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Mexicans are murderers and rapists.
Black kids are super predators.
Gun owners are monsters and witches.
Jews are rats.
Dehumanization is nothing new.
It's been around forever and it's come from all sides.
And yet it remains the single greatest threat to America's social fabric.
Now I know some of you may be thinking, why is Noah the right messenger for this?
>> [LAUGH] >> And
I've heard it all over the last few weeks.
[LAUGH] >> Noah, you're white.
>> [LAUGH] >> Noah, you're a man.
>> [LAUGH] >> Noah, you're straight.
Just go back to the golf course.
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]
>> But that's actually
exactly why I'm here.
Because I believe that beginning to deescalate
the risk from dehumanization starts with a little bit of personal responsibility.
So I'd like to share an idea with you today, and
it's an idea that some of you might disagree with.
But I hope you know it comes from a place of wanting to preserve this incredible 250
year old experiment with democracy that is the United States of America.
It goes like this,
perhaps that in beginning to repair our social fabric from the bottom up.
Perhaps instead of leaning into all of the things that make us different,
all the things that draw us apart.
Instead of trying to take back all of the negative stereotypes that exists about
each and every one of our identify groups, just maybe it's time to re embrace
that old idea of the great American melting pot not to destroy identity
but to build a shared identity that is greater than the sum of its parts.
And I believe that the way to do that is to engage with people on their values and
ideas on their merits Now, why do I think this is an idea we're spreading?
Why is this a problem that urgently needs addressing?
I actually don't think you have to look too far to see it.
In our last election we had one candidate demonize an entire country,
we had another candidate call half of the voters of this country deplorable.
Tragedies like 9/11, brought an incredible generation of Americans,
who gave up established careers to stand shoulder to shoulder in fighting for
our freedom and our flag.
Today, tragedies seem to produce arguments about who or
what we should ban from this country.
But it's not just politics, the private sector plays a role in this, too.
Think about the different ways that you're asked to define yourself, more narrowly.
On Facebook you have to summarize your activities and interests on a page.
LinkedIn, all of your work and accomplishments on a profile.
One picture, a one line biography to help people decide if they want to date you.
>> [LAUGH] >> The media is complicit in this too.
It's gotten to the point where all that's covered seems to be complete and
utter outrage or strict adherence to political correctness.
And political correctness comes from both sides.
The right is just as politically correct about things like standing for
the national anthem as the left is about things like abortion or immigration.
The result is the creation of almost a pseudo religion around certain ideas or
groups so that we can't even have serious conversations about the social issues that
matter most to this country We
know how this ends, we've seen it time and time again.
Create the other, ostracize it, vilify it and destroy it.
It's happening in Myanmar today, it happened in Rwanda in 1990s and
yes it happened in Europe in the 40s.
We can not stand to see America's social fabric unravelled.
Now I'm not talking about just top down institution building, I'm talking about
the things that we can each do to stitch it back together from the bottom up.
And that comes back to these idea of engaging people on their values and
ideas on their merits.
So what has that meant for me?
Well, it's meant that I've tried to immerse myself in ideas and
places that I wouldn't usually go, adding places on the left like
The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, places on the right like Breitbart,
Drudge Report, even as far right as The Daily Stormer.
From these experiences, and
from conversations with people in this room, and
those far beyond I believe that there is a way to stitch this fabric back together.
So let's start by talking about what it means to engage people on their values.
Some of you may know of a senator from Ohio by the name of Rob Portman.
Senator Portman is a Republican, he was historically quite conservative.
And notoriously against gay marriage.
He was being vetted as Mitt Romney's potential running mate in 2012.
Around that time, Senator Portman's son came out to him as gay.
Now, like any good senator, he waited for a politically astute moment.
But eventually, >> [LAUGH]
>> Eventually he came out and
spoke very powerfully on this issue.
He changed his position and said I am doing so not as a politician,
not as a conservative, but as a dad who loves his son a lot.
And wants him to have the same opportunities that his sister might have.
The values of equality of opportunity, the values of a dad who loves his son a lot,
a parent who loves their son a lot, should resonate with all of us.
If I'm to criticize credibly I have to acknowledge appropriately when I see
the values, that I care for being embodied by our leaders.
Which brings me to the second part of this solution.
What does it mean to engage ideas on their merits?
And to that I'm going to offer you all three challenges today.
The first.
Put down the pitchforks.
Step back from the politics of blame.
This is much easier said than done,
I fall victim to this all the time.
It is so easy to vilify, it is so easy to express anger.
But the reality is, it doesn't work.
It pushes people's backs against the wall,
it makes them feel like they're defending closely held identities and beliefs.
It actually produces the cycle of radicalization.
Which leads me to my second challenge.
Forgo labels.
See if you can go a week without using words that end in ist or
ism, those ist and isms.
They're easy to throw out.
How many times you heard the conversation, that's racist.
No no no, I'm not racist!
Or, that's sexist.
No no no, I'm not sexist!
It's not that racist or sexist ideas need to go without being called out,
but naming is far less powerful than explaining, and
produces that same dynamic of radicalization.
Which brings me to my third and final challenge, don't be
afraid of ideas.
If I can accept when I'm in a classroom or
I'm at work that I am learning when I am challenged, when I am pushed
beyond my comfort zone Why do I not feel the same way about my political ideology.
What does this look like?
Well I'm hoping you all might model that with me today.
Some of the ideas I have shared came from things I've read deep on
the far left from the radical Saul Alinsky or
all the way here on the right from provocateurs like Milo Yiannopoulos.
If I told you all that when you walked into the room some of you might've
walked out.
But the idea is that the people are far less important than the ideas.
So, if you agreed with what I had to say or
you liked it, great, let's talk about it.
If you hated it or you're angry at me right now, great, let's talk about it.
But either way we gotta talk about it.
Because I believe that the single most important thing that this generation can
do is keep this great multicultural
democratic experiment going.
Thank you.
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