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smoke n mirror racism.
I hear many people complaining (mainly Repubs) about how all people immigrants should be forced to learn English and how bad it is that they continue to speak their native language (mainly Spanish). Some have even gone as far as to say that no legal, govt., do ents should be translated for Spanish speakers. Even that immigrants should be forced to watch TV and listen to the radio in English(Tell me how they plan to enforce that one)
Now I understand why certain people are scared, they are worried they will be forced to learn Spanish or else they might not get that job they want. But isn't that what the free market is all about? The free market has dictated that they want Spanish speakers (and Chinese speakers will be wanted just as much very soon). So I can't understand why Repubs are the main ones trying to keep this an "English speaking country" when the free market is the one dictating that English only is just not enough.
Any thoughts on this?
smoke n mirror racism.
I agree. Pretty much what I think. Wonder how many people will actually admit it though.
It's not racism. It is ing annoying when you need something and the person can't speak english. Car wrecks, etc. Solution: Stay away from that side of town if it bothers you that much though.
I hear people think immigrants should be placed in dark rooms with their eyes stapled open while they watch English tutorials over and over with very loud music in the background.
I think there is a mul ude of reasons why some people resent the Spanish language...
1) The overwhelming majority of people in this country speak English as a first language. As a broad stroke, those people feel that the individuals who don't speak English should have to adapt, and not the other way around.
2) People are, by nature, comfortable with what they know and not comfortable with what they do not know. Those who are not Hispanic and are not exposed to the language and culture of Hispanics are naturally skeptical.
3) Two words...national pride. Ironic that a nation built by immigrants would be so opposed to learning the languages of its neighbors and trade partners...but that seems to be the case. Your typical "red-blooded American" wants to draw distinction between themselves and Mexicans or Canadiens. Along the same vein, I don't think you'll ever see the US go to a "Euro"-like currency no matter how much trade increases with other countries....b/c America is the standard-bearer.
4) The economy. The two best cases I have are the resentment towards illegal immigrants from Mexico, which takes jobs away from Americans, and printing voting ballots in Spanish, which costs money.
The first is racist and aimed at a culture (spanish-speaking individuals) rather than at the illegal immigrants that are just a piece of that culture. It's unfair, but a reality.
The second is a small example, but I think a relevant one. In the rural middle Georgia town where I live, one of the candidates running for senator was actually criticized for spending taxpayer dollars to print ballots in Spanish. Being from South Texas originally, I thought the ad was rediculous and borderline racist, but I think I understand the appeal. Whenever you pay for something out of your own pocket that doesn't apply to you or benefit you, there is resentment.
As I said, I live in middle Georgia and I have to say that I've seen more overt racism in my short time here than I think I have seen or will see in the rest of my lifetime. These aren't my opinions, just my observations.
I agree with your first sentence, disagree with your second sentence assumption. Here in LA, there are many people exposed to hispanic lifestyle just due to the diversity of the cities. There are many people who are "exposed" to spanish life and still think they should strictly learn English aside from that.
If it doesn't matter that much, then why does it matter that much?
People don't know their history, and even if they did, they wouldn't care.I hear many people complaining (mainly Repubs) about how all people immigrants should be forced to learn English and how bad it is that they continue to speak their native language (mainly Spanish). Some have even gone as far as to say that no legal, govt., do ents should be translated for Spanish speakers. Even that immigrants should be forced to watch TV and listen to the radio in English
Now I understand why certain people are scared, they are worried they will be forced to learn Spanish or else they might not get that job they want. But isn't that what the free market is all about? The free market has dictated that they want Spanish speakers (and Chinese speakers will be wanted just as much very soon). So I can't understand why Repubs are the main ones trying to keep this an "English speaking country" when the free market is the one dictating that English only is just not enough.
Any thoughts on this?
Until the 1950's, America was full of ethnic enclaves where people didn't speak English. If you lived in Milwaukee, your cleaning lady might only speak German. In St. Louis on the Hill, there would be people who only spoke Italian. Lancaster, PA has plenty of people who only speak Dietsch. Minneapolis had people speaking only Swedish. New York and Chicago had so many different languages it might as well have been the aftermath of the Tower of Babel.
Farmboys in the Army during WWII who spoke German played a hand in demoralizing the German troops, by making them question why their government was making them fight their own brethren.
Dinky little ol' San Antonio for the longest time had a German daily newspaper, the San Antonio Zeitung, which went away in 1950 because the German population didn't feel motivated to maintain the language any longer after finding out about the Holocaust.
So this is nothing new. Our lack of an official language has something to do with our not being a nation-state. American English is probably the single most dominant linguistic culture in the history of the planet in terms of how many people around the world feel compelled to learn it in order to compete in the global economy, yet some Americans feel insecure about it. This has to do with three things, I think:
1) Mexican immigration is happening so fast that for the first time English-only speakers actually might face a language barrier in their everyday life, which creates tremendous discomfort, and
2) There are parts of the country, namely the South, the South, the South, and the South, which hold strong feelings of Anglo-Celtic ethnic nationalism, and reject the notion of America as a nation where people of any background who believe in its basic political ideals can fully participate in society,* and
3) Some would downplay the earlier polyglot history of the U.S. because those were white people, and Mexicans usually are brown.**
The first of those three is understandable. The latter two I find repugnant.
* This would be why I detest the Confederate flag, not merely because it might represent "hate," i.e. an affirmation of white supremacy over blacks, slavery, and segregation, but rather because it represents "heritage," i.e. Anglo-Celtic white Southern nationalism. Such regional nationalism is utterly inimical to American ideals, just as much as when some Mexican-Americans start prattling about Aztlan, except that the former is near-universal in the South, while the latter is a fringe belief.
** I think several European countries would love to have the problem of an influx of culturally-Southern European, Roman Catholic, family-oriented immigrant workers. If asked, they will gladly trade their Arabs and North Africans for our illegal Mexicans.
Nice.
The experience of the Texas Germans is instructive (well, all German immigrants and their offspring in the US for that matter). They did fight assimilation, but eventually they gave in and went along with it, though for a while ( , to this day for a few) they spoke English at the market and Deutsch at the haus.
And those German immigrants spoke the language, enjoyed the customs, and (some) held loyalties for the nation that had declared war upon these United States. Twice. Hispanic immigrants are merely taking low wage jobs and drawing on public services perhaps a bit much.
DID YOU KNOW...
The reason parts of the Statue of Liberty were closed until the renovation project in the 1980's was because it was damaged in an attack by fifth-column German immigrants upon a military weapons depot in New York Harbor during World War I.
The U.S. sagely learned from this experience and put all the Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II (but not so many Germans). After all, if white people could stoop to such treachery, imagine what the yellow man might do!
In certain neighborhoods in Chicago, THE BILLBOARDS ARE IN CYRILLIC!!!! Why aren't people up in arms about these Ukranians and Russians who won't speak English?
True. The Germans did benefit from the fact that they looked the same as 'everyone else.'
So was the ultimate insistence that those immigrants and their offspring 'speak English' merely nationalistic?
Volume.
I guess the short answer is that once upon a time many people were 'worried about the German language in the USA.'
There was an assimilation campaign in the early 1900's that had some success. This was carried out because these working-class ethic enclaves were becoming isolated from the culture at-large, became frustrated and disenfranchised, and were starting to crank out a fair number of terrorists, who did things like assassinate President McKinley, and detonate wagon bombs (the precursor to car bombs) on Wall Street.
Perhaps they could just use the Pear of Language...
Very well written post, enjoyed it, but I especially wanted to talk about this section. The bolded part is what I think is the main difference between the "left and the right".
I've told many republicans before that what I can't stand is that republicans only vote for what serves their own interests best. And they will tell you "yes doesn't everybody vote like that?". The answer is no. When I personally vote, I vote for what I believe is best for society and not for just what benefits me. I think it's selfish and just wrong to vote for what only benefits you. The greater good of society is much more important then what's best for an individual.
This seems to apply very much to not wanting to print ballots in a different language because of the "cost". First off the cost is minimal and with something as important as a persons right to vote, you would think it wouldn't be an issue at all. I guess I'm just fed up with the thought that if it doesn't benefit me, then there is no need for it.
I agree with this whole post. Very well said. Maybe you aren't so delusional after all.
Spanish sucks. It's the language of Hugo and Fidel.
So are you Italian or German smeagol?
At the intellectual apogee of 20th-century conservatism, conservatives believed that their ideology was the way to create the greatest prosperity for the most people by stripping away the barriers erected by the state to self-actualization. That idealism is no longer extant into the movement, which is a big reason it has withered.
I couldn't care less and neither does anyone else I know.
It wasn't a mutually exclusive comparison...
People who have been exposed can feel one way or the other based on those other reasons....
But people who haven't would be uncomfortable.
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