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HORIST: When did assimilation become so bad

HORIST: When did assimilation become so bad

Veteran newsman Tom Brokaw recently made news for making what were termed as racist remarks against Hispanic students during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.  He had suggested that immigrant Hispanic students should do a better job of assimilation by learning English as expeditiously as possible.

He specifically said, “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.”

What appears to have been intended as helpful advice to these new or future American citizens was seized upon by the left-wing politically correct policía as derogatory racist remarks.  Being a good and loyal guilt motivated liberal, Brokaw responded to the criticism with a series of mea culpa tweets that began with, “I feel terrible a part of my comments on Hispanics offended some members of that proud culture.”

In follow-up tweets, Brokaw further lamented his self-inflicted indiscretion.   He tweeted: “I never intended to disparage any segment of our rich, diverse society which defines who we are.”

Brokaw was politely challenged by PBS correspondent and frequent panelist on left-wing media, Yamiche Alcindor. Who said:

“We also need to adjust what we think of as America.  You’re talking about assimilation. I grew up in Miami, where people speak Spanish, but their kids speak English. And the idea that we think Americans can only speak English, as if Spanish and other languages wasn’t always part of America, is, in some ways, troubling.”

Of course, Brokaw did not say – or even intimate – that young Latinos should ONLY speak English.  Being bilingual has always been considered an asset in our diverse American culture.  Why else do we teach languages in our school systems?  Duh!  But for the left-wing media, spin always trumps accuracy and truth.

For a time, it seemed like every left-wing Hispanic interest group and media was devoted solely to trashing Brokaw – and for a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, being criticized by minorities can be an ego-crushing and career ending experience.

LatinRebels.com founder Julio Ricardo Varela whined that the Meet the Press segment was “difficult to watch.”  He called it, “a punch in the gut to a lot of people.  It was not only factually incorrect, it was also xenophobia in action.”  For a guy whose organization sounds like one of those street gangs I recall from my days in Chicago – and who administer punches to the gut that are not figurative — Varela sounds like a bit of a copo de nieve.

CNN’s ever-present panelist, Maria Cardona expressed her “love” for Brokaw, but said he is a bit out of touch – which in liberal-speak means he is an old white guy.  Or as she put it, “I’ll give him a pass because he’s probably not up to speed as to where things are today and age, especially with young Latinos in this country.”

In an example of minority media hyperventilation, Aura Bogado, at Reveal, accused Brokaw of “arguing classic white supremacist talking points in a deeply racist rant on national television.”

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists were particularly harsh on their Fourth Estate colleague.  The organization’s President Hugo Balta – also a senior producer for MSNBC – said that assimilation is “denying one culture for another.”  In other words, assimilation is a big bad thing.

How did this happen?

For the better part of 200 years, America was a culture of assimilation symbolized in words and graphics by the “melting pot.”  It seemed to have stemmed from the national motto with which the Founders christened America – e pluribus unum – which translates “out of many, one.”

This was not some advertising-style slogan.  It was a profound statement through which the Founders envisioned their new civic creation.  It was designed to influence the culture forever more.

In these three simple Latin words, the remarkable men who crafted the Declaration of independence and the Constitution recognized that America was a process into which newcomers could bring their backgrounds and skills and yet become part of one unifying culture.  It was at the onset and forever to be a society of immigrants.

For two centuries, virtually every new immigrant wanted to be like an American – to BE an American.  It was more than a name on a citizenship certificate.  It was the embrace of the greater culture of freedom and opportunity.   America was the place where they could provide their labor in return for the hope of a better life for them — and especially their children.  They were eager to learn American history and speak English – often needlessly apologizing for their foreign accent.

They would initially gather in ethnic conclaves for a generation or two.  That is why my hometown of Chicago was often called the “city of neighborhoods – each with its unique ethnic composition.  But the first settlers were more than willing to watch their children move away – physically and socially – into the greater American culture.  That was assimilation.  That was the melting pot.  After a generation or two, their ethnicity was homogenized by inter-ethnic marriages and their ancestry – or ancestries – just a matter of personal interest. They evolved into ethnic Americans.

The melting pot was not a one-way process.  Even as the immigrant families assimilated into the unique American culture, they added a bit of their own ingredients (culture) to the pot – their food, their music, their religious customs and the fashions.  All those things became part of the evolving American culture – but at the core, there remained  a fixed set of dominant values.

This began to change in the last half of the Twentieth Century.  Thanks to the political characteristics of liberal ideology, the assimilation process was resisted by a concept of identity politics and tribalization – a culture in which permanent ethnic identity takes precedence over assimilation.

The melting pot is replaced by a bucket of rocks – a white rock, black rock, brown rock, red rock and yellow rock – never to congeal into a common culture, but to be ever more managed as competing forces within our national boundaries.  The political management of these political competitors is the foundation of power of the radical authoritarian left.

Many on the left and in their media echo chamber like to blame President Trump for the acrimony and divisiveness in today’s America.  While it is arguable that his acerbic and pugnacious personality have not been a positive contribution to national unity and harmony, the wellspring of tribalism, goes back decades and is largely the resolute of the modern progressive movement and its emphasis on identity politics.

Since the 1960s, the left has been engaged in the I-win-you-lose game with the race card in constant play.  They push aside the obvious overwhelming harmony and tolerance of the American people to create false enmities.  They speak against various and sundry “isms” will creating their own class of stereotypical enemies – white people (especially we older men with our “toxic” genes), people of faith, business people and almost anyone who is rich and does not donate to left-wing causes.

Throughout American history, progressivism has been associated with elite superiority, racial intolerance and the white supremacy of leaders like Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt.

The noble American experiment in democracy and freedom will fritter away culturally, socially and economically unless we can reverse the current trend and restore our greatest feature – assimilation, the acceptance of a unified culture based on commonly shared values.  At this junction, it is not looking good.

So, there ‘tis.

About The Author

Larry Horist

So, there ‘tis… The opinions, perspectives and analyses of businessman, conservative writer and political strategist Larry Horist. Larry has an extensive background in economics and public policy. For more than 40 years, he ran his own Chicago based consulting firm. His clients included such conservative icons as Steve Forbes and Milton Friedman. He has served as a consultant to the Nixon White House and travelled the country as a spokesman for President Reagan’s economic reforms. Larry professional emphasis has been on civil rights and education. He was consultant to both the Chicago and the Detroit boards of education, the Educational Choice Foundation, the Chicago Teachers Academy and the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts. Larry has testified as an expert witness before numerous legislative bodies, including the U. S. Congress, and has lectured at colleges and universities, including Harvard, Northwestern and DePaul. He served as Executive Director of the City Club of Chicago, where he led a successful two-year campaign to save the historic Chicago Theatre from the wrecking ball. Larry has been a guest on hundreds of public affairs talk shows, and hosted his own program, “Chicago In Sight,” on WIND radio. An award-winning debater, his insightful and sometimes controversial commentaries have appeared on the editorial pages of newspapers across the nation. He is praised by audiences for his style, substance and sense of humor. Larry retired from his consulting business to devote his time to writing. His books include a humorous look at collecting, “The Acrapulators’ Guide”, and a more serious history of the Democratic Party’s role in de facto institutional racism, “Who Put Blacks in That PLACE? -- The Long Sad History of the Democratic Party’s Oppression of Black Americans ... to This Day”. Larry currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida.

6 Comments

  1. miles e drake

    The tsunami of tapeworms, termites and terrorists that is sweeping into the country with the connivance of the party of Marx, Mohammed and Mexico has no intention of assimilating. They intend to assimilate us, and when the demographic tipping point is reached the native-born English-speaking caucasian population will be first expropriated and then exterminated, beginning with the heterosexuals and the Christians, leading to Anschluss with Mexico, the creation of the Peoples Republic of Aztlan and then submergence in a world state owned by the Chicoms, controlled by Nazi kapo Soros and dominated by nuclear-armed Islam. As weaklings among the Obammunists will sometimes do, Tom Brokaw has let the Orwellian cat out of the globalist bag. The only answer is to build right now a wall with machine guns on top of it, and to send the invaders already here back on buses or in body bags.

    • Crystal Waters

      Sounds about right. Everybody is suppose to change to accommodate them so the USA will become an extinction of the country they left. Excuse me, would the country you left accept anyone who had that kind of attitude in their society to behave like that – not “no” but “hell no” it wouldn’t be allowed for 10 minutes let alone have the media take up their cause. There is an old saying, “when in Rome do as the Romans do” that includes learning their language so you can properly participate in their culture including have a job and be a productive citizen. If that isn’t your goal, you are welcome to go back where you came from rather than expect the whole country to adjust and change for you.

      If you are unwilling to change GO BACK. You left because you didn’t like it where you were so make the needed changes ASAP and stop complaining. You are the one who is out of step.

      This isn’t racist or any kind of negative just a statement of facts. If you want to take offence you need to make other changes too. Rub it and get over your looking to take offence- that is your problem not something someone else has done.

  2. Dave

    Sad to say all that is stated in this article is so true. With people being happy that President Trumps boarder security issue has failed, I know realize that liberalism is what this country likes, and wants! The America that us older citizens grew up with in the 50’s 60′, and even 70’s is dying and will never return! The children growing up today will never know how great this country was in its day? Socialism now rules this country!

  3. Donna Lindsey

    What is wrong with the people of this country? Why are we bending over backwards to accommodate the Mexicans (or other Latin Americans)? We have a huge Oriental population in this country but we aren’t pushed to learn their language. When ANYONE comes to this country and wants to be a citizen one of the first things that is emphasized is YOU MUST LEARN TO SPEAK & UNDERSTAND ENGLISH!!!! Now almost all the schools have interpreters, courts have to provide them, etc, etc…..all at the tax payers expense. Granted it takes a while to learn a language, but if they are bound and determined to be here they need to learn the language BEFORE coming!! Try moving to any other country and see how much consideration you will get if you don’t know the language!!

  4. Scott

    This is a right on article. I don’t agree with the Trump statement the author makes. Trump is doing the right thing standing up for American nationalism which the author talks about that our country needs. It was Obama that set American race relations further back. The country is going to become groups of squabbling minorities without national unity and break up eventually. Not good!

  5. Elizabeth Dulski

    Just another example of the lunatic Socialist left! Legal immigrants who come here to live should learn to speak English which does not mean that they have to give up their native language! My ancestors who came here thru Ellis Island as well as millions of others wanted to be Americans, which meant they learned to speak English, studied American history and assimilated to their new home. They worked hard (there was no “free” stuff), studied to become Citizens, and wanted their children to know that by going to school, working hard that anything was possible to achieve in America. This did not mean that they gave up traditions from their country of birth which they continued to celebrate with their families but it meant that they all were Americans First! This is what made America strong!

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