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Please keep in mind this is a debate about assimilation, not the issues of any one race. If your post is not a discussion about assimilation it is off topic.
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When I post in bold red that is moderator action and, per the TOS, can only be discussed through Direct Message.
People have to think in broad perspective, to grasp the context of the landscape as it existed and as it now exist. If any hop to move forward and be a contributor to the growth of unity. Not only must the Learn much, they must UN-learn many things. If we want Unity, then we must understand some variables which promote dis-unity.
We can change the dynamics and we can assimilate as a unified society. But there are thing we must invest ourselves to understand and address.
Today, economic among many things perpetuate segregation's. Minimum Wage_ is no more than what it would cost the house and feed a slave. ( that is a translation in dollars equivalency, to the cost of paying an Indentured Servant, yet today it is even closer to the cost to house and feed a slave in older times).
Minimum wage mean, no medical, substandard housing, substandard transportation, Land locked into a confined area, and poor quality food and all the things equal to what was the nature of life for an Indentured Servant, yet it has become similar to what it was to house and feed a slave). While we see Corporate Executives live like Slave Owners, making millions upon millions.
Unity won't arrive until understand is elevated to understand the parallels and know the imbalances, then take a stand to support massive Change.
When wealth distribution is mentioned, it is not what people think, that someone will come and take their money. It is about, PAYING A LIVING WAGE, based on the Standards that American Claims is the Standards of American Life.
We have but a short distance to become a melting pot of human social realism. But the Avarice of the Wealthy which created Indentured Servitude and Slavery, that mentality still exist in the higher echelons of Industrial and Corporate Power Circles. We see Executives paying themselves 200-300 times the salary of the people who actually do the work. There is no sanity nor reason in this other than it is a model based on Plantation as Corporation mentality, as Corporations were Plantation in nature during the age of the Plantation Society.
There is a great deal people refuse to acknowledge and greater number are fearful of looking back, to understand the dynamics of what divides the people of today.
Then we have other structure, that have become power structures in and of themselves, which is the Religious Church power drives we see today. We don't see Church Unity, we see Churches trying to be more wealthy and more powerful, all the while it become more about wealth and power, than good will and teaching the truths of unity.
We have to truly open our eyes and see, then stand to make a change. Or the cycle repeats itself for generations to come.
If you live with aim to promote unity, you must too live with the aim to learn, to understand and to work toward what unifies the people.
It's not " babble" and it's not rude to speak in a foreign language unless it is not spoken loudly.
The fact is that you consider rude to speak in another language, regardless of the fact that it's a civil right granted by every single modern nation.
Even in the Soviet Union, you were not forced to speak Russian and only Russian.
And what's fun is that regarding American expats most of them never learn the language (a couple is here from 1979 and they don't know Italian).
What's even funnier is that in the US you can deport whomever you deem as illegal, contrarily to Europe, but it's us who are "racist","xenophobe" and "eurotrash".
Two weights, two measures.
PS. Nobody forces you to listen to anyone.
That's the problem they "do" speak it very loudly. It's not about civil rights but being rude. I may have the right to spit on the sidewalk but it's still rude.
Then those American expats are wrong also. No, in the U.S. anyone who is "deemed" as illegal (whatever that means) can't be deported. Only those who actually are can or should be deported.
You have yet to tell us what exactly is this "American culture". What is it, aside from speaking English which 85% of Dominicans reports being comfortable doing?
Being bilingual is good as when one visits a country the experience will be more fulfilling if one can speak the language, unless you feel that you are too "American" to visit non English speaking nations.
Given also that this is a global world one's career prospects might well be enhanced of one is able to develop a deeper understanding of potential export markets by reading their media. This is why many parents are insisting that their kids learn Mandarin. Not that most Chinese who they encounter will not speak English, but because knowing Mandarin will give them deeper insights.
Did you ever stop to think that the reason why many countries are more successful selling to the USA than we are to them is because they have a knowledge of Americans, because they can read our media, where we are ignorant of theirs?
Tourists/visitors, American or otherwise shouldn't be expected to learn the language of the country they are visiting. You are grasping at straws now. If one wants to learn a few words to get by that's their prerogative, however. It's about foreingers who choose to "live" in a country that don't learn the language and worse yet refuse to speak it is what this is about.
This is a blatant LIE. The USA was always multi lingual WHICH IS WHY ENGLISH IS NOT the official language. This was because in its formation there were large German speaking communities and they refused to accept English as the dominant language. Of course over time German died out to the point where you can peddle the myth that the only immigrant group who speak their own language in the history of the USA have been the Hispanics.
English was scarcely used in the Lower East Side in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and indeed the most popular papers, and theater, in that district was Yiddish or Italian.
So much so that American English is a rich stew of non English words, many having SPANISH origin. Even the concept of the cow boy was derived from Mexicans.
We are not multi-lingual per se. English is our de facto national language (never said it was "official"). All other languages are just minority ones and aren't our identifying one.
Doesn't matter if English had "some" origins in other languages. It is still the basic English language.
Yes, the Indians have sovereign lands -- I never claimed otherwise. It's a little different in tribal lands obviously --- but it's not too common you'd meet Indians who can't speak English.
I was referring to people from other countries who want to cling to their own languages and cultures and cannot adapt to American culture.
I also wouldn't suggest anyone from the USA relocate to another country and never learn anything of it's language or culture.
Thanx.
It's a touchy subject for ME.
I don't know why I brought it up. Just something that has been eating away
at me for a while.
Makes me think the "majority" wants to Wipe us out, so that
the land belongs to whomever is in possession.
I'm not angry at the past; All in all... I was born and raised in the city
(thus was unlucky enough to NOT live on a reservation and later, reap the
benefits of Casinos) lol.
But I see the people disappearing, and it makes me sad.
Don't really like how this guy (and probably others) was
thinking, but this is the way of the world, I suppose...
(haven't been checking this site as often as I should; sorry for the untimely
response)
Lol. Its quite funny that so many people are just beside themselves at that fact that most Black women in the U.S. are generally not interested in interracial dating or marriage. Some are, and that is fine. It is a small minority that choose non-Black men. Most of us are simply not interested, and are perfectly at peace with our decision to date and marry, and have children within our racial group.......
That is SO TRUE
I hear that African American women despise Black men who marry out of their own race.
Thus what you say rings true to everything I've heard and seen.
No disrespect to you or to anyone who disagrees.
But I respect that decision to hold your men to a certain standard;
that is: Give someone from your own race a chance, before looking
Past them and "falling" in love with the "pretty white girl". :/
(not to disrespect White people, either; just making a point)
Why is it upsetting if two people are having a conversation with each other that doesn't concern you & they're speaking in a foreign language? I hear russian or spanish around me constantly as there is a large population of each in my city. I notice it & move on. It doesn't bother me if someone is speaking to another person in a foreign language, it doesn't involve me so I'm not concerned about it.
This is the great mystery. Why does this upset people? Diversity is enriching. Heaven forbid any Native English speakers actually learn any of these languages others in our midst are speaking! No, we can't have that!
All the US gov't requires is that immigrants know enough English to get their business done in shops and gov't offices, and to learn the basics of US history for the citizenship exam, if they choose to become citizens. That's the way it's always been, through Republican and Democratic governments. If the government is happy with that standard, why would some citizens have a problem with it?
Yes, the Indians have sovereign lands -- I never claimed otherwise. It's a little different in tribal lands obviously --- but it's not too common you'd meet Indians who can't speak English.
Oprah did, in a cross-country drive with her friend, Gail, that she broadcast on TV about 10 years ago. They ran into a couple of communities in Arizona where they couldn't find any English speakers. They were on the Navajo reservation. It's not uncommon for elders to not know English.
Sometimes you can't "move on". You're stuck listening to the babble. As I said, if you know how to speak English then why not do it then when out in public?
A lot of those immigrants don't know English, that's why. Even those who learn enough for the citizenship test only know the bare basics. And why should they speak English to native speakers of the same foreign language, their own friends or relatives? That makes no sense.
I've got news for you; the world doesn't revolve around you. Two foreign-born individuals will speak to each other in their own language, whether this upsets you or not. Remember; you can't change others. You can only change how you react to them.
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