Yes, in these United States, such as California, Colorado, Montana or Nevada.
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Ms. Dwire: You’re in America. You’re in my country. You can’t speak Racist here.
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And even if English were the “official language” of the United States, that would have nothing to do with two people speaking among themselves in Spanish, Klingon, or Redneck.
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Great Scott!
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It’s good that you pointed out the fact that the USA has no official language. Now Our Glorious Leader can add that to his bullshit to-do list.
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Story has a happy ending!
I like the arrest people for harassment part too.
Fun fact, the Founders almost printed all Federal laws in German as it and Dutch were the first language many of the colonists…
On January 13, 1795, Congress considered a proposal, not to give German any official status, but merely to print the federal laws in German as well as English. During the debate, a motion to adjourn failed by one vote. The final vote rejecting the translation of federal laws, which took place one month later, is not recorded.
http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/legend.htm
But there was never an official language of the USA the way the French monarchy adopted academically standardized Perisian French as France’s national language (and virtually wiped out the other dialects).
I’ve read it many times, and I think most regulars here have read it at least once. Perhaps you meant the Trumpoids? Most of them probably haven’t.
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“ I don’t think she was being racist. Annoying and quite stupid to be sure, but I have spent enough time in the US to notice that people love to insert themselves into things that do not concern them.”
I’ve spent much, much more time in the US. Having that cultural competency I can authoritatively state - she was racist.
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She was publicly harassing someone with racist intent. She made her bed, now she can lie in it.
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Hey, wait. You’re right. I think people usually skip over this part. Even if all signs were in English (only), and all government documents were in English (only), that isn’t the same as prohibiting other languages. What would it even mean to do that? (And why would anyone want to do that?)
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I’m in Pennsylvania, where we have a combination of Lenni Lenape, German, Welsh, and English. It’s always amusing when a local news station gets a new anchor or meteorologist from outside the area, because they stumble over places like Bala Cynwyd, Gwynedd, Tredyffrin, Uwchlan, as well as the native names below.
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For cultural genocide.
See the history of language suppression just about everywhere. English conquerors banning Welsh, Turks banning Kurdish, Americans/Canadians/Australians suppressing indigenous languages, etc.
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I’m always delighted to hear other languages spoken. Don’t get why anyone would be offended, other than, they’re racist jerks, which is I guess the point. Today alone I have heard English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Polish (I think – I have a hard time differentiating the Slavic languages). The world is more fun with more languages in it. What a cramped little life this person must live. No wonder she’s miserable.
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My US-born Mother spoke fluent French and got wonderful service wherever she went in France and the Francophone provinces of Canada. If you’re a foreigner and make the attempt to speak the local language the locals will generally go out of their way to make you feel welcome. Now if you’re a local and don’t want the snoopy woman in the line behind you eavesdropping on your conversation, then by all means speak Spanish, German, French, or whatever. Last I heard, we did have freedom of speech in this country, although I expect the GOP to try to change that any time now.
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Something like 30% of English is from Latin, 30% from French (many identical words) and 25% from Germanic. It’s a mutt language.
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To be fair, the English have not always been kind to the Welsh.
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She deserves all of that and more. Sure, nobody’s perfect, but it’s really not difficult to NOT be the worst possible human being. Most of us do it every single day. She’s not even trying. I sincerely hope her life IS ruined. Either she’ll learn a valuable lesson or she’ll be in a position where she can’t harass innocent people. How is that in any way a bad outcome?
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Easy, now, they speak Quebecois in Quebec, not French. She would still have difficulties communicating in anything other than English. Though, I do suspect she could have difficulty even with English speakers in Ontario, eh? This woman appears to speak Mer’ican, not English.
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I have to say, is great what this woman did, sending her off and calling the cops, but let’s all recognize that we’re miles from where we need to be, since it still too often requires a white person to do this.
If those Spanish-speaking women had stuck up for themselves, there’s no telling that the police would have supported them in the same way.
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