Report Makes SHOCKING Argument About White Men (YouTube Video Transcript)

(00:00:00) Your YouTube transcript will appear here (00:00:00) In my opinion, the pendulum has begun to (00:00:02) swing too far. And and what does that (00:00:05) lead to? It leads to not a little (00:00:07) discontent and not just the rightwing. (00:00:09) It leads to much larger discontent and (00:00:13) risking the pendulum swinging back. A (00:00:15) controversial new piece in Compact (00:00:18) Magazine written by Jacob Savage (00:00:21) makes the claim that beginning in 2014, (00:00:24) classically liberal American (00:00:26) institutions intentionally avoided (00:00:29) hiring white men. In fact, the piece (00:00:32) claims that some institutions even (00:00:34) admitted that they were outright (00:00:36) discriminating against white men. So, (00:00:39) the piece is called Lost Generation. And (00:00:42) before we get to the details and the (00:00:44) arguments that are made within the (00:00:46) piece, Jenk, your two cents? (00:00:48) >> Well, so there's a theory that white (00:00:50) people or males or whoever's in the (00:00:52) majority cannot be discriminated (00:00:54) against. That theory is false. So, uh, (00:00:59) were there good reasons to discriminate (00:01:00) against white men? And did that (00:01:02) discrimination happen? Well, let's find (00:01:04) out first and then we'll discuss. So the (00:01:06) piece alleges that for about a decade, (00:01:09) young white men have been systematically (00:01:12) shut out of various institutions, (00:01:14) including journalism, academia, and even (00:01:17) Hollywood. Now, bear with us while we (00:01:20) present the receipts that were provided (00:01:22) in the piece. It's not like it was just, (00:01:24) you know, a big ranting article with no (00:01:27) actual evidence. And honestly, some of (00:01:30) this evidence is is pretty damning. So (00:01:33) Savage argues that, you know, DEI (00:01:35) initiatives disproportionately hurt (00:01:38) young white men who were trying to start (00:01:40) their professional lives. So here's some (00:01:42) data to prove it. And keep in mind that (00:01:44) the white men represent about 30% of the (00:01:48) American population. 30%. Okay. So in (00:01:52) 2011, white men were 48% of lower level (00:01:56) TV writers. Obviously over represented, (00:01:59) but nonetheless 48% of lower level TV (00:02:01) writers. But by 2024, they accounted for (00:02:04) just 11.9%. (00:02:06) So you can see the same pattern playing (00:02:08) out at America's top universities. So (00:02:11) white men fell from 39% of tenure track (00:02:15) positions in the humanities at Harvard (00:02:18) in 2014 to just 18% in 2023. at (00:02:22) Berkeley. As recently as 2015, white (00:02:26) male hires were 52.7% (00:02:29) of new tenure track faculty. In 2023, (00:02:34) they were uh 21.5%. (00:02:37) So, of the 59 assistant professors in (00:02:41) arts, humanities, and social science (00:02:45) appointed at UC Santa Cruz between 2020 (00:02:48) and 2024, only two were white men, 3%. (00:02:53) And the same thing is playing out in the (00:02:55) field of journalism as well. Uh, so (00:02:58) since 2020, nearly twothirds of the (00:03:00) Atlantic's hires have been women along (00:03:03) with nearly 50% people of color. In (00:03:06) 2018, the New York Times replaced its (00:03:09) summer internship with a year-long (00:03:11) fellowship. Just 10% of the nearly 220 (00:03:15) fellows have been white men. So, (00:03:19) one factor that I want a little more (00:03:22) clarity on is look, men in general have (00:03:25) been falling behind in the country. So (00:03:28) if you look at graduation rates at the (00:03:30) top un at universities period, you know, (00:03:32) women are earning degrees at a higher (00:03:35) rate than men, is that possibly a factor (00:03:38) that plays a role in in what's (00:03:40) happening? Could be. But that doesn't (00:03:43) account for the fact that some of these (00:03:45) institutions are just outright saying, (00:03:47) "Yeah, we're not hiring young white (00:03:49) men." And that's that is discriminatory. (00:03:53) Uh and I I think that's an (00:03:55) overcorrection of what you know used to (00:03:57) be a problem where other people were (00:04:00) discriminated against uh and white men (00:04:02) were hired over women or people of (00:04:05) color. So I do think this is an issue (00:04:08) and and what I worry about and I think (00:04:10) we do see it to some extent Jenk is (00:04:14) backlash and resentment and anger and I (00:04:17) don't want that to happen and I don't (00:04:18) want anyone to be discriminated against. (00:04:20) I I want to live in a meritocracy. We (00:04:23) don't I want to be clear about that. Um (00:04:26) and that has less to do with race and (00:04:27) more to do with connections and how (00:04:31) affluent a person's family happens to (00:04:34) be. But at the same time, you know, (00:04:37) race-based hiring or genderbased hiring (00:04:41) can be an issue, especially if there's (00:04:43) outright discrimination taking place. (00:04:45) >> Yeah. So, I think for this story, (00:04:47) context is everything. So, uh, for (00:04:50) example, you could look at older Young (00:04:52) Turks videos, and we've been around 20 (00:04:54) years now. We're about to celebrate our (00:04:55) 20th anniversary on YouTube, uh, and (00:04:59) say, "Wait a minute, Jen. I remember you (00:05:00) guys saying that, uh, oh, boohoo, white (00:05:03) men, you just don't have enough power. (00:05:06) You guys are complaining, uh, for no (00:05:08) reason." Yeah, we might have said that (00:05:09) in 2011, for example, when, just take (00:05:12) one of these stats here. I could use two (00:05:14) of them. When 48% of the TV writers were (00:05:16) white males. That's already (00:05:18) disproportionately high. So what is the (00:05:21) percentage of white males in the (00:05:23) country? Very important to know so you (00:05:24) can level set here. 31%. So back in 2011 (00:05:28) they were way over represented in (00:05:30) Berkeley professors at 52%, TV writers (00:05:34) at 48% etc. Now uh at some point it (00:05:38) started to get to a point where there (00:05:40) was a balancing out and now the pendulum (00:05:42) has swung the other way and some folks (00:05:45) on the left will say no. uh you know, (00:05:49) you can't discriminate. There is no (00:05:50) racism against white people because (00:05:52) they're in power. Well, unless they're (00:05:54) not in power because yeah, they might be (00:05:57) in power in the government and in many (00:05:59) other contexts, but maybe they're not in (00:06:01) power at Berkeley or at the Atlantic or (00:06:04) in other institutions. And now when you (00:06:06) look at the numbers today, TV writers, (00:06:09) they're down to 12%. Well, that's (00:06:11) nowhere near 31%. At Berkeley, they're (00:06:14) down to um 21 a.5%. (00:06:18) etc. Now, do you have to hit 31% (00:06:20) exactly? No. That would ironically be a (00:06:22) quota. Right. And what how what should (00:06:26) what's the system you should use to hire (00:06:28) people? I'd like to think it's the (00:06:29) system we use, which is I don't give a (00:06:31) damn. I don't care if you're white, (00:06:33) black, Asian, old, young, men. I don't (00:06:37) care. And And what kind of staff do we (00:06:39) have? We have an incredibly diverse (00:06:41) staff because we hired the best people (00:06:43) we could, right? And so to me, that's (00:06:46) inarguably the right system, especially (00:06:49) after you've gotten past the original (00:06:52) problem. The original problem was white (00:06:55) males had all of the positions. So, I (00:06:58) interviewed Scott Adams, the creator of (00:07:00) Dilbert, and I don't agree with him on a (00:07:01) million things, but I wanted to hear his (00:07:03) perspective. Mhm. (00:07:05) >> And he became a right-winger because in (00:07:07) his perspective, his mind, his way of (00:07:09) viewing it, he had been denied several (00:07:12) promotions and his bosses had told him, (00:07:14) "It's because you're a white man and we (00:07:16) have too many white men in management (00:07:18) positions." And that made him super (00:07:21) angry and bitter and led him in a (00:07:23) right-wing direction. Now, (00:07:25) >> I remember Sorry, go ahead, Jake. Finish (00:07:27) finish your thought. (00:07:28) >> Yeah. When you do that, when you're (00:07:31) trying to introduce African-Americans (00:07:33) and women into the workforce at all, (00:07:36) into management at all, yeah, I can see (00:07:39) why Scott Adams would be mad. But then (00:07:41) how about all the black people who never (00:07:43) got a chance? They're also mad, right? (00:07:44) >> Exactly. And they need to to get a (00:07:47) chance to do that. But now when we have (00:07:51) this level of data on how white men are (00:07:55) now disfavored, young white men from be (00:07:57) getting hired, in my opinion, the (00:08:00) pendulum has begun to swing too far. And (00:08:02) and what does that lead to? It leads to (00:08:05) not a little discontent and not just the (00:08:07) right wing. It leads to much larger (00:08:10) discontent and risking the pendulum (00:08:13) swinging back. (00:08:14) >> Yeah. And and the resentment I don't (00:08:16) think is healthy for any society, right? (00:08:19) And I think all of us have not all of us (00:08:22) but many people have similar stories to (00:08:25) what Scott Adams experienced. Like I (00:08:27) remember I was so irritated by this. (00:08:29) This is many years ago. I think it was (00:08:31) 2012. But I flew out to New York City to (00:08:35) take a meeting with the executive (00:08:37) producer of The View. And I'm just going (00:08:41) to be honest with you guys. I wasn't (00:08:42) even really that interested in being a (00:08:44) host on The View, but I'm like, "Wow, (00:08:46) they want to meet with me. Sure, why (00:08:47) not?" Went go all the way across the (00:08:50) country to New York City to have this (00:08:51) meeting. It was a great meeting. Loved (00:08:54) me. But it ended with, "You're great. (00:08:57) You'd be great for the show. It's just (00:08:59) that we're looking for a Latina." Right? (00:09:01) And I'm just like okay. And I just (00:09:03) remember thinking to myself at that (00:09:04) moment, I think that's discrimination, (00:09:07) but like who am I to make a big deal (00:09:08) about it? Like I'm happy with what I'm (00:09:10) doing for work already. I don't really (00:09:11) want to move to New York City to do this (00:09:13) job anyway. So I didn't make a big stink (00:09:15) about it. But I can totally understand (00:09:18) others being infuriated by that because (00:09:20) it's supposed to be based on the merit (00:09:23) of, you know, your accomplishments, your (00:09:25) work, all of that. Again, we all know (00:09:28) that the real world doesn't actually (00:09:29) work that way. But the other thing that (00:09:31) I'll mention um you know aside from the (00:09:34) personal anecdotes of outright (00:09:36) [laughter] discrimination (00:09:38) these organizations some of these (00:09:39) organizations are just admitting that (00:09:41) they're engaging in discrimination. So a (00:09:44) man by the name of James oh sorry uh so (00:09:47) an anonymous senior hiring editor at a (00:09:49) major outlet told Savage for this piece (00:09:52) for a typical job we'd get a couple (00:09:55) hundred applications probably at least (00:09:57) 80 from white guys. It was a given that (00:10:00) we weren't gonna hire the best person. (00:10:02) It was jarring how we would talk about (00:10:05) excluding white guys. That's not good. (00:10:08) Okay, that's that is discrimination. Uh (00:10:11) and that is what we're trying to move (00:10:12) away from. Like it shouldn't be seen as (00:10:17) you either discriminate against people (00:10:19) of color or white people. How about we (00:10:20) just don't discriminate? We don't bake (00:10:22) in discriminatory policies at the (00:10:24) workplace. Um, a man by the name of (00:10:27) James stated that over the years at a (00:10:30) top classics program, he watched (00:10:32) underqualified candidates get tenure (00:10:34) track offers because they checked (00:10:36) certain identity boxes. My own adviserss (00:10:38) would say very openly, they're just two (00:10:42) completely different hiring schemes. Uh, (00:10:44) there's just two completely different (00:10:45) categories of person. Meanwhile, over in (00:10:48) Hollywood, studios uh, and talent (00:10:50) agencies were racing to fill quotas. So, (00:10:53) a whistleblower sent me a document from (00:10:55) early 2017, across the grid, which (00:10:58) tracks staffing needs for TV writers (00:11:00) rooms. The same shortorthhand appears (00:11:03) dozens of times, diverse, female, women, (00:11:06) and diverse only. And Savage also writes (00:11:09) that this was systematic discrimination (00:11:12) documented in writing, implemented (00:11:14) without consequence. It's striking how (00:11:16) casual it all was. Chicago Fire, the (00:11:20) upper level, uh, can be anyone, but we (00:11:23) need diverse staff writers. Um, so yeah, (00:11:27) it just, you know, I think it's easy to (00:11:30) kind of brush this piece off as like, (00:11:32) oh, poor white men, you know, but the (00:11:35) receipts do lead to a pretty compelling (00:11:38) argument here. And I'm just against (00:11:40) discrimination of all forms, you know? I (00:11:42) I just don't think it's helpful. So like (00:11:46) in the case of Anna, we didn't never (00:11:49) talked about it on air. We didn't make a (00:11:50) big deal out of it. In fact, we not a (00:11:52) big deal. We made no deal out of it. And (00:11:54) partly because like TV is a little bit (00:11:56) of a different animal, too. Like if you (00:11:59) want uh to be able to represent the your (00:12:02) viewers and like it's just a different (00:12:06) uh formula. For example, in cities that (00:12:08) are heavily African-American, you'll (00:12:10) have more African-American local TV (00:12:11) anchors. in cities that have a more of (00:12:13) an Asian population, you'll see more (00:12:15) Asian anchors. I I don't think that's (00:12:17) the worst thing in the world, right? I I (00:12:19) get what they're trying to do. So, it's (00:12:20) a little bit different. On the other (00:12:22) hand, if you're a doctor or you're a (00:12:23) writer, I don't know that we need that (00:12:25) kind of diversity, uh, you know, as part (00:12:28) of the job. Um, but we still don't do it (00:12:31) and and we have enormous diversity. Uh, (00:12:34) we just hire the best people. But guys, (00:12:36) the over like in the beginning, you (00:12:38) needed affirmative action otherwise (00:12:39) nobody could break in. But if you (00:12:41) continue affirmative action forever, (00:12:44) number one, it eventually leads to the (00:12:46) pendulum swinging so much that you have (00:12:48) reverse discrimination, which is what (00:12:49) we're seeing here. That leads to huge (00:12:51) resentment throughout the country. And (00:12:54) and by the way, white folks, if you're (00:12:56) resentful about this, can you now (00:12:59) empathize with black folks and women and (00:13:02) other minorities who felt just as (00:13:04) resentful earlier when they weren't (00:13:07) allowed into these careers? Right. Yeah. (00:13:10) Professions. (00:13:10) >> That's such a great point. And I want to (00:13:12) end on this because I think this was a (00:13:14) thought-provoking excerpt from Savage's (00:13:16) piece. He writes, "If you were 40 in (00:13:18) 2014, born in 1974, beginning your (00:13:22) career in the late '9s, you were already (00:13:25) established. If you were 30 in 2014, you (00:13:29) hit the wall because the mandates to (00:13:31) diversify didn't fall on older white men (00:13:34) who in many cases still wield enormous (00:13:37) power. They landed on us." (00:13:40) >> Yeah. To that point, last couple points, (00:13:42) uh, what percentage of people in (00:13:44) Congress are white males? 65%. (00:13:48) So the o older category is still stacked (00:13:51) with white males in power. Uh we argue (00:13:53) for balance and that's a tough position (00:13:56) cuz people say ARE YOU ON THE LEFT OR (00:13:57) ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT? YOU HAVE TO BE (00:13:58) WHITE OR BLACK OR THIS THAT. No balance. (00:14:02) That's the sensible thing (00:14:03) [clears throat] to do. And finally guys, (00:14:05) at some point we've got to be one (00:14:07) nation. (00:14:08) >> If we're not one nation and we're just a (00:14:10) group of different individuals that (00:14:12) happen to live next to each other, it's (00:14:13) not going to end well. (00:14:15) >> I agree. Every time you ring the bell (00:14:17) below, an angel gets his wings.