Steven Petrow: 3 ways to practice civility
ستيفن بترو: ثلاث طرق لممارسة المدنية
Journalist Steven Petrow writes about manners and civility. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
two things about myself
بإخباركم شيئين عن نفسي
about manners and civility
and as a magazine columnist.
of inviting me over for dinner
حذرين جداً حين يدعونني للعشاء
that happens at the table
and I can see through the portals, too.
في الخلف وأن أرى ما وراء البوابات أيضاً.
and a dinner party that I went to.
وحفلة العشاء التي ذهبت إليها.
was first coming out,
as a transgender activist.
in People magazine at the time,
erases us in a certain way.
استخدامهم من شأنه أن يمحينا بطريقة معينة.
but also the use of her pronouns.
عن استخدام ضمائر التأنيث أيضاً.
delicious, wonderful, fun --
-اللذيذ والرائع والمسلي-
about Caitlyn Jenner.
disrespectful for Caitlyn Jenner
and to use these new pronouns.
جديد واستخدام هذه الضمائر.
and because I do meditation,
that when she got married,
because it's her legal name,
and we didn't speak for years.
that you're not that familiar with.
and the French,
who tries to live by a moral code,
for the good of the city,
يفدوا أنفسهم لصالح المدينة
for the larger good.
three new ways to be civil, I hope,
أتمنى ذلك،
to the original definition of civility.
a dirty word in this country.
or whether you lean left.
equates civility with decorum,
للكلمة يساوي بين المدنيه والتنميق،
from the idea of citizenship.
about my friends on the right,
what they call political correctness.
what George Orwell wrote in "1984" --
to change the way we talk
the language that we use.
by changing the meaning of words.
might have had some of that
about then-candidate Donald Trump.
for total political correctness,
the country did either.
about that online, as you can imagine.
and this one stood out to me
is a pathological system
a conversation,
the opposition."
civility translates into censure.
also have a problem with it.
Trump administration officials
they've been called out as nasty,
Washington Post --
should be allowed to dine in peace.
is the real incivility here.
the separation of families."
in this country,
throughout our history.
for women in the 1920s.
the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.,
nonviolent civil disobedience.
to promote racial and economic justice.
a problem, a dirty word, here.
that we can't speak our minds?
ألا نستطيع التحدث بعقولنا؟
Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer.
of civility in this country,
for Civil Discourse.
or avoiding important differences.
about those differences with respect."
عن الاختلافات باحترام.
we need to do that.
it needs boundaries.
that is simply rude or demeaning,
hatred and intolerance.
of racial and ethnic groups,
call this speech "hate speech."
about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
a personal message,
10 of them were the f-bomb.
10 منهم بها القنبلة "f"
President Obama was called out,
vulgar and coarse way.
in that message,
sent it to authorities.
were sent to other media outlets,
kind of on guard there.
only a few months before,
at a Maryland newspaper.
by a reader with a grudge.
started stalking me online.
my Christmas decorations up
decorations down."
was off leash one day,
that I had gone to the market.
he came to my door, my front door,
أتى إلى بابي الأمامي،
to break the door down.
from turning violent?
trigger words in print.
"homophobe," I mean "racist,"
to find common ground.
to find a common heart.
when John McCain died in 2018,
that he never made personal attacks.
what was really noteworthy.
he challenged their positions,
is not only an American one.
for a civility offensive right now,
under a spell of "verhuftering."
and I did quite a bit of research.
and the disappearance of good manners.
but that's what I'm saying here.
to describe a problem like that,
the [2016] Brexit vote ...
a nation even more so.
called those who favor it --
lizard brain of Britain."
lizard brain of Britain.
as fabulous as Dame Maggie Smith.
It's so middle class.]
and they make these amazing scones.
كنت في مخبز للكعكات اللذيذة،
there are a lot of scones.
the scones were disappearing
in between me and that last scone.
"I'll have a croissant."
"I'll take that scone."
and you're behind me."
not that far from here.
وهي ليست بعيدة عن هنا
very civil here and so on,
وهكذا.
in this room, on these streets.
when I said to this guy ...
and I could see his face change
and we'll share both of them?"
sexual orientation, occupation.
الجنسيه، التفضيل الجنسي، الوظيفة.
through this moment of connection,
we have stayed in touch.
that I'm called the Civilist after that.
not just the trouble we avoid,
I mean connection.
and as a country and as a world.
civil war of ideas and identity.
is treated humanely,
a Geneva Convention of civility,
for the parameters of that.
of our communities and of our countries.
on the original definition of civility,
for the greater good.
understanding, is not a dirty word.
or will not stay, obsolete.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Steven Petrow - Journalist, authorJournalist Steven Petrow writes about manners and civility.
Why you should listen
Steven Petrow is an award-winning journalist and book author who is best known for his Washington Post and New York Times essays on civility and manners, aging and cancer. He was recently named as an opinion columnist for the USA TODAY Network.
When Petrow's last book, Steven Petrow's Complete Gay and Lesbian Manners: The Definitive Guide to LGBT Life, was published, TIME magazine commented (in a full-length feature): "Move over, Emily Post! When it comes to etiquette … author and journalist Steven Petrow is the authority." Previously, Petrow penned the New York Times’s "Civil Behavior" advice column and "Digital Dilemmas" for Parade magazine. His work has been published in TIME, The Atlantic, Salon, the Daily Beast, the Los Angeles Times and The Advocate.
You're likely to hear Petrow when you turn on NPR's "All Things Considered Weekend," or one of your favorite (or least favorite) TV networks (MSNBC, PBS, CBS, Fox and CNN). Petrow also served as the host and executive producer of "The Civilist," a podcast from Public Radio International and North Carolina Public Radio WUNC.
A former president of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, Petrow has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and The Publishing Triangle's Randy Shilts Award for Gay Non-Fiction and is a winner of several literary prizes, including the American Library Association's/ForeWord Magazine Book Silver Award for Reference.
Petrow is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including those from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, the Ucross Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the National Press Foundation. In 2017, he became the named sponsor of the Petrow LGBTQ Fellowship at the VCCA, a prize that is awarded annually. Petrow, with three degrees from Duke University and the University of California, Berkeley, lives in Hillsborough, N.C.
Steven Petrow | Speaker | TED.com