Racist tries to shame Spanish speakers in market, but another shopper steps in to shame the racist

This is one of the things I love about living in the Hudson Valley. Even though it’s very rural here, we are so impacted by NYC that there is a crazy blend of languages heard here. I regularly hear three to four distinct Spanish dialects. I think about my own upbringing in Missouri and the positive impact growing up here is having on my kids. My youngest is going to be bilingual and will speak a Spanish dialect that is hardest for me to understand (Puerto Rican). What a country!image

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A University town… yeah, I might hear four or five different languages by the end of my first coffee and sometimes none of them are either of the two official languages.

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Here in NoVaMdDC it’s full on United Nations everyday. Every venture outside a new language presents itself.

It’s beautiful.

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I remember one description suggesting that English is German with French vocabulary.

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As a native English speaker, I must say that everything I ever learned about English grammar, I learned in French class.

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Here’s the demographics in our ZIP code (we’re in P.G. County). It is extremely unusual here to see (for example) a pickup with a Trump flag mounted in the bed (and yet, I’ve seen it, once. Something that would be commonplace on, say, the Eastern Shore).

My wife’s Ethiopian but now and then someone will ask her a question in Spanish. They seem rather surprised to find that she doesn’t speak nor understand it.

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It’s worth pointing out that 1st amendment Freedom of Speech only applies to government prosecution. You cannot be arrested or prosecuted for protected speech (although this has been violated so many times it could be considered null and void.) You are in no way protected from the consequences of your speech. For these two women, the consequences should be absolutely nothing at all. For the racist harridan, her consequences may be considerably more severe than she had any reckoning for. Social opprobrium is not a violation of 1st amendment rights, much as many many right wingers feel it should be!

It’s worth pointing out that the people railing against folks speaking non-English languages in the USA are, in my experience, all too vociferous about making English language fluency a requisite for citizenship, forbidding non-English language communication by the government, etc.

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Also seem to be people who wouldn’t pass an English proficiency exam. Cognitive dissonance or Dunning-Kruger?

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No argument. That is shitty and legally questionable. Just not a 1st amendment argument. A little “grammar Nazi” kinda thing of me, I know, but if you give the shitheads a chance to shoot you down on a technicality, they tend to think that nullifies any other point you were making.

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She probably assumes they are talking shit about her. Since everything is about her.

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That assumes that she sees all human beings as equals who should be treated with the same level of respect and consideration.

I suspect that she is one of those people who thinks that white anglo-Americans are God’s chosen people, who should be treated with special consideration and respect, but who owe no such consideration to others.

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I must have missed it - no xkcd yet?

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Why isn’t making laws regarding legal languages (as in “it’s illegal to print voter pamphlets in Spanish, or Vietnamese”), and legally mandatory language (e.g., “if you can’t speak English, you can’t be a citizen”) not a 1st amendment issue? Aren’t both of those laws abridging the freedom of speech? (Please educate me… I get the whole Paine “free speech you are responsible for the consequences of your words, thing,” that’s clear… and not what I’m asking after).

OK, IANAL, but to me the first example would be abridging free speech (If a jurisdiction wanted to print ballots in Swahili and was prevented from doing so, for example.) The second would not be (I think) since you are not preventing the person from expressing themselves, you are requiring them to learn English. That is a shitty and probably indefensible requirement, but not 1st amendment. I would be interested to know if either of these examples are actual things, because I would think either would be up for legal challenge.

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The responding officer was Sgt. Carlos Cornejo, so they very well may have.

As an aside, my mother, who was a global traveller, once pointed out to me that not being able to understand the language of those around you in a public space is actually rather a blessing. You don’t have to overhear the mostly banalities. When I travel in a country where I do not grasp the language, I choose to believe that the conversations which I overhear concern such matters as metaphysics … and it immeasurably improves my outlook.

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Isn’t compelled speech a violation of free speech?

Compelled speech is a violation. I have never seen “Requirement to learn a language” defined as compelled speech. There are other laws that might come into play. Again, IANAL and should not be trusted for legal opinions, just an area of interest for me.

San Francisco. San Jose. Los Altos. Los Gatos. Santa Cruz. Seattle. Los Angeles. Minor towns of no consequence.

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