Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007...8:02 am
¡Oye, Tritón, Te Chingas!
So, Newt Gingrich doesn’t like bilingual education. I don’t happen to agree with him on that one, but, hey, lets argue about it.
But, he calls Spanish the “language living in a ghetto.” What the heck is that? The language of Miguel de Cervantes and Gabriel García Márquez is a “ghetto” language?
And these guys wonder why millions of Hispanics aren’t rallying behind them.
It is this sort of rhetoric that makes lefties like me suspicious of the motives of those on the right that wish to abolish bilingual education, and suspicious of the wider anti-immigration movement. They veer uncomfortably close to the rhetoric of past nativists, who would proclaim the “natural superiority” of Anglo-Saxon civilization over the Native Americans, Irish, Italians, Mexicans or whoever was convienient that day. Demeaning the language (and by extention, the culture) of about three quarters of a billion people takes the debate over bilingual education into Henry Ford territory.
Few would argue that English is not necessary to suceed in this country. Heck, turn on Telemundo sometime and you’ll see ads for English language home-study programs. The argument should be over what is the best way to teach more people English, not trying to demean the culture of people who grew up speaking another language.
NB - Since Spanish is so “ghetto,” does Gingrich think it should even be taught as a second language in schools?
3 Comments
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:08 am
German
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
During the next two decades, the United States will lose nearly one-third of it workforce as 750 million Baby Boomers retire. We cannot fill these vacanices without increasing immigration, and most of immigrants will continue to come from Hispanic-speaking countries. Hispanics have already replaced African Americans as the nation’s largest minority group and will soon become the absolute majority in Texas and Calfornia, the nation’s two most populous states. English as a Second Language is already a requirement for Hispanic students who do not speak English fluently; isn’t it time to make Spanish as a Second Language mandatory for Anglo school children?
April 27th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Newt Gingrich ? Is that pendejo still around???