The Golf between Colleges and Common Sense

If laughter is the best medicine, then someone ought to take a copy of UNC's "microaggression" guidelines to every hospital in America! The memo, brainchild of the University of North Carolina's Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, is a new low for a politically correct movement that's already God's gift to late-night comedy. What is microaggression, you ask? It's defined as "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual orientation and religious slights and insults to the target person or group."

Gone are the days of simple, run-of-the-mill PC. According to UNC, even golf is on par with bigotry! Asking someone to hit the fairway is anything but, officials argue, because it "assumes employees have the financial resources/exposure to a fairly expensive and inaccessible sport." Well, guess what? College is expensive and inaccessible for some too. Should we stop talking about it too? Welcome to the new normal, where even saying "you guys" is discouraged for being "binary" (which must offend... computers?).

Have we really reached this level of lunacy on college campuses? Believe it, say conservative students. This kind of hypersensitivity is overtaking higher education, but rarely in a form as ridiculous as Chapel Hill's. Not only did the taxpayer-funded guide take a swing at the PGA, but there's even a Claus about Santa. As far as the PC police at UNC is concerned, employees should discourage references to Christmas or any holidays that center around the "Christian faith and minimizes non-Christian spiritual rituals and observances." Uttering the words "Christmas vacation" (sorry, Chevy Chase) is incredibly taboo. (I don't know what macroaggression means, but somebody better warn the Easter Bunny.) Telling a female employee "I love your shoes!" is apparently more insulting than calling them ugly. And the list goes on.

"'How did you get here?' constitutes a national origin microaggression because it acknowledges that some 'immigrants get to this country illegally,' while asking 'Where are you from?' implies that 'you are not American and do not belong to this community.'" By all means, never ask someone to "Please stand up and be recognized," since, the school explains, it "assumes that everyone is able in this way and ignores the diversity of ability in the space." Then of course, there are the more routine warnings -- such as avoiding such oppressive gender stereotypes as "husband/wife" "boyfriend/girlfriend." But above all, make sure you have some sexually confused friends, because not knowing people who identify as gay or lesbian is offensive. "I don't know any LGBTQ people," campus officials insist, "means that the person you are talking to must 'openly declare' their gender identity and sexual orientation in order for you to 'care about LGBTQ issues.'"

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