Zhao Jun, The earliest reference to “politically correct” that I found was indeed in the Bambara article of 1970. An earlier reference, in 1793, was from a U.S. Supreme Court case law article but its use does not relate to the contemporary parlance, which is as a pejorative term denoting “social tip-toeing”. But the “left” have found the phrase convenient and have thus borrowed it for their own “political” purposes.
If anyone knows of an earlier reference which is IN THE SAME CONTEXT, I’d like to hear of it.
I wanted to say that in my article, but since I didn't know much about the background of PC in this country, I decided to leave it out (you can say that I tried to be politically correct about PC:)). Your discussion of the origins of PC in the US is so timely. Thanks!
But other readers have pointed out that PC was actually originated from Marxism ideology. I mentioned in my article that I really didn't know for sure how this Marxism concept "evolved" into the shape it has today in the west. If it's indeed something introduced by the neo-left author you discussed in this piece, then maybe it has its ideological connection to the left camp.
