Politically Correct

Fri 6 Sep 2019

Jeff Sparrow + Omar Sakr + Russell Blackford

Queensland Terrace, State Library of Queensland

Panel

6101

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 60 minutes

It’s been used for years as a term of abuse. What does it really mean to be ‘politically correct’? Some say it is time to reclaim its original meaning and wear its use as a badge of honour. This panel explores the way language is used to manipulate political debate.

#Artists

Jeff Sparrow

Jeff Sparrow is a writer, broadcaster and editor. His books include Trigger Warnings: Political Correctness and the Rise of the Right, and No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson.

Omar Sakr

Omar Sakr is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, These Wild Houses (Cordite Books) and The Lost Arabs (UQP). The Lost Arabs won the 2020 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Award, the John Bray Poetry Award, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, and the Colin Roderick Award. Omar is a widely published essayist and editor whose work has been translated into Arabic and Spanish. Born to Lebanese and Turkish Muslim migrants in Western Sydney, he lives there still. Son of Sin is his first novel.

Russell Blackford

Russell Blackford is a Conjoint Senior Lecturer in Philosophy within the School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle. He is the author of numerous books, including Freedom of Religion and the Secular State (2012), Humanity Enhanced: Genetic Choice and the Challenge for Liberal Democracies (2014), The Mystery of Moral Authority (2016), Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination: Visions, Minds, Ethics (2017), and, most recently, The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism (2019). With Udo Schüklenk, he is co-author of 50 Great Myths About Atheism (2013). Russell is a regular columnist with the US magazine Free Inquiry. In 2014, he was inducted as a Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism.

#Moderator

Ginger Gorman

Ginger Gorman is a fearless and multi award-winning social justice journalist. She has an innate ability to connect and communicate with some of the most interesting and marginalised people in our community. Ginger works hard to translate those untold stories into powerful journalism and is author of the best-selling book Troll Hunting.