The following anecdote I hope will demonstrate some disturbing pathologies in our culture at present.

What kind of effect might different colored paper have on Hispanic students in terms of their schoolwork? This was the worthy academic query posed by my former colleague in the world of education, a world the Derb described as the “inner sanctum of political correctness.” She was working on a PhD dissertation on this strange subject, and was now sharing her “research.” I had witnessed all sorts of bizarre presentations back when I was in education, so I was quite capable of maintaining a blasé demeanor. I just imagined I would be listening to the rantings of a semi-delusional person for the next ten minutes, and would take it in as amusement. I was not disappointed.

Teachers should be advised that red and blue paper are somewhat out of the question for Hispanic students, she told us. The red and blue evoke the Bloods and Crypts respectively. Students would be loath to select the paper of a rival gang. And besides, red is kind of a judgmental color—negative vibes. In some of our more progressive schools, teachers are prohibited from using red pens to mark-up papers. Pink seems to make girls “dreamy.” Boys love blue. And yellow is popular because it is apparently a prominent color in Mexico, used at funerals.

And there were other conjectures about the different emotions and associations of different colors. White, though, elicited the most hostile response amongst her students. White is just too simple and basic. The students hate white. The liberal hippy-ish ESL teacher seemed to relish this fact, dwelling upon the Powerpoint slide. This is when things got awkward.

The presenter then fielded a question from a Latina teacher: “I take issue with the labeling here.” Her point being that the entire exercise amounted to abject stereotyping. “The present slide included,” she added, perhaps in a nod to the smattering of white people in the room. After sitting through the presentation, increasingly irritated, she finally had to put a stop to this do-gooder having the audacity to describe Latino students one way or the other. And what followed was a kind of battle for PC purity: is it more kosher to find out the needs and preferences of Hispanic students, or does that endeavor risk making hurtful generalizations?

In our quixotic quest to accommodate immigrants, do we risk hurting their feelings by characterizing them in any particular way? These are the quandaries of cultural Marxists and their puppets in the public school system. I cannot imagine having my conscience troubled by such matters; hence, I hardly exist in the same physical universe as such gutmenchen.

To be fair, the liberal presenter of the colored paper theory had a sound retort to the odious charge of “labeling”: something to the effect that we need a baseline of data in order to work from, and therefore she was not terribly worried about labeling. Despite her unkempt appearance (ill-fitting clothing, nose ring, etc.), she was capable of deductive reasoning when her little theory was at stake.

To this the offended teacher responded, “As a Latina, I’m just telling you how I feel.” That encapsulates so much that is wrong with just one declarative statement. On one level, you have a woman “thinking” with her feelings. On another level, you have a minority assuming that their feelings are sacrosanct. In a spirit of irony, I followed up some days later with the hippyish woman about her presentation. She confided to me, “I can’t believe she thought that was racist.” Well, he who lives by PC dies by PC, to paraphrase the New Testament.

We are always trying to placate and pander to those who really should be trying to accommodate themselves to us. By this I mean those who are failing, at school or at life, or those who have otherwise become a nuisance to society. We’re trying to figure out what color of paper we should use so a certain group of students might be pleased to do their work. Could we have sunk any lower or become more feminized in our orientation as a society? That education has been feminized is axiomatic at this point.

“Academics” in education have a way of studying minorities as though they were interesting specimens. They fancy themselves as anthropologists out in the field studying indigenous cultures. Nothing makes such do-gooders happier than to assess the idiosyncrasies of their pet-groups in a spirit of deep admiration. The only point of contention that is allowed in the inner ranks of aspiring educrats is how one may go about to please them, and whether in endeavoring to please them, we have accidentally offended them.

Malcolm Unwell is a chronicler of America gone wrong and aspires to be a malevolent voice in journalism. Contact him.