities. He put it down to different innate ability between men and women.

在2005年，哈佛大学前任校长劳伦斯•萨莫斯（音译）在解释了为何顶尖大学中女性科学家人数较少这一问题时。他将其归因于男女天生有别。

This caused a furor. Summers issued an apology: "I was wrong to have spoken in a way that has resulted in an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women."

此举引发轰动。萨莫斯公开致歉说：“我错误地用那样的方式说话，无意地发出了错误的信号，让有才能的女性感到受挫。”

Interpretations of history can cause offense. A French politician was sentenced to jail recently for remarks about the Nazi occupation of France.

诠释历史也会触怒公众。最近，法国一位政治家就因其关于纳粹占领法国的言论而被判入狱。

His remarks were considered "politically incorrect".

他的言论被认为是“政治上不正确的”。

In the book A Short History of Political Correctness, Ruth Perry explains that in order to cause minimum offense to race, gender, age, profession, religion, culture, disability and so on, political correctness, as an umbrella, functions as a social consensus on language, policy, behavior and other ideas to ensure no social group suffers from discrimination.

在《政治正确性简史》一书中，鲁兹•帕瑞（音译）解释说，政治正确性是一把保护伞，作为就语言、政治、行为及其他思想而达成的社会共识，以确保所有社会群体不受歧视，最大程度上减小对宗族、性别、年龄、职业、宗教、文化、残疾的冒犯。

Thus any ignite violation of social taboos and political correctness could cause damage.

因此任何违反社会禁忌以及政治正确性的导火索都可能带来伤害。

"We live in a culture in which a breach of political correctness is criminal," said Leo Schwartz in the Columbia Daily Spectator last week.

“在我们所处的文化之中，违反政治正确性即是犯罪。”里奥•施瓦兹（音译）于上周的《哥伦比亚观察家》中如是说。

Taboo-buster

禁忌语大扫除

Don't joke about bombs: A new taboo due to the US' war on terrorism. Remember Chandler Bing in Friends? He is detained for a joke. In real life, the consequences could be far worse.

不要拿炸弹来开玩笑：这是美国反恐战争所产生的最新禁忌语。记得《老友记》中的钱德宾（音译）吗？他因为一个玩笑而被扣押。在实际生活中，其后果可能更严重。

Nigger: A taboo and very offensive word to call a black person. Although black brothers call each other nigger, you can't.

Nigger（意为黑鬼）：这是一个禁忌语，而且对黑人一种十分不敬的称谓。尽管黑人兄弟间彼此这样称呼，但你不行。