Speaking a Common Language

Daily, there are more and more emails finding their way into my inbox that call for walls at our borders and a crackdown on illegal aliens.  I think that some folks are actually beginning to believe that we are truly talking about folks from another planet.

 

Among other things, we seem to have a fear of being compelled to speak Spanish and anxiously wail about the need to declare English as our official language.  Having spent many years in the public school system, I don’t have any worries that the majority of Americans will be learning a second language.   About 25 years ago, the US government had the notion that this country should convert to the metric system.  You see, most of the other major nations of the world with whom we conduct commerce use the metric system and it would be much more effective to conduct business if we were all using the same measurement system.  However, Americans, always proud of our ability to insist on doing it our way, refused to cooperate.  The remnants of the effort may be seen in road signs that indicate kilometers alongside miles.

 

When I visited Mazatlan, Mexico a couple of years ago, I was anxious to try out my minimal Spanish.  Everyone welcomed my efforts, but most of the people who ran businesses, waited tables, drove taxis, ran the hotels, etc., all spoke English.  Americans are particularly proud of our ability to speak only one language; it is not uncommon for residents of other countries to speak two or more languages.  By the way, road signs, street signs etc. in Mazatlan were usually in English as well as Spanish.

 

But here at home, the immigration issue, whether legal or illegal immigrants, continues to be at the forefront of US politics.  Alarmists warn that illegal immigrants are taking my hard earned money via the taxes I pay.  Quite frankly, I’m more concerned about my tax dollars supporting the war in Iraq but to be fair, let’s take a look at illegal immigrants impact on the economy.  According to a recently released study by UNC-Chapel Hill, Hispanics make up 7% of North Carolina’s population (my home state).  The study also found that Hispanics contribute more than $9 billion to North Carolina’s economy, of which $756 million annually is contributed in taxes.  In addition, each Hispanic resident of NC costs the state a net of $102.00 per person.  For a summary of the report, or the full text, go to http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/ki/reports/2006_HispanicStudy/

 

But wait, I also need to be concerned that Americans are becoming a minority.  Funny thing is, if you substitute “white” for “American,” you can find the same warning on many of the interesting white supremacy websites on the Internet.  See for example, http://www.resist.com/Articles/literature/DeathOfTheWhiteRace.htm

 

American isn’t really an ethnic designation, it’s a descriptive term, and it just indicates that you live in America.  Folks that live in Central America and South America are also Americans.  If you want to get really specific, all of us are immigrants, albeit some of us involuntarily.  The only indigenous Americans in the US are the Native American Indian tribes.

 

What heritage do we need to protect?  Why are we so easily swayed by racist scare tactics?  Back in the late 19th century and on into the first half of the 20th century, the social science of eugenics was very popular in this country.  At the core of eugenics is a belief that some people are genetically and therefore inherently inferior to others.   Eugenics was touted as scientifically based in colleges and universities across the country.  It was used as the basis for justification for continuing practices of racial segregation in the United States.

 

The resurgence in anti immigrant fervor is not new.  Eugenics fueled the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924.  Eugenicists played a central role in the Congressional debate as expert advisers on the threat of "inferior stock" from eastern and southern Europe. This reduced the number of immigrants from abroad to 15 percent from previous years, to control the number of "unfit" individuals entering the country. In addition, the new act strengthened existing laws prohibiting race mixing in an attempt to maintain the purity of the gene pool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

 

In my mind, there are far more pressing matters in our country than singling out yet another group of people for discrimination and hate.  This time the issue isn’t so much skin color as it is language.  We become hysterical because we are asked to press 1 for English and 2 for Spanish.  The world has gotten smaller.  It no longer takes us months to travel across the Atlantic to Europe.  I can sit in my home and talk via instant messaging with a person that I’ve never met who lives in India.  We have information in Spanish and English in this country.  The world is not coming to an end; it’s flourishing.  We all have to decide where we stand on human rights issues, but it is important that we have a clear framing of those issues before we decide what we support and believe. 

Tags: immigrants, discrimination, the English only obsession, a changing world, immigration, crossing the border