I just wanted to comment on the term 'politically correct' that has been thrown around on the list in this conversation about language. In classes I have taught, my students often want to throw around the term, PC, to explain something that makes them uncomfortable. I try to make it clear that the point in discussing these issues is to understand the historical and social context. Saying we use a word because it is PC ignores the context in which the language we use has been historically and socially produced. One of the reasons why we have become so careful about language is the diversity of ways a story gets told. Where once the white male perspective was the only way history was told in this country, now there are a diversity of voices telling history from a diversity of perspectives. It isn't that it is just PC, it is that as others have noted, history is messy and using a single term like white or slave only provides a small piece of the story. Thanks for listening to my little rant, Jodi -- Jodi Barnes Doctoral candidate, Anthropology American University Washington, DC 20016 [log in to unmask] ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html