Trump called her question ‘racist.’ Now this reporter is talking diversity with Brokaw
PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor reached out to thank to her friends and followers soon after a controversial debate with Tom Brokaw on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”
The White House correspondent was on a panel alongside Brokaw, discussing national division after the government shutdown truce over wall funding. The conversation turned to Hispanics. Brokaw said he was of the belief that they 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,” the 78-year-old journalist said. “And that’s going to take outreach on both sides, frankly.”
Alcindor, 32, took issue with the news vet’s statements.
“I grew up in Miami, where people speak Spanish, but their kids speak English,” said the former Miami Herald reporting intern. “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.”
“Meet the Press” host, fellow Miamian Chuck Todd, chimed in, saying he grew up watching “¿Qué Pasa, USA?”
“Three generations, all Spanish, Spanglish, and all English,” said Todd, who graduated from Miami Killian Senior High School.
Soon after a social media firestorm broke out, Brokaw backpedaled and apologized repeatedly in a series of tweets.
“I feel terrible a part of my comments on Hispanics offended some members of that proud culture,“ the South Dakota native wrote in one.
In another he said, “I never intended to disparage any segment of our rich, diverse society which defines who we are.”
On her Twitter account, Alcindor made no mention of Brokaw, simply writing, “I always appreciate being on the show and today was another opportunity to tell America about my reporting across the country & experiences growing up in the diversity of Miami.”
This isn’t the first time Alcindor has found herself in the middle of a political debate on xenophobia and blending of cultures in America.
Back at a November press briefing, Alcindor asked President Donald Trump if he thought his pre-election anti-immigration “rhetoric” had emboldened racists and white nationalists.
“There are some people that say that now the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric,” she asked. “What do you make of that?”
Trump famously responded: “That is such a racist question ...To say that what you said is very insulting to me. It’s a very terrible thing what you said.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2019 at 12:25 PM.