by Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate

About the authors: Alan Charles Kors is a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Harvey A. Silverglate is a lawyer. Many in the academy insist that the entire phenomenon labeled "political correctness" is the mythical fabrication of opponents of "progressive" change. They argue that political correctness does not exist as a systematic, coercive, repressive force on American campuses. They claim that critics of universities have questionable motives and offer merely recycled anecdotes, not hard evidence, of abuses of power. For example, the authors of an American Association of University Professors' (AAUP) special committee report, "Statement on the 'Political Correctness' Controversy," insisted, without irony, that claims of "political correctness" were merely smokescreens to hide the true agenda of such critics—a racist and sexist desire to...