Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: Supporting English as national language not a racist stance
By Ashley Herzog
The Post (Ohio U.)
05/24/2006

(U-WIRE) ATHENS, Ohio — According to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., anyone who believes Americans should be united under a common language is a bigot.

Last Wednesday, the Senate approved an amendment to make English the "national language" of the United States. Before the vote, Reid said, "This amendment is racist. I think it's directed basically to people who speak Spanish."

This statement has no factual basis, considering that most Hispanic-Americans agree English should be the national language, according to a recent Zogby International poll. But Reid knew he could get away with making ludicrous charges of "racism" because most Americans are terrified of being perceived as bigots.

Since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Americans have been working tirelessly to end racism. Although some people still cling to outdated or even hateful attitudes, race relations have improved significantly overall. Unfortunately, people like Reid often manipulate Americans' guilt about racism to get what they want - whether the issue at hand has anything to do with race.

Politicians know this trick well. In 1994, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., likened tax cuts to racial epithets, saying, "It's not 'spic' or 'nigger' anymore. They just say, 'Let's cut taxes.'" Later that year, Rep. Major Owens, D-N.Y., used similar language to describe the Republicans' Contract With America: "These are people who are practicing genocide with a smile; they're worse than Hitler."

Although these accusations of racism have powerful emotional appeal, they rarely hold up under scrutiny. Reid's statements about the national language amendment are no different.

The majority of immigrants to the United States today are Spanish-speaking Mexicans, and most Americans expect them to speak English once inside our borders. According to Reid, this expectation is actually a racist ploy to keep Hispanics down. He ignores the fact that, historically, immigrants to the United States have been expected to speak English - including white Europeans.

During the immigration wave of the late nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries, most non-English-speaking white immigrants arrived in the United States poor, unskilled and illiterate. Still, they were expected to learn English so they could function in American society. They weren't afforded the cultural sensitivity that is demanded for today's immigrants. Workers at Ellis Island went so far as to change some immigrants' ethnic names in order to "Americanize" them. Despite the loss of their native languages, most of these immigrants - our ancestors - went on to prosper in their adopted country.

When it comes to modern immigrants with a slightly darker skin tone, expecting them to speak English is deemed a covert form of racism. So is it preferable for immigrants to remain isolated in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods than for them to speak America's dominant language?

Most Americans say no, regardless of their ethnicity or political persuasion. According to a recent Zogby International poll, the vast majority of Americans approve of making English our official language - including 92 percent of Republicans, 82 percent of Democrats and 77 percent of Hispanic Americans. According to a 2002 Kaiser Family Foundation Poll, 91 percent of Hispanic immigrants recognize that "learning English is essential to succeeding in the U.S."

Speaking English does not mean abandoning one's own cultural traditions and identity. Many Americans who don't know a word of their ancestors' native languages retain pride in their heritage. We still celebrate ethnic holidays and follow the religious traditions of our ancestors, and we do it in a common language - English.

Native English speakers can also continue to help newcomers to learn our language. Many public schools in urban areas and border states provide English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for immigrant children. While some worry that the national language amendment will threaten these programs, they should stay in place, along with the many private volunteer groups across the country that assist immigrants with learning English. If we're going to expect all immigrants to speak our language, we have an obligation to help them learn it.

But most importantly, we shouldn't let people like Harry Reid manipulate our historical guilt over racism to get their way. Expecting immigrants to speak the dominant language is not - and never has been - racist. English is the glue that has held our nation of immigrants together. And we shouldn't let politicians and professional race-baiters convince us otherwise.

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