[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.