ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jorge Ramos - Journalist, news anchor
Jorge Ramos's work covers the issues that affect the 55 million Latinos in the United States and immigrants all over the world.

Why you should listen

Jorge Ramos immigrated to the United States from Mexico City, on a student visa at the age of 24. What started as a street beat for a local Spanish-language broadcast in Los Angeles in the 1980s has evolved into a career of remarkable distinction and credibility. Today, Ramos co-anchors Univision's flagship Spanish-language broadcast, “Noticiero Univisión," writes a nationally syndicated column, hosts the Sunday Morning show "Al Punto" and now, the English language program, "America with Jorge Ramos." He is the winner of eight Emmys and the author of eleven books, including Take a Stand: Lessons from Rebels, 2016; A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto; and Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History.

In the absence of political representation in the United States, Jorge Ramos gives a face and voice to the millions of Latinos and immigrants living in the United States. He uses his platform to promote open borders and immigrants' rights and demands accountability from the world leaders he interviews. Nearly 1.9 million viewers tune into his program each night, and in 2015, Time named him one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People."

More profile about the speaker
Jorge Ramos | Speaker | TED.com
TED2017

Jorge Ramos: Why journalists have an obligation to challenge power

Filmed:
612,151 views

You can kick Jorge Ramos out of your press conference (as Donald Trump infamously did in 2015), but you can never silence him. A reporter for more than 30 years, Ramos believes that a journalist's responsibility is to question and challenge those in power. In this compelling talk -- which earned him a standing ovation midway through -- Ramos explains why, in certain circumstances, he believes journalists must take sides. (In Spanish with English subtitles)
- Journalist, news anchor
Jorge Ramos's work covers the issues that affect the 55 million Latinos in the United States and immigrants all over the world. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
I'm a journalist,
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and I'm an immigrant.
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And these two conditions define me.
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I was born in Mexico,
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but I've spent more than half my life
reporting in the United States,
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a country which was itself
created by immigrants.
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As a reporter
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and as a foreigner,
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I've learned that neutrality,
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silence
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and fear aren't the best options --
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not in journalism, nor in life.
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Neutrality
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is often an excuse that we journalists use
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to hide from our true responsibility.
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What is that responsibility?
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It is to question
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and to challenge
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those in positions of power.
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That's what journalism is for.
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That's the beauty of journalism:
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to question and challenge the powerful.
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01:05
Of course, we have the obligation
to report reality as it is,
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01:09
not how we would like it to be.
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01:10
In that sense, I agree
with the principle of objectivity:
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if a house is blue, I say that it's blue.
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If there are a million unemployed people,
I say there are a million.
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01:20
But neutrality
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won't necessarily lead me to the truth.
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Even if I'm unequivocally scrupulous,
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and I present both sides of a news item --
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the Democratic and the Republican,
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the liberal and the conservative,
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the government's and the opposition's --
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in the end, I have no guarantee,
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nor are any of us guaranteed
that we'll know what's true
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and what's not true.
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Life is much more complicated,
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and I believe journalism should reflect
that very complexity.
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To be clear: I refuse
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to be a tape recorder.
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I didn't become a journalist
to be a tape recorder.
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I know what you're going to say:
no one uses tape recorders nowadays.
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(Laughter)
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In that case, I refuse
to take out my cell phone
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and hit the record button
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and point it in front of me
as if I were at a concert,
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like a fan at a concert.
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That is not true journalism.
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Contrary to what many people think,
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journalists are making
value judgments all the time,
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ethical and moral judgments.
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And we're always making decisions
that are exceedingly personal
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and extraordinarily subjective.
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For example:
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What happens if you're called
to cover a dictatorship,
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like Augusto Pinochet's regime in Chile
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or Fidel Castro's in Cuba?
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Are you going to report only what
the general and commander want,
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or will you confront them?
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What happens if you find out
that in your country
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or in the country next door,
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students are disappearing
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and hidden graves are appearing,
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or that millions of dollars
are disappearing from the budget
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and that ex-presidents are magically
now multimillionaires?
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Will you report only the official version?
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Or what happens
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if you're assigned to cover
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the presidential elections
of the primary superpower,
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and one of the candidates makes
comments that are racist,
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sexist
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and xenophobic?
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That happened to me.
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And I want to tell you what I did,
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but first, let me explain
where I'm coming from,
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so you can understand my reaction.
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I grew up in Mexico City,
the oldest of five brothers,
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and our family simply couldn't afford
to pay for all of our college tuition.
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So I studied in the morning,
and worked in the afternoon.
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Eventually,
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I got the job I had always wanted:
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television reporter.
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It was a big opportunity.
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But as I was working on
my third story, I ended up
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criticizing the president,
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and questioning the lack
of democracy in Mexico.
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In Mexico, from 1929 to 2000,
elections were always rigged;
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the incumbent president
would hand-pick his successor.
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That's not true democracy.
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04:23
To me it seemed like a brilliant idea
to expose the president,
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but to my boss --
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(Laughter)
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My boss didn't think
it was such a great idea.
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At that time, the presidential office,
Los Pinos, had issued a direct censure
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against the media.
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My boss, who, aside from being in charge
of the show I worked for,
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was also in charge of a soccer team.
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I always suspected that he was more
interested in goals
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than in the news.
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He censured my report.
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He asked me to change it, I said no,
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so he put another journalist on the story
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to write what I was supposed to say.
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I did not want to be
a censured journalist.
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05:03
I don't know where I found the strength,
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but I wrote my letter of resignation.
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05:08
And so at 24 years of age -- just 24 --
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I made the most difficult and most
transcendental decision of my life.
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05:15
Not only did I resign from television,
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but I had also decided
to leave my country.
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I sold my car, a beat-up
little red Volkswagen,
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came up with some money
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and said goodbye to my family,
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to my friends,
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to my streets,
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to my favorite haunts -- to my tacos --
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(Laughter)
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and I bought a one-way ticket
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to Los Angeles, California.
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And so I became
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one of the 250 million immigrants
that exist in the world.
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Ask any immigrant
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about the first day they arrived
in their new country,
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and you'll find that they remember
absolutely everything,
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like it was a movie with background music.
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In my case, I arrived in Los Angeles,
the sun was setting,
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and everything I owned --
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a guitar, a suitcase and some documents --
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I could carry all of it
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with my two hands.
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That feeling of absolute freedom,
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I haven't experienced since.
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And I survived with what little I had.
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I obtained a student visa; I was studying.
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I ate a lot of lettuce and bread,
because that's all I had.
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Finally, in 1984,
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I landed my first job as a TV reporter
in the United States.
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And the first thing I noticed
was that in the US,
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my colleagues criticized --
and mercilessly --
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then president Ronald Reagan,
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and absolutely nothing happened;
no one censured them.
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And I thought:
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I love this country.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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And that's how it's been
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for more than 30 years:
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reporting with total freedom,
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and being treated as an equal
despite being an immigrant --
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until, without warning,
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I was assigned to cover the recent
US presidential election.
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On June 16, 2015,
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a candidate who would eventually become
the president of the United States
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said that Mexican immigrants
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were criminals,
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drug traffickers
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and rapists.
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And I knew
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that he was lying.
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I knew he was wrong
for one very simple reason:
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I'm a Mexican immigrant.
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And we're not like that.
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So I did what any other reporter
would have done:
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I wrote him a letter by hand
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requesting an interview,
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and I sent it to his Tower in New York.
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The next day
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I was at work,
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and I suddenly began to receive
hundreds of calls and texts
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on my cell phone,
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some more insulting than others.
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I didn't know what was happening
until my friend came into my office
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and said, "They published
your cell number online."
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They actually did that.
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Here's the letter they sent
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where they gave out my number.
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Don't bother writing it down, OK?
I already changed it.
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(Laughter)
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But I learned two things.
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The first one is that you should
never, never, ever
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give your cell number to Donald Trump.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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The second lesson was that
I needed to stop being neutral
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at that point.
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From then on, my mission
as a journalist changed.
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I would confront the candidate
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and show that he was wrong,
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that what he said about immigrants
in the US was not true.
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Let me give you some figures.
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Ninety-seven percent of all undocumented
people in the United States
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are good people.
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Less than three percent
have committed a serious crime,
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or "felony," as they say in English.
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In comparison, six percent of US citizens
have committed a serious crime.
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The conclusion is that undocumented
immigrants behave much better
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than US citizens.
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Based on that data, I made a plan.
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Eight weeks after they published
my cell number,
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I obtained a press pass
for a press conference
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for the candidate
gaining momentum in the polls.
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I decided to confront him
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in person.
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But ...
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things didn't turn out exactly
as I had planned; watch:
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[Donald Trump Press Conference
Dubuque, Iowa]
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(Video) Jorge Ramos: Mr. Trump,
I have a question about immigration.
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Donald Trump: Who's next? Yes, please.
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JR: Your immigration plan
is full of empty promises.
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DT: Excuse me, you weren't called.
Sit down. Sit down!
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JR: I'm a reporter; as an immigrant
and as a US citizen,
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I have the right to ask a question.
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DT: No you don't.
JR: I have the right to ask --
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DT: Go back to Univision.
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10:00
JR: This is the question:
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You cannot deport 11 million people.
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You cannot build a 1900-mile wall.
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You cannot deny citizenship
to children in this country.
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DT: Sit down.
JR: And with those ideas --
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DT: You weren't called.
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JR: I'm a reporter and I have --
Don't touch me, sir.
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Guard 1: Please don't disrupt.
You're being disruptive.
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JR: I have the right to ask a question.
G1: Yes, in order. In turn, sir.
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Guard 2: Do you have
your media credential?
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JR: I have the right --
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G2: Where? Let me see.
JR: It's over there.
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Man: Whoever's coming out, stay out.
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G2: You've just got to wait your turn.
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Man: You're very rude. It's not about you.
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10:35
JR: It's not about you --
Man: Get out of my country!
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Man: It's not about you.
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JR: I'm a US citizen, too.
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Man: Well ...whatever.
No, Univision. It's not about you.
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JR: It's not about you.
It's about the United States.
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10:48
(Applause)
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(Applause ends)
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Whenever I see that video,
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the first thing I always
think is that hate
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is contagious.
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If you notice, after the candidate says,
"Go back to Univision" -- that's code;
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what he's telling me
is, "Get out of here."
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One member of his entourage,
as if he had been given permission, said,
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"Get out of my country,"
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not knowing that I'm also a US citizen.
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After watching this video many times,
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I also think that in order
to break free from neutrality --
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and for it to be a true break --
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one has to lose their fear,
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and then learn how to say, "No;
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I'm not going to be quiet.
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I'm not going to sit down.
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And I'm not going to leave."
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The word "no" --
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(Applause)
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"no" is the most powerful word
that exists in any language,
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and it always precedes
any important change in our lives.
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And I think there's enormous dignity
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and it generates a great deal of respect
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to be able to step back
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and to push back and say,
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"No."
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Elie Wiesel -- Holocaust survivor,
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Nobel Peace Prize recipient
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and who, unfortunately,
we lost very recently --
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said some very wise words:
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"We must take a side.
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12:18
Neutrality helps only the oppressor,
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never the victim."
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And he's completely right.
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We journalists are obligated
to take sides in certain circumstances;
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in cases of racism,
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discrimination,
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corruption,
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lying to the public,
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dictatorships and human rights,
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we need to set aside
neutrality and indifference.
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Spanish has a great word
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to describe the stance
that journalists should take.
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The word is
"contrapoder [anti-establishment]."
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12:48
Basically, we journalists
should be on the opposite side
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12:52
from those in power.
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12:54
But if you're in bed with politicians,
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12:56
if you go to the baptism or wedding
of the governor's son
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2697
12:59
or if you want to be
the president's buddy,
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2049
13:01
how are you going to criticize them?
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1841
13:03
When I'm assigned to interview
a powerful or influential person,
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3289
13:06
I always keep two things in mind:
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1749
13:08
if I don't ask this difficult
and uncomfortable question,
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2744
13:11
no one else is going to;
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1280
13:13
and that I'm never going to see
this person again.
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2943
13:16
So I'm not looking to make
a good impression
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3140
13:20
or to forge a connection.
292
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1304
13:22
In the end, if I have to choose
between being the president's friend
293
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3243
13:25
or enemy,
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1158
13:26
I always prefer to be their enemy.
295
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2824
13:31
In closing:
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13:33
I know this is a difficult time
to be an immigrant and a journalist,
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4894
13:38
but now more than ever,
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13:40
we need journalists who are prepared,
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3161
13:43
at any given moment,
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1571
13:44
to set neutrality aside.
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1794
13:47
Personally, I feel like
I've been preparing for this moment
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2838
13:50
my whole life.
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1154
13:51
When they censured me when I was 24,
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2286
13:53
I learned that neutrality, fear
and silence often make you an accomplice
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6670
14:00
in crime, abuse
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1857
14:02
and injustice.
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1547
14:04
And being an accomplice to power
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2025
14:06
is never good journalism.
309
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2540
14:09
Now, at 59 years old,
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2670
14:12
I only hope to have a tiny bit
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840268
1814
14:15
of the courage and mental
clarity I had at 24,
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4007
14:19
and that way, never again
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1473
14:21
remain quiet.
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1373
14:22
Thank you very much.
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14:24
(Applause)
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14:26
Thank you.
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1183
14:28
(Applause)
318
856024
2000
Translated by Camille Martínez

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jorge Ramos - Journalist, news anchor
Jorge Ramos's work covers the issues that affect the 55 million Latinos in the United States and immigrants all over the world.

Why you should listen

Jorge Ramos immigrated to the United States from Mexico City, on a student visa at the age of 24. What started as a street beat for a local Spanish-language broadcast in Los Angeles in the 1980s has evolved into a career of remarkable distinction and credibility. Today, Ramos co-anchors Univision's flagship Spanish-language broadcast, “Noticiero Univisión," writes a nationally syndicated column, hosts the Sunday Morning show "Al Punto" and now, the English language program, "America with Jorge Ramos." He is the winner of eight Emmys and the author of eleven books, including Take a Stand: Lessons from Rebels, 2016; A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto; and Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History.

In the absence of political representation in the United States, Jorge Ramos gives a face and voice to the millions of Latinos and immigrants living in the United States. He uses his platform to promote open borders and immigrants' rights and demands accountability from the world leaders he interviews. Nearly 1.9 million viewers tune into his program each night, and in 2015, Time named him one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People."

More profile about the speaker
Jorge Ramos | Speaker | TED.com