English only argument is weak

July 1, 2009

Anonymous The Goshen News Wed Jul 01, 2009, 11:26 AM EDT

Recently, a letter was published describing America as an invaded and conquered country. The evidence given was pressing (during phone calls) for English and store signs in Spanish. Is this a logical argument? Do non-English speaking school children actually equate to the death of America? What could be a possible motivation for making such fantastic claims?

While researching the idea that bilingualism is the end of the United States as a sovereign nation I made some interesting discoveries. James Crawford, educator and author of the book “Hold Your Tongue,” states there is a direct correlation between racism and the English only movement. In the 1980s. Secretary of Education William Bennett was a major opponent of the Bilingual Education Act. Members of the organization U.S. English, wrote letters of support for Mr. Bennett. According to Mr. Crawford, many of the letters complained that America is ... overrun with all sorts of aliens, wetbacks on welfare, and out-of-control Hispanics birthrates. Writers of the support letters rationalized that non-whites breed faster than whites. Fear of a demographic imbalance was expressed by English only members. The solution to keeping America white was to make English the official language of the United States.

Of course, the letter sent in the last few weeks did not use such direct racism. The author wove a gripping tale with apparent patriotic and mythical undertones the devil sent a dark angel to earth. One might argue that the author was merely expressing his dismay at the demise of the English language in America. Perhaps there is a more sinister reason.

On February 19, 1998, New Times Broward/Palm Beach News published an article about Don Black, self-proclaimed racist and creator of the hate Web site, STORMFRONT.com. Black was taught by another known racist, David Duke, to avoid using obvious racist speech to attract supporters. These racists recommend attacking programs such as affirmative action, illegitimate welfare births, and illegal immigration ...

I am not claiming that every person who believes the United States should be the only monolingual nation in the developed world is overtly racist. However, I do believe that the xenophobic undertones of the English only movement is a far greater threat to our country than pressing one for English. After all, isn’t prejudice and hatred what World War II veterans fought against so long ago?

— April Muro-Cherif

Goshen

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