Two Antithetical, Converging Philosophies

How do you say "if you don't love it, leave it" in left?  Lawyer Sunny Hostin tells us how in this excerpt from "The View":

You know, this country seems to be one of the only countries in the world that is so proud of being neolingual and not being able to communicate in more than one language. And the fact of the matter is, in about twenty years, multi-ethnic people will be the majority in this country. So if you don't understand Spanish,, maybe start taking a little Duolingo course.

🚨WATCH: Sunny Hostin tells viewers that if they wanted to understand Bad Bunny they should have learned spanish.

SUNNY: "Maybe start taking a duolingo course." 🤡

So let me get this straight — telling immigrants to learn English, the most widely spoken language in America, is… pic.twitter.com/esdkvQEAde

— Brandon Tatum (@TheOfficerTatum) February 11, 2026

One of the significant things in this remark initially escaped my attention, as it did the tweeter. Hostin says that in approximately twenty years, multi-ethnic people will be a majority in the USA.  Then she recommends individuals learn Spanish. However, in what may be the most recent estimate, the researcher refers  (emphasis mine) to "the growth in Multicultural populations in the U.S." There not only are more Latinos residing in the USA than in past years, but more immigrants from Africa and Asia and tribal populations remain. Relatively few in those groups speak Spanish. 

Nonetheless, the thrust of Hostin's statement is the warning that if  "you don't understand Spanish, maybe start taking a little Duolingo course."  The condescending reference to "little" and "start taking" may be unintentional. However, the implication is obvious and intentional: if you don't know Spanish, you won't belong here. If you don't love it (as it will be), just leave.

Perhaps Hostin has learned from the right. In  this tweet featured in my last post, lawyer and ex-Fox News talk show host Megyn Kelly remarks

So we have to keep the Super Bowl, which is a quintessential american event. Football, that kind of football, is ours. They cal it American football. And the halftime show and everything around it needs to stay quintessentially Amrican- not Spanish, not Muslim, not anything other than good old-fashion American apple pie. There should be a meat loaf, maybe some fried chicken, and an English-speaking performance. That's what the Super Bowl should be.

Food is a relatively superficial marker of nationalism but I can play the game as well as does Kelly. Meatloaf is, according to Wikipedia, "a traditional Slovak,German, Czech, Nordic, and Flemish dish." Fried chicken also originaed from abroad, perhaps from Scotland. And "good old-fashion American apple pie,"  according to Rossi Anastopoulo (and who would know more about food than a Rossi Anastopoulo?) originated in England, 'where it developed from culinary influences from France, the Netherlands, and even the Ottoman Empire. In fact, apple trees weren’t even native to North America until the Europeans arrived."

They all came from abroad and then were adapted to the taste of Americans. And that's the point. These dishes did not have to originate in North America. They were brought here, were adopted by Americans, and became what we think of as American. 

Bad Bunny was born in Puerto Rico and thus is a natural-born American. (He is eligible to become President once of age; please, spare me.) But you get the point: he was not born in any of the 50 states and speak a language foreign to most of us born in the USA.  But that does not disqualify him from being accepted by Americans, especially those who speak Spanish, are young (rap music), and were born outside of the continental USA.

It goes to the question of what is "American" which, to Megyn Kelly, evidently excludes non-English speaking peoples and Muslims. 

It is a mistake easily made, and not only by ethnocentric conservatives. Sunny Hostin, whose perspective is not the majority on the left, but not uncommon either, says you better learn Spanish.  In her utopian future, no one in her country may be uni-lingual unless Spanish is the only language they know. 

Kelly and Co. believe that a Super Bowl halftime show in Spanish is not "quintessentially American." Hostin and Co. believe that because, sometime in the not-distant future, "multi-ethnic people" outnumber non-Hispanic whites, everyone not white (which includes many people whose first language is neither English nor Spanish) must learn Spanish. 

Megyn Kelly argues that the halftime show of a game which is broadcast to the USA entirely in English (elsewhere, no doubt translated) should be in English, not Spanish. It is not even the championship game itself which must be in English, but the accessory to the game. And as far as we know and very likely, it will not become a habit.

Both groups believe that there can be one America, one in which everyone conforms to the majority (Kelly) or to a minority (Hostin). They both believe in the sadly enduring myth of the USA as a melting pot. Toss everyone into the cauldron and everyone becomes the same, Everyone must know English- or everyone must know Spanish.

The USA is not a melting pot. It never has been one, though we like telling ourselves it is. Kelly is representative of a narrow-minded conservatism while Hostin represents only a liberalism which, if seen clearly, is quite illiberal. 

If the NFL chooses periodically to slap English-speaking Americans in the face because it envisions a global, rather than a US-centered, market, it is entitled. If in 2046 or thereabouts many of us choose to continue to speak only one language, we will be entitled to do so. We will survive either- or both- because various and varied subcultures can exist side-by-side with individuals choosing to adopt- or shun- any portion they wish.  Ours need not be a society of forced homogenization but of a colorful tapestry.