Steven Petrow: 3 ways to practice civility
Steven Petrow: Tres formas de practicar el civismo
Journalist Steven Petrow writes about manners and civility. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
two things about myself
dos cosas sobre mí
about manners and civility
sobre modales y civismo
and as a magazine columnist.
y columnista en revistas.
of inviting me over for dinner
invitarme a cenar
that happens at the table
que ocurra en la mesa
en uno de mis artículos.
and I can see through the portals, too.
allá atrás y en los portales.
and a dinner party that I went to.
a la que fui en el 2015.
was first coming out,
Caitlyn Jenner salió a la luz pública,
como Kardashian
as a transgender activist.
como activista transgénero.
in People magazine at the time,
en la revista People
de los nombres propios
nuestra identidad.
erases us in a certain way.
de alguna forma nos hace invisible.
but also the use of her pronouns.
delicious, wonderful, fun --
maravillosa, divertida...
about Caitlyn Jenner.
a quejarse de Caitlyn Jenner.
disrespectful for Caitlyn Jenner
que Caitlyn Jenner
and to use these new pronouns.
su nuevo nombre y pronombres,
and because I do meditation,
como hago meditación,
antes de responderle.
that when she got married,
que todos usamos con ella.
because it's her legal name,
no nos hablamos desde hace años.
and we didn't speak for years.
that you're not that familiar with.
con la que no están familiarizados.
and the French,
who tries to live by a moral code,
de vivir siguiendo un código moral
se refiere a los ciudadanos
for the good of the city,
por el beneficio de la ciudad
for the larger good.
three new ways to be civil, I hope,
de actuar cívicamente
to the original definition of civility.
a dirty word in this country.
una mala palabra en este país,
or whether you lean left.
de la derecha o de la izquierda.
equates civility with decorum,
de la palabra la relaciona con el decoro,
y el comportamiento formal.
from the idea of citizenship.
de ser buenos ciudadanos.
about my friends on the right,
sobre mis amigos de la derecha
what they call political correctness.
el lenguaje políticamente correcto.
what George Orwell wrote in "1984" --
George Orwell escribió en "1984"...
to change the way we talk
la forma en la que hablamos
the language that we use.
el lenguage que utilizamos.
by changing the meaning of words.
el cambio del significado de las palabras.
might have had some of that
about then-candidate Donald Trump.
el entonces candidato Donald Trump.
for total political correctness,
el lenguage políticamente correcto,
the country did either.
about that online, as you can imagine.
al tópico, como se imaginarán.
and this one stood out to me
y esta me llamó la atención
is a pathological system
es un sistema patológico
a conversation,
dominar la conversación,
the opposition."
y callar la oposición".
civility translates into censure.
el civismo se traduce en censura.
also have a problem with it.
también tienen un problema con él.
Trump administration officials
de la administración de Trump
they've been called out as nasty,
repugnantes, de lo peor.
el año pasado,
Washington Post --
se puso de parte del decoro.
should be allowed to dine in peace.
habían que dejarlos cenar en paz.
is the real incivility here.
no es cívico aquí es el muro.
the separation of families."
a los niños, separan a las familias".
in this country,
nos hubiésemos puesto del lado
throughout our history.
a lo largo de la historia.
for women in the 1920s.
las mujeres en la década de los 20.
the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.,
Martin Luther King Jr.,
nonviolent civil disobedience.
no violenta en EE. UU.
to promote racial and economic justice.
justicia racial y económica no era cívico.
a problem, a dirty word, here.
un problema, una mala palabra.
that we can't speak our minds?
en desacuerdo, expresar lo que sentimos?
Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer.
la Dra. Carolyn Lukensmeyer.
of civility in this country,
de civismo en este país
for Civil Discourse.
para el Discurso Cívico.
or avoiding important differences.
o evitar discutir diferencias importantes.
about those differences with respect."
sobre esas diferencias con respeto".
we need to do that.
necesitamos hacer eso.
it needs boundaries.
necesita reglas y límites.
that is simply rude or demeaning,
simplemente irrespetuoso o degradante
hatred and intolerance.
al odio y a la intolerancia.
of racial and ethnic groups,
call this speech "hate speech."
llamamos "discurso del odio".
conlleva a la violencia.
about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
la Dra. Christine Blasey Ford.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Kavanaugh, nominado a la Corte Suprema,
a personal message,
10 of them were the f-bomb.
de las cuales 10 eran insultos.
President Obama was called out,
al presidente Obama,
vulgar and coarse way.
bastante fuerte y vulgar.
in that message,
en ese mensaje,
sent it to authorities.
lo enviaron a las autoridades.
were sent to other media outlets,
de las bombas que enviaron a los medios,
kind of on guard there.
only a few months before,
hacía apenas unos meses
at a Maryland newspaper.
de Maryland fueron asesinados.
by a reader with a grudge.
por un lector enojado.
started stalking me online.
a acecharme en línea.
algo de poca importancia.
my Christmas decorations up
la decoración de navidad,
decorations down."
la decoración de navidad".
was off leash one day,
mi perro estaba sin su collar
that I had gone to the market.
el final de la historia.
he came to my door, my front door,
llegó a la puerta de mi casa
to break the door down.
un sistema de seguridad
de Louisville Slugger.
from turning violent?
desagradable y violento?
desescalar el lenguaje.
trigger words in print.
palabras que puedan causar reacciones.
"homophobe," I mean "racist,"
"homofóbico", "racista",
to find common ground.
a un terreno en común.
to find a common heart.
un corazón en común.
when John McCain died in 2018,
John MacCain falleció en 2018
that he never made personal attacks.
él nunca hizo ataques personales.
what was really noteworthy.
lo hacía notable.
he challenged their positions,
y las posiciones de otra gente
is not only an American one.
no solo ocurre en EE. UU.
for a civility offensive right now,
a la ofensiva del civismo,
under a spell of "verhuftering."
de "verhuftering".
and I did quite a bit of research.
por lo que la investigué un poco.
and the disappearance of good manners.
y la desaparición de los buenos modales.
but that's what I'm saying here.
eso es todo lo que les digo aquí.
to describe a problem like that,
para describir semejante problema
the [2016] Brexit vote ...
por el Brexit en 2016...
a nation even more so.
called those who favor it --
llamó a los que la favorecían...
lizard brain of Britain."
de la Gran Bretaña".
de la Gran Bretaña.
lizard brain of Britain.
as fabulous as Dame Maggie Smith.
tan fabulosa como Dame Maggie Smith.
Es tan de clase de media.]
It's so middle class.]
and they make these amazing scones.
ingleses espectaculares.
there are a lot of scones.
the scones were disappearing
iban desapareciendo
in between me and that last scone.
entre el último panecillo y yo.
"I'll have a croissant."
"Quiero un croissant".
"I'll take that scone."
"Quiero ese panecillo".
por 20 minutos en la cola".
and you're behind me."
en la cola y tú estás detrás de mí".
not that far from here.
no lejos de aquí.
very civil here and so on,
in this room, on these streets.
arrebatarle el taxi a cualquiera aquí.
when I said to this guy ...
diciéndole a esta persona...
and I could see his face change
podía verlo en su cara,
and we'll share both of them?"
otro pastelillo y así compartimos?"
sexual orientation, occupation.
orientación sexual, ocupación.
through this moment of connection,
a ese momento de conexión
we have stayed in touch.
y nos mantenemos en contacto.
that I'm called the Civilist after that.
llamaban el "cívico" luego de lo ocurrido.
not just the trouble we avoid,
y no solo los problemas que evitamos
I mean connection.
a la amistad, a la conexión.
pero en una escala mayor.
and as a country and as a world.
civil war of ideas and identity.
guerra civil de ideas y de identidad.
is treated humanely,
sea tratado de forma humana,
a Geneva Convention of civility,
Convenio de Ginebra para el civismo
for the parameters of that.
y los parámetros para el discurso.
of our communities and of our countries.
en nuestras comunidades y países.
on the original definition of civility,
la definición original de civismo,
for the greater good.
por el bienestar común de todos.
understanding, is not a dirty word.
esos términos no es una mala palabra.
or will not stay, obsolete.
no desparezca o se haga obsoleto.
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