Explained (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 17 - Political Correctness - full transcript

[narrator] If you go to the Netherlands
in late November,

there’s a good chance you’ll see this:

white people dressed up
as St. Nicholas' helper Black Pete.

The character first showed up
in a Dutch children’s book in 1850,

while slavery was still alive and well
in the Dutch colonies.

By the 1960s, Black Pete
was a Dutch holiday staple,

and people of European descent made up 99%
of the Dutch population.

That changed in the '70s and '80s

when tens of thousands migrated
to the Netherlands,

along with guest workers
from southern Europe, Turkey and Morocco

invited by factory and shipyard owners.



Today, people of color make up
an increasing share

of the Dutch population,

and some of them don't see Black Pete
as a cherished tradition.

[speaking Dutch] It's unacceptable
that such traditions continue to exist.

If one child goes to school and is called
"Black Pete" and goes home crying,

that's enough to change the tradition.

[speaking Dutch] There is the history
behind this tradition of repression,

murders that were committed
by white people against black people.

[narrator] In response,

Black Pete’s defenders often accuse their
critics of being politically correct.

It's a phrase you now hear
from politicians all over the world.

We can’t worry
about being politically correct.

We have to
throw away political correctness.

...and it is my duty,
to talk about the problems,



even when the politically correct elite
prefers not to mention them.

[narrator] In the US, a 2015 survey
found that four out of five Republicans

and three out of five Democrats agreed
with the statement:

"A big problem this country has
is being politically correct."

The phrase pops up in debates
about movies and mascots,

symbols and Super Bowl ads.

On college campuses, comedy stages
and cable news.

[all] Political correctness. [narrator] But what does it mean?

What exactly is it
that we’re fighting over?

Political correctness
has ignited controversy

across the land.

We're just doing this in the defiance
of political correctness.

Here in the South, it means so much
to so many people.

[man] ...and I think these people are
a fit subject for a mental health program!

Offend? There's a funny thing.
There are words that offend me.

[Megyn Kelly] Just because

it makes you feel uncomfortable
doesn't mean it has to change.

We cannot afford
to be so politically correct anymore!

[clamoring]

[narrator] In the United States,
the term "political correctness"

often comes up in connection
with college students.

Some fear that so-called
political correctness

is overtaking free speech
on college campuses.

The environment that’s been created
on campus now,

such having political correctness.

If you needed more proof
that political correctness

has run amok on college campuses,
we have it.

People seem endlessly fascinated with
"what is up with these kids these days?"

They were 20, 25 years ago
and they are today.

In the late '80s, early '90s,

we had the first episode
of the so-called PC wars.

[narrator] The 1960s and '70s helped
remake the demographics

of college campuses.

And by the 90s,

they were less white and less male
than they’d been in the past.

All of a sudden you didn't just have
homogeneity on campus.

You had women talking about rape
on campus

and talking about discrimination
on campus.

It’s almost like I dare anyone
to blame me, I really do.

Because I will not take blame for this.

[man] One guy was kicking me in the head.
They were yelling racial slurs,

“Effing nigger.”

[woman] Black students denounced
the beatings and took over

a campus building for six days.

[narrator] Some student saw responses
like "this is an overreaction."

Every time some minor incident,

such as a couple guys drinking beer
and get into a fight,

one happens to be black,
one happens to be white, it’s instantly a rally against racism

and they’re taking over buildings,
and they’re demanding the world.

[narrator] These tactics weren’t new,
but the phrase used to describe them was.

You could describe it as PC. -Politically correct.
-Political correctness.

[narrator] One of the early mentions was
in a New York Times cartoon in 1990:

politically correct person promises

to guide those baffled
by a changing world.

It even showed up on the big screen
in the 1994 movie PCU.

[man] Politically correct. And it's not
just politics, it's everything.

It's what you eat, it's what you wear,
and it's what you say.

If you don't watch yourself,
you can get in a buttload of trouble.

[narrator] Within a few years,
the term had graduated college

and entered the nightly news cycle.

Like when the state of Colorado overturned
Aspen’s LGBT protection laws in 1992.

[woman] These Aspen ski slopes
are this holiday season a battleground

over political correctness.

[narrator] Or when the term
"African American" entered the lexicon.

[man] Back in the 1960s,
"Negro" was replaced by "Black,"

which is now being supplanted
by "African American."

In the late '80s, early '90s,

people started talking
about political correctness.

It felt like this thing was a way
for white people who hadn’t thought about

how to be inclusive,
as a way to sort of frame it. Like, why are we using these new words?

Why are we, why are we--
Black people used to be "colored," now they're "black,"  "African American."
How come we keep changing the words?

[narrator] Why did people want
to change these words?

I feel more comfortable
with the term African American

because that gives more focus on who I am
and not what I am.

If you call me by the label that I choose

instead of calling me by the label
that your group has chosen,

it's just a cooler way to be.

If people are saying,
"Oh, we should now use this terminology,"

it might sound silly at first,

but it's useful to listen
to people's reasoning

for why it might help

make the world a little bit easier
or more inclusive.

[narrator] Even the smallest words
can hold a lot of power. Like "Miss."

In the English-speaking world, most people
had never thought twice about it.

Men were always Mr.

But women... they were Miss
until they became a Mrs.

and took their husband’s name.

Unlike men, they were identified
by their marital status.

Same for French, Spanish and Mandarin,
just to name a few.

Which is why, in the US,

Geraldine Ferraro’s 1984 vice presidential
campaign presented a dilemma.

She was married,
but had kept her maiden name.

So she asked reporters
to call her Ms. Ferraro,

a title popularized
by the Women's movement in the 1970s.

But most publications resisted “Ms.”
As one columnist wrote:

“It seems like propaganda
for the women's movement.”

The New York Times
called her Miss Ferraro

in a 1982 profile,

"Mrs." in 1983,

then "Miss" again in 1985.

I think I just heard Mrs. Ferraro say that
she would do away with all covert action.

Let me help you with the difference,
Miss Ferraro,

between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon.

[narrator] Today, Ms. has become

the default prefix for women,
married or not.

In France, the government removed
"Mademoiselle"

on all its official forms in 2012.

All men are “Monsieur,”
and all women are “Madame.”

Basically, people very slowly
came around to "Ms.,"

will use it and not even think twice
about it. We've become used to it.

[narrator] The debate over "Ms."
wasn't just about language.

It was about power,

and refusing to adopt new language
can send its own message about power.

Like when a reporter asked
then-candidate Donald Trump

about the term "anchor babies."

[man] That’s an offensive term.
People find that--

You mean it’s not politically correct
and yet everybody uses it? All right.

So you know what? Give me a different
term. What else would you like to say?

[man] The American-born child
of an undocumented immigrant.

Oh, you want me to say that. Okay.

I’ll use the word "anchor baby."
Excuse me.

I'll use the word "anchor baby."

[narrator]
Or when Russian president Vladimir Putin

uses the term political correctness

to equate homosexuality with pedophilia.

[speaking Russian] The excesses
and exaggerations of political correctness

are such that there is serious talk
of registering a political party

that aims to promote pedophilia.

[narrator] Or when French politician
Marion Maréchal-Le Pen

criticizes Islam and immigration.

Massive immigration, Islamic lobbies
and political correctness.

[narrator] But others criticize
new language because it can be confusing.

[Glenn Beck] Where is the line of
what you can say and what you can't say?

And all I keep coming back to is...

there shouldn't be a line.

Because it is the spirit
of the Enlightenment

that brought us out of the Dark Ages,

was a risky conversation
saying risky things.

[narrator] Of course, what’s considered
"risky" changes over time.

It was risky for CBS to even talk about
gay people in 1967.

Most Americans are repelled
by the mere notion of homosexuality.

[narrator] It was even riskier
to be openly gay at work.

We do not employ homosexuals knowingly,

and if we discover homosexuals
in our department, we discharge them.

[narrator] Or to be open
about their sexuality in public.

...and I think these people are a fit
subject for a mental health program!

[narrator]
American attitudes are changing,

but societies don’t change all at once.

The first stage of acceptance
is toleration.

You know, "I'm a little bit...
I feel uncomfortable around them,

but they're human beings,
we shouldn't treat them like trash."

The second stage would be legitimization.

We start talking about their rights
and opening up possibilities...

that may not have been opened
to them before.

The third stage of acceptance is...

when people recognize that the prejudice
is often unconscious.

One of the main issues that comes up
over and over again

in conversations
about political correctness...

is that now that we live in a world
where social media connects all of us,

you have people at these various different
stages interacting with one another,

and people might resent someone saying,

“Oh, you can't use that word.
That's offensive to people.”

Political correctness
is this interesting phrase

for all the ways we're self-conscious
in our conversations across difference.

Especially when you know the moment
you say one thing

that someone doesn't like
or that someone finds offensive,

they can often jump on you,

which makes you even more likely
to just bottle things up.

The problem comes where...
I don't even know the rules.

Who's making up the laws of all of this?
Who's giving us these rules?

I play DnD and when I have to introduce
a minority character,

I'll often find myself asking,
"Can I describe this character as black?

Is that too blunt?
Would that seem racist to just say that?

Why would I need to describe that? Is that
an integral part of their character?

Is it racist to not say they're black?"

One example from the French language
is this new idea of inclusive writing,

which is a set of rules that aims
to write French in a gender-balanced way.

In practice this means using the form
of words you see in the dictionary

with both of the gender endings
spelled explicitly, separated by a point.

And of course,

it does nothing to address the exclusion
of women from a lot of space in society.

Recently I was in a meeting,

and I was addressing to people as "guys"
as I normally do like,

"Okay, guys, let's do this.
Okay, guys, let's wrap the meeting up."

And after the meeting one of my friends,
who was a male friend,

walks up to me and says that,

"You know, I don't know, but maybe
we shouldn't call everybody 'guys.'

Maybe we should call them 'folk'
or 'people.'"

This is pushing political correctness
too far.

One thing that I encounter a lot with
my students is they're really unwilling

to talk about issues of race and gender

because they're afraid
of offending people,

but instead of watching what they say,
they just don't talk at all.

People might be afraid to do
certain studies on immigrants,

because we're afraid
of what the data might show.

Even though it seems so simple
as using one word over another,

it kind of becomes this whole thing
about "the left will not take us over."

One complaint you'll hear sometimes is,

"You know, I have to watch
every word I say,

because I will get criticized,
I will get called racist,

I will get called sexist
if I say the wrong thing."

It's a complaint
in which someone's saying,

“I don't like that I can't say this thing
without being criticized."

A lot of times comics, when they're told
they can't say the n-word,

or they can't make jokes about rape,

they suddenly go, "Oh, come on.
That's... but it's funny!"

But really, you're being challenged
to do something different.

I had a solo show, and in the show
I would tell a story

about the first time I ever felt black.

I think I was six years old,
in first grade.

And me and a bunch
of other white kids were playing,

like, "Doctor" or "The Kissing Game,"

and it was this white girl’s turn to
kiss me, and she didn’t want to kiss me.

Maybe I wasn't a cute kid and she didn't
want to kiss because I wasn't a cute kid.

I show a picture of myself at six,
looking adorable,

empirically so adorable.

And in the joke, I would go,
“Yeah, look at me. I was cute.”

And the joke at the time was,
"That little bitch was racist!"

[audience laughing]

A friend of mine came and saw the show,

and she was like,
"Huh. Why do you say 'bitch' there?"

Like, "It's funny!"

Maybe I called her politically correct.

"You don't get it,
you don't get how comedy clubs work."

She's like, "Yeah, but that joke
doesn't really reflect you,

because you wouldn't call a woman
in your life a bitch."

And so because we were playing Doctor,

at the end when I show the picture
of how cute I was. "Look how adorable I am!" I go...

"That little doctor was racist."

-And it still got a big laugh!
-[audience laughing]

And so from that point forward,
I was like, "Huh.

There's actually ways to get around this."

[narrator] Why do we laugh?

Sometimes it’s because a joke takes
something we’ve experienced privately

and makes it public.

Then that experience loses some
of its power.

Like when comedian Richard Pryor
talked about

how different it felt being black
in Africa compared to America.

I know how white people feel
in America now.

Relaxed.

-[audience laughing]
-That's right!

'Cause you hear, like,
a police car comin',

you know it ain't comin' after your ass.

[narrator] Then there are jokes
where the punch line is a person

who's outside a group,

and people laugh to show
that they’re definitely inside the group.

Ethnic jokes.

Do you think Mexicans are spicy?

[audience laughing]

[narrator] Gay jokes.

...them like a gay French king.

[narrator] As the groups who use
to be the punch line

of these jokes gain power and visibility,

they also gain more power
to socially punish the people

who say things that offend them.

Electric cars... are gay.

[man] Well, that preview
has now been pulled.

Was pulling the coming attraction
pinheaded or patriotic?

Bullying comes from somewhere.

It comes from social attitudes
that are often perpetuated

by comedies that are telling jokes.

We gotta do something to change,

to make those words unacceptable
'cause those words are hurting kids.

I'd never tell a comic not to do a joke.
Say all the words you want to say,

but you've to deal
with the consequences.

[narrator] But some people worry
those consequences

could end up shutting down debates.

And on some college campuses,
this is getting a lot of media attention.

Protests at Middlebury College
in the great state of Vermont devolved

into censorship and a violent mob
over recent guest speaker Charles Murray.

Because Murray wrote The Bell Curve
about cognitive stratification,

they would not let him speak.
This is an outrage.

The incident and others like it
bring into sharp relief

a growing tendency
on American campuses:

an intolerance for freedom of speech
and a challenge to intellectual diversity.

When I read The Bell Curve,
I was very upset.

[woman] The Bell Curve implies that blacks
underachieve and are in poverty

because genetics influences
their lower IQ scores.

Someone who reads this,
what are they then gonna think

about the next black person
that they meet?

So, that to me was very dangerous.

[all] Go away!
Racists, sexists, anti-gay...

[narrator]
But for a lot of students a person's ideas

seeming offensive or dangerous

is exactly why they want
to hear them speak.

When I brought Murray to campus,

that was one of the first things
that I wanted to ask him about.

I now have a better understanding
of how he truly does see it

as an honest argument.

That's something I could've only gained
by talking to him.

I don't think it's a good idea
to shut down speakers

or to make it
so that speakers can't be heard.

I think that's a bad idea.

When speakers get shouted down
or not allowed to speak or disinvited,

they become cause celeb,
even if their message is nonsense.

The desire to limit speech, while I
deeply disagree with it on principle,

stems from a good place.

The way that translates into action...

that's where the problem really rests.

[narrator] As cultures change
and new groups gain power,

they push societies to rethink language,
symbols and traditions.

What exactly are we referring to
when we say political correctness?

To me, in some sense,
it's an umbrella term

that encompasses a wide range of...

interactions and incidents.

Are you referring to student activists
on campus

who don't want to hear from speakers?

Are you referring to a comment
that someone feels is degrading?

[narrator] One person's
political correctness...

It's time to move the flag
from the capitol grounds.

...is another person's sign of progress.