Do You Prefer to Speak English? That Doesn't Make You a Racist

[drakonyx]

A Los Angeles Times story examines how shifting demographics and attitudes in Nevada have changed the political dynamics in a state that has flirted with the idea of making English the official language.

The story focuses on the city of Pahrump in Nye County, about 60 miles west of Las Vegas, where the town council voted in 2006 to make English the official language. The policy, which drew boos from the audience at the council meeting where it was adopted, was later repealed.

This article is written in English. So are all the other pieces here at The Provocation. I don't speak Spanish or German or Chinese or any other foreign language (though I did take several semesters of French in high school). I wish I did. It would allow me to communicate with more people more effectively, and that's always a good thing. But I shouldn't have to speak a foreign language. And I shouldn't have to pay for ballots to be printed in foreign languages because some people can't - or don't want to - speak English.

This doesn't make me a racist. It also doesn't make me any less progressive. In fact, the root of the term "progressive" is progress. And for anyone who enters the United States speaking a language other than English, learning this particular language means progress. Economic progress. Political progress. Academic progress. Not because English is in any way superior to any other language - indeed, it includes quite a few inane and archaic rules that make it, in some respects, inferior. But simply because it's the dominant language.

http://www.theprovocation.net/2011/08/do-you-prefer-to-speak-english-that.html