Book Review: Rivera delivers strong commentary

In “HisPanic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.,” controversial journalist Geraldo Rivera explores America’s exploding Hispanic population and tries to explain the prejudice and fear that drives the panic about this wave of immigration over previous ethnic waves.

Of course, the problem with taking Rivera seriously as a social commentator on any topic lies with Rivera because the man simply keeps getting in the way of his message.

As a serious journalist, I never imagined recommending to readers a book by Geraldo Rivera.

While reading the book with salty reservations, I came to recognize that while Rivera wrote no great study; he nevertheless made me see new aspects of the problem.

So it is with prejudging, whether about books or groups of people.

This book adds a needed indictment of the open hostility toward Hispanics raging across the nation.

In doing so, Rivera delivers an important message for all Americans to hear. But, before beginning, a reader must push away the self-aggrandizing caricature Rivera has created of himself — the trash TV persona, the stupidity of Al Capone’s safe, and the asinine way he got himself thrown out of Iraq, to get at the thought-provoking message that requires a reader’s full attention.

Some truths hit like sudden lightning: “In Los Angeles, whites are already the minority, representing just 30 percent of the population compared to 40 percent Hispanic,” Rivera writes.

“The ‘Browning of America’ process is now inevitable absent either another baby boom (or) a gigantic influx of whites from abroad — each of which is historically unlikely.”

Critics claim that his message remains one-sided, dealing only with his arguments as an Hispanic. Well, yes, what other side should he espouse?

Do Bill O’Reilly or Lou Dobbs or Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh speak in balanced terms to carefully delineate both sides?

The difference here is that Rivera doesn’t shout anyone down or call names as he delivers his points in measured, responsible reasoning that never lowers itself to the gut and groin level of insults those four “advocates” rely on for their anti-immigration attacks.

At times, in fact, he becomes downright brilliant, as when he writes, “Is there a person reading this who believes that a man with a hungry family who has marched across the length and breadth of Mexico and miles of parched desert because his family back home is hungry will seriously be impeded by a wall? Don’t Mexicans have ladders?”

Hispanics, Rivera says, are not the first wave of immigrants to spark mistrust and controversy…nor will they be the last. Developing a practical and humane immigration policy, he claims, is essential for a nation that was created and made great by the contributions of immigrants.

“His Panic” delivers a good read on a difficult and inflammatory topic that is well thought out, and passionate but argued in moderated tones to help fearful Americans to understand why Hispanic migration is not bad for America but an inevitable reality that will make our country even stronger.

“Right now in America,” he writes, “the group being singled out for the most destructive negative emotion is Hispanic immigrants, both legal — families who have been in this country for generations—and illegal — people who may have crossed over the border yesterday.

All this destructive hostility is the manifestation of what is now a national panic.

Despite this hate, I can say I am proud to be an American.”

Al Shaf is a freelance writer.