What?!?! (Mexican, racist, illegals, crimes)

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by GregW

Many of the immigrant populations in the past did not learn English until the kids went to school. Pretty much the same with first generation Hispanic immigrants, legal or not. Why shouldn't a President attempt to talk with all the citizens? Why should he ignore a population just because they do not speak the dominant language? I do not think he should and I encourage him to speak in Spanish when it is appropriate.

I'm sorry I live in Texas. They don't LEARN Spanish when their kids go to school. They USE their kids to translate for them. They live in communities that totally enable them not to learn one word in English. You don't have those in NH.

Whole sections of the city with not a word of English to be found on shops, bill boards, food products or street signs. Freeway signs that flash in Spanish........we enable them.

Past generations HAD to learn English to get a job and past the citizenship test. Now it's given in Spanish, if they even bother to take it at all. Which most of them don't.

[MovingForward]

Originally Posted by vicket

To the OP - would you be just as upset if Obama had a sign language interpreter delivering the speech as well?
I think there are plenty of other things to be upset about in this world than someone striving to communicate with everyone.

Not the same thing. If millions of Americans moved to Brazil and demanded that the culture adapt to the English language, through bilingual programs, signage, etc., and demanded political representation based on race, they would rightly be castigated as ethnocentric and/or racist. Hispanics do it, and somehow it's okay. No, it is not okay. To pretend that the people of the United States--which is already absorbing millions of people who were neither invited nor welcomed, and which has made many concessions on their behalf--are somehow mean and racist because they wish not to have their culture torn from them is myopic. Because if you would defend Hispanic culture from the ethnocentric and racist colonialism of white culture, then you have no grounds not to defend American culture against racist political agendas which seek to push Americans and American culture out of the way in order to install Hispanic culture in its place. Hispanics are not the only immigrants in the United States. They need a smackdown. They want to speak Spanish? They can--like my family--speak their native language in their home and among their friends. But they do not have the right to impose their cultural holidays or language on the rest of Americans. Appalling behavior. It is, in fact, nothing less than colonialist. To pretend otherwise is to engage in a weird form of cultural racism--fully excusing in one group of people what you would condemn in another.

[vicket]

Originally Posted by MovingForward

Not the same thing. If millions of Americans moved to Brazil and demanded that the culture adapt to the English language, through bilingual programs, signage, etc., and demanded political representation based on race, they would rightly be castigated as ethnocentric and/or racist. Hispanics do it, and somehow it's okay. No, it is not okay. To pretend that the people of the United States--which is already absorbing millions of people who were neither invited nor welcomed, and which has made many concessions on their behalf--are somehow mean and racist because they wish not to have their culture torn from them is myopic. Because if you would defend Hispanic culture from the ethnocentric and racist colonialism of white culture, then you have no grounds not to defend American culture against racist political agendas which seek to push Americans and American culture out of the way in order to install Hispanic culture in its place. Hispanics are not the only immigrants in the United States. They need a smackdown. They want to speak Spanish? They can--like my family--speak their native language in their home and among their friends. But they do not have the right to impose their cultural holidays or language on the rest of Americans. Appalling behavior. It is, in fact, nothing less than colonialist. To pretend otherwise is to engage in a weird form of cultural racism--fully excusing in one group of people what you would condemn in another.

Huh? You mean we don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day in this country?
I don't "fully excuse in one group of people what I would condemn in another". I just think it would be nice if we were not all so quick to get offended by communication.
By the way it's hard to "defend Hispanic culture from the ethnocentric and racist colonialism of white culture" since there is no such thing as "white culture". White is a mix of a lot of things...sometimes including HISPANIC.

[JetJockey]

Maybe I'm just bitter because I can speak 3 other languages besides english, and yet I'm still not considered bi-lingual because I don't speak Spanish. Try working at a home improvement store... I constantly got berated for not knowing how to speak spanish FROM spanish speaking people. It was always fun to get 'talked to' by the store manager because he had a complaint from a spanish speaking customer because I didn't know how to speak the language. Bah.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by JetJockey

Maybe I'm just bitter because I can speak 3 other languages besides english, and yet I'm still not considered bi-lingual because I don't speak Spanish. Try working at a home improvement store... I constantly got berated for not knowing how to speak spanish FROM spanish speaking people. It was always fun to get 'talked to' by the store manager because he had a complaint from a spanish speaking customer because I didn't know how to speak the language. Bah.

When my son (who's now in college getting a linguistics degree which involves profiency in five different languages) started first grade at a public school (barf; it wasn't long before we put him in a good private school), I assumed that he would be welcome to ride the school bus that stopped near our home. I called the school to find out the bus schedule and was told that the bus was only for "bi-lingual" students; they weren't amused when I told them that he knew quite a bit of Italian and asked if that qualified him to ride on the bus.

So...I had to either rearrange my work schedule--something that not everyone can do, or allow my six year old child to walk almost a mile to school (often in bad weather and through a very high traffic area).

Yes; I know, a lot of people walked 20 miles barefoot through six feet of snow all uphill back in the stone age. The distance wasn't what bothered me; it was the traffic.

And the fact that he was being treated as a second class citizen and not allowed to ride the bus.

[EasilyAmused]

I guess bi-lingual students have a transportation disability?

As a taxpayer, I bet you hit the roof.

[Metlakatla]

And...same school...they had a couple of what they called "bi-lingual" classrooms in the elementary school. These classes were taught only in the Spanish language. The school would put about five Enligh speaking students into each classroom. I would have objected had they tried to include my son in that; not because I have anything against children learning different languages but because I would have been concerned that he would not do well in subjects such as math and science et al had he been forced to begin first grade completely immersed in Spanish.

[EasilyAmused]

what state is this?

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

I guess bi-lingual students have a transportation disability?

As a taxpayer, I bet you hit the roof.

As a mother, I hit the roof on the few occasions before I got my work schedule straightened out when my son had to walk to school and the Hispanic children were picked up a few feet from their homes.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

what state is this?

This was in Oregon.