I came home at lunchtime to find my wife watching a tv programme where a panel of women were talking about men in a rather demeaning way.

"The Governor is playing to the most vicious stereotype of a welfare recipient in the most demeaning and degrading way possible," Mrs. Whitman said.

The overwhelmingly more common case is white people using it in a hateful or demeaning or contemptible way - a racist way - to refer to black people.

"Places like El Puente and the new schools are perceived as touchy-feely places in a demeaning way where no real learning goes on," Ms. Anderson said.

"The others were funny in an insulting, demeaning way, picking on other kids," one junior said.

In my judgment, refugee is neither racist nor ethnic nor in any way demeaning.

The PCC ruled that some of the words were indeed used in a "demeaning and gratuitous way".

But it is important to remember that an earlier form of "political correctness" let elite institutions deal with religion, women and blacks in demeaning ways.

I, too, would like to know why our state is spoken of in such a demeaning way.

From this perspective, capitalism shows itself to be a system that organizes work in demeaning ways.