Roy Beck Derives His Approach to NumbersUSA from His Background as a Journalist 

Former journalist Roy Beck readily admits that his pluralistic views on immigration are derived from his many years of experience as a press reporter. The Founder and President of an immigration reduction advocacy organization called NumbersUSA was assigned to some of the most high profile events in the U.S. During his later tenure as a journalist in Washington, D.C., Beck was fully immersed in the day-to-day politics of the nation. Today, Beck himself says that it was those times that most shaped his current views, and which enabled him to fully appreciate the value of listening to people from varying backgrounds and viewpoints.

In a recent interview, Beck expounded on that opinion.  “Certainly, one of the things about being a journalist in the 20th century was that I just really learned to be comfortable with pluralism and the idea that everybody has a bias on every subject.” Beck went on to emphasize the importance of self-honesty and self-knowledge regarding personal bias. “If there’s ever a position a person has that is different than what mine is,” Beck continued, “I would always try to bend over backward to figure out how to be fair.”

Assessing the current climate, Roy Beck feels that political polarization might be fueling a lack of diversity. Ideologically, people tend to cluster together, resulting in an inability or unwillingness to collaborate with those holding different beliefs or viewpoints, Beck says. Even though it’s harder to come together and agree, making things a little bit more challenging, diversity is extremely important to Beck. This is why Beck has been such a big supporter of diversity at NumbersUSA, despite the fact that, in Beck’s words, “You can’t come to agreements quickly and you’ve always got somebody on the other side of an issue.”

These kinds of challenges aren’t new to Beck, who experienced the phenomenon of “ideological tribes” throughout his 26-year journalism career. Unfortunately, Beck says, there’s a tendency to try to make things easier by splitting into left and right “tribes” just to simplify things. Speaking of his pluralistic approach at NumbersUSA, Beck says, “There’s almost nobody trying to do what we’re trying to do…nobody else is trying to take this type of pluralistic approach on this issue.”

The Board of Directors at NumbersUSA appears to wholeheartedly support Roy Beck’s framework of operations. According to Beck, the Board of the organization decided unanimously and enthusiastically that they would continue using their existing pluralistic strategy after a lengthy period of deliberation. “When the majority of the activity is on the impassioned edges of the spectrum, we’re going to be this unique entity and continuing striving to be, in a sense, a force toward moderation,” Beck enthuses.

Beck underlined that, while he is not opposed to the viewpoints of the passionate extremes of the spectrum, he also does not believe that a nation like the U. S. functions at its best when the extremes are in command. “The extremes of the spectrum, in my opinion, are much better at adding texture, but I quite like working within the gamut between the 30-yard lines, or at a minimum between the 20-yard lines, primarily,” he states.

About NumbersUSA

NumbersUSA Education and Research Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan immigration-reduction organization. They do research on the effects of high numbers of immigration and strive to educate opinion leaders and policymakers, as well as members of the public, on the outcomes of those and other related studies. Underpinning their work is a network of beliefs rooted in a combination of economic justice, environmental sustainability, individual liberty and the rule of law, in addition to opposition to certain federal immigration policies that may threaten the aforementioned values by forcing massive U.S. population growth.

Listen to Roy Beck’s recent books here: https://www.audible.com/author/Roy-Beck/B09JFG4BTM