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It came as no surprise this week that Donald Trump put on a mock Chinese accent and spoke in broken English to criticize the leaders of China and (more to the point) President Obama for even talking to them.

Mr. Trump has made a kind of performance art out of sprinkling his public utterances with racist and sexist nonsense and then talking about his supposed impatience with “political correctness” to bat away those who criticize his behavior.

Mr. Trump is just like countless others who resent being called to account for intolerance and discrimination. He has twisted the meaning of the term “political correctness” to belittle his critics, of course, but also to excuse his habit of attacking people for their gender, national origin, language and even body size by suggesting that criticizing him is, in its own way, unfair treatment.

This argument is rooted in the culture of white outrage, which in turn is based on the idea that efforts to win equal rights for minorities, women, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans and others have somehow resulted in discrimination against white people, or rather white men.

Some particularly nasty examples of this phenomenon include the claim that the campaign for gay rights is actually an assault on Protestant Christianity and the perhaps even more absurd assertion that the protest movement against police violence against African Americans and its slogan “black lives matter” are somehow racist because they suggest that white lives don’t matter.

The term “political correctness” is decades old. It actually refers to an attempt to change patterns of speech – like using the word “chairperson” instead of “chairman” or “flight attendant” instead of “stewardess.”

Sensible and reasonable people have debated whether politically correct speech has gone too far, especially on college campuses, where it can be used, the argument goes, to stifle free expression and dissident thought. That is a legitimate concern, but it’s also not that hard to differentiate between speech that is stifled for ideological or political reasons, and truly racist, intolerant and plainly offensive speech.

When college students chant the slogan “No Means Yes, Yes Means Anal” and frat boys at Old Dominion University drape a banner reading “Rowdy and Fun, Hope Your Baby Girl Is Ready for a Good Time” from their window, it’s not just politically incorrect college hijinks. It is a clear and direct attempt not just to excuse men who rape women on college campuses, but to celebrate them.

It is just as easy to differentiate between “politically incorrect” things that people say and what Donald Trump does in so many of his public appearances.

The extremely negative reaction to Mr. Trump’s claim that Mexico was sending rapists and murderers to the United States was not political correctness. It was outrage at his racism. The response to his attack on the Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was not political correctness. It was indignation at his sexism.

In the same way, the response to Mr. Trump’s mocking Chinese accent this week was entirely legitimate.

Mr. Trump seems to be deliberately using offensive rhetoric to fan the outrage and hatred of the far right by adopting the language of white resentment. It’s carnival sideshow behavior, yes. But it’s also irresponsible and dangerous. It shows how far he is from being presidential material. It’s not going to stop.