What ever happened to the newspeak word blackwhite ? Commentators are generally very eager to use terms from 1984 yet Blackwhite has been replaced by up is downism. Why ? My guess is that in 21st century America blackwhite means
African American/European American. Up and down remain harmless antonyms. The word black has become charged with connotations of race.

Another example of a change in the connotations of a word can be found in Orwell's brilliant analysis of the poem "Felix Randal" by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Here Orwell explains why the final line was so effective when written. His analysis is so solid that it explains why the line has become bad poetry.

I can't find my copy of "As I Please" so I am going to quote the poem from Bartleby and paraphrase Orwell

the last four words in the poem are "bright and battering sandal !"

Orwell noted that for English readers, the word sandal evoked ancient Greeks and Romans and, in particular, The Iliad. He wrote that the word would have very different connotations in a country, such as India, where sandals were coomon.

In 21st century Rome the word has been even more gravely humiliated. Here and now, sandals are casual wear and evoke lounging on a beach. When I read the poem (in 20th century America) I found the last line jarringly bad. Bad enough to damage the poem, even though the poet shares no part of the blame.

Oddly Orwell's analysis speaks to us because it was addressed to Indians.
This might be an systematic benefit of multiculuralism. The effort to avoid a Eurocentric perspective might enable people to transend, say, a parochial early 21st century perspective. Does that mean that coherant Straussians must be multiculturalists ?