NBC’s Tom Brokaw says he “feels terrible” that his comments on “Meet the Press” Sunday that Hispanics should work harder at assimilation “offended some members of that proud culture.”
The former “NBC Nightly News” anchor tweeted in response to a social media backlash to what he had said earlier in the day during a discussion of the proposed border wall.
On the show, Brokaw said that many Republicans fear the rise of a new constituency in American politics “who will come here and all be Democrats.
The 78-year-old journalist said he’s been saying for a long time that Hispanics need to work harder at assimilation.
“On the Republican side, a lot of people see the rise of an extraordinary, important new constituent in American politics, Hispanics, who will come here and all be Democrats,” he said.
“Also, I hear, when I push people a little harder, ‘Well, I don’t know whether I want brown grandbabies.’ I mean, that’s also a part of it. It’s the intermarriage that is going on and the cultures that are conflicting with each other,” he added.
Brokaw went on to say, “I also happen to believe that the Hispanics should work harder at assimilation. That’s one of the things I’ve been saying for a long time. You know, they ought not to be just codified in their communities but make sure that all their kids are learning to speak English, and that they feel comfortable in the communities. And that’s going to take outreach on both sides, frankly.”
Brokaw received some immediate pushback from another panelist on the political talk show, Yamiche Alcindor of PBS. “I grew up in Miami, where people speak Spanish, but their kids speak English,” she said. “And the idea that we think Americans can only speak English, as if Spanish and other languages wasn’t always a part of America, is, in some ways, troubling.”
The web site Latino Rebels and its founder, Julio Ricardo Varela, pointed out online that a 2015 Pew Research Center survey found that nearly two-thirds of Latinos in the United States were born in the U.S. Hispanics make up 18 percent of the nation’s population.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists also tweeted that it voiced its concerns about Brokaw’s “inaccurate commentary” to NBC.
Pew also found, in a 2016 survey of young Latino adults, that 41 percent say that English is their dominant language, 40 percent say they are bilingual and 19 percent speak Spanish primarily.
Brokaw’s comments are both xenophobic and factually incorrect, Varela said.
“We as a community are creating the new America right before your very eyes, Mr. Brokaw,” the Latino Rebels web site said. “Sorry if it doesn’t fit your perceptions of what America should be like. That future is bilingual, bicultural, at times in English, other times in Spanish. Our community is defining this future. Not you.”
NBC News had no comment Sunday on Brokaw, who has served in something of an emeritus role at the network since stepping down as lead anchor in 2004.
On Twitter, Brokaw said that he’s worked hard to knock down false stereotypes and pointed out that all sides need to work harder at finding common ground. He said he believes in “dialogue not division.”
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
I love it when Liberals get a taste of their own medicine. Brokaw should follow Howard Schultz and go on an endless apology tour.
There are surely ways to measure rates of assimilation (but I don’t know any), and Brokaw should either cite the data he had in mind when he made his comment, or continue his apology tour. And people who worry about “brown grandbabies” should realize that intermarriage is the most effective form of assimilation.
I read years ago that Hispanics assimilate and about the same rates as most other immigrants, as measured by their preference for English over Spanish. The absolute numbers of Hispanic Spanish-speaking immigrants may give the false impression that they are not assimilating, but the key group to focus on are the first- and second-generations of Hispanic immigrants.
The immigrants most resisting assimilation might be Chasidic Jews.
Imagine if he had said that Chareidi Jews should try harder to assimilate -who on this site wouldn’t be howling in rage? Buy TVs, quit speaking Yiddish, dress according to prevailing styles, send your kids to public schools…. We forget that the “diversity” that we find so upsetting applied to Hispanics and other groups is exactly what protects us and our way of living as frume Yiddin.
What all research shows is that Hispanics who move to the United States forget English at the same that Jews forgot Yiddish and Italians forgot Italians. If a Hispanic immigrants wants his grandchildren to speak Spanish, he’ll need to work on it. One should note that Spanish is very close to English (only French, German and perhaps Dutch are closer), that most Hispanics come to America from countries with similar sports and similar television shows, and with similar clothes (taking into account temperature difference). They have similar religious beliefs (Catholics, Protestants and a smattering of Jews). It is less problematic to assimilate them than almost any other group.
And the USA is is serious need of cheap easy to exploit labor to keep our economy growing at a high level, and Hispanics and cheap and easy to exploit.
Surprised that anybody can understand this groper, with marbles in his mouth. Even more surprised that he was broadcaster. But he was understood well enough when he asked Obama during his 2009 Buchenwald visit ” What can Israelis learn from your visit here about their treatment of Palestinians?”