food for thought from Jonah Lehrer

a bit more: "Over time, these conscious limits on language helped re-engineer our unconscious beliefs, allowing people to slowly purge themselves of obsolete stereotypes. (We tend to think of the unconscious as the domineering elephant of the mind, but sometimes the feeble rider manages to steer the beast in the right direction.) Of course, the unconscious remains a murky and biased place, but I think white Americans have shown that it can be amended, that simply altering the ways in which we refer to people can, over time, change what we secretly think of people."

pretty grand opening sentence...wonderful!

Quite often times change because people die. There are those older generations that simply will not give up what they think is the right way and progress cannot be made until the younger generations, exposed to new ideas, become old enough to make a difference.

I agree with Oortcloud. I'd like to see this guy prove that the institution of "PC" language conventions led to the social change, rather than just pulling the idea out of his butt.