![]() He tells me lessons he learned from LeBron James – “He said when you see results from hard work, it just makes you want to work harder” and from Ray Lewis – “You can jump higher than me, you can run faster, you can lift more weights, but you will never out-work me”. He describes himself at that point as having been “pissed” – but he took it in his stride, seeing it as something he would have to do to achieve his ambitions.īroxton uses a lot of sporting analogies. I almost had a job in Florida, but they said my accent was a problem. “I said: I want to be a broadcast journalist. When he didn’t get a call back after being warned a second time about his accent, he called a speech pathologist. I was like, I want to be a broadcast journalist, so I’m going to do what it takes,” he says.īroxton, who grew up on food stamps and saw his mom behind on payments when he got into a private high school, just viewed it as another example of the ways in which Black people and those who aren’t wealthy have to work harder to get ahead. But at the time, he just wanted to get ahead. He views them as racist – a code for not sounding too Black on TV. It’s clear Broxton is conflicted about hearing those words from the recruiter. If you can work on that, I would love to hire you.” “He said: I like you a lot, but your accent is a bit strong. So why can't journalists have accents?īroxton first learned that people thought his accent was not “fit” for TV after graduating in 2016, when a prospective employer called to talk to him about it. Bill Clinton has a southern accent and he became president. I’m still amazed I didn’t cuss, because I have a bad mouth,” he told me. So when he reacted in that viral moment, viewers saw the version of himself he usually hides. He spent thousands of dollars on speech training, to the point that his accent has now probably permanently changed. While the story propelled him to viral fame and success followed (he has just been shortlisted for an award from the Iowa Broadcast News Association for some of his TV reportage) – what is less known is the struggle that came before it.īroxton could not get a TV job as a reporter for years because of his accent. So the only thing that went through my mind was that if they charged me, I wouldn’t be able to get in my car in time,” he says. I think Usain Bolt runs like 27 miles an hour. He did not want to become the next horror story. When the herd approached him last March, he remembered the time a nine-year-old got thrown in the air by one the countless videos of people being charged and gored the time a man got arrested for trying to taunt one off the road while drunk. Every time I went to the park, I was staring in amazement at these animals.”Īfter a year of reporting on the park, however, he had learned a thing or two about bison. So when I first got to Yellowstone as an early reporter, my jaw dropped, because I’d never seen a bison. “I’m used to seeing, like, pitbulls and rats. “I’m from Baltimore, I’m from the hood,” he laughs. There was a herd of bison walking right toward me at today! /sdrBvojpwF- Deion Broxton March 25, 2020 When we talk over the phone, he talked about the learning curve when he first started covering the west. It also stuck, perhaps, because of Broxton’s accent.īroxton – a Black, Baltimore native – already knew that he would stand out in a place like Montana when he took the job that led to his viral moment. The video stuck perhaps because it came at a time when we all needed some levity this time last year. It even got added to his Iowa News Now biography. He spoke to alumni at his former college about it. Jackson State Tigers head coach and former NFL player Deion Sanders even chimed in, saying: “ Someone has to tell the story”.īroxton did tell the story, again and again. ![]() If you weren’t one of the 15 million people that watched the viral video, you may have seen references to it elsewhere – like on the Yellowstone poster that repurposed “OH NO, NOT MESSING WITH YOU” for one of its wildlife safety signs.Ĭountless memes ran along his one-liner (“When you see someone coughing at the grocery store”). “Oh no, I ain’t messin’ with you.”Ĭamera still running, he packed his kit into his trunk and hastily departed.
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