One of my college history professors once answered a student’s question about a current event by saying, “I am completely goddamned appalled.” His words became a favorite catchphrase, and so I’m reviving it as reaction to the uproar over the Devonshire Elementary principal who banned school employees from translating for Spanish-speaking parents. The fact that a secretary was canned for helping out parents in any language is bad enough. But what raised the hackles of this writer, who was raised in a bilingual home, albeit French-speaking rather than Spanish, was the reaction from those in Charlotte who think the principal did the right thing.
So far, the most talked about advocate for keeping the evil Spanish language out of our schools is one Sharon Dixon, whose letter to the daily paper a couple of days ago was a masterpiece of self-deluded intolerance. Read it here (scroll halfway down), and weep for such blatant, un-self-aware ignorance. Dixon momentously declares, “In America, we speak English, even at school.” First of all, the translation didn’t take place in a classroom, and no one is even remotely suggesting that Spanish-speaking students shouldn’t learn English — in fact, CMS does a decent job of teaching English as a second language.
Secondly, no, Sharon, we don’t all speak English in America, not all the time, and if you got out in the real world more, perhaps you’d know that. People in America — people who are as “real American” as you — speak hundreds of languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Japanese, French, Cherokee, Chinese, Choctaw, Gullah, Polish, and lots of others. And you know what, Ms. “Be like me or you’re un-American”? It’s been that way for a loooong time, and it’s not gonna change just because some sheltered bigot with a computer thinks it should.
What really burned my butt in Dixon’s letter, though, was where she wrote, “We’re aiding the Latino/Spanish-speaking community if we speak Spanish to them in our American schools.” As if “aiding the Latino community” is a bad thing — she may as well have added, “Maybe if we don’t translate for them, they’ll go away.” This is the same kind of xenophobic nonsense — what writer Marsha Dawkins calls “The fear of a multi-cultural America” — we’ve heard more and more of in the past few years. It’s a stupid, brutish, ostrich-like way of seeing the world and yes, I’m completely goddamned appalled. Have a great weekend.
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2010.
No I am sorry, but the fact is I am French , I came to Charlotte a few years ago with my wife, we both strive to speak English we are not expecting Americans to speak our language…I can’t conceive ever getting ahead in the US by just speaking my native language….get real
I am appalled by the illiteracy of someone using God’s name like that. That they can not even formulate a sentence with out using that. You grew up learning the English language right John Grooms?
Yes, I did, John, I grew up learning English and French simultaneously, and you know what? 1. My writing speaks for itself, and I certainly don’t need your advice regarding literacy, and 2. The word goddamned is part of the English language. Keep up with the times, fella, you’re about a hundred years behind in terms of what’s acceptable in lit for grown-ups, never mind alternative journalism.
Jerry, your argument, sorry to say, is irrelevant to this particular case, since the child’s parents weren’t at the school to “get ahead in the U.S.,” merely to find out what kind of problem their child was having. I give them credit for showing up at the school and being involved parents. It’s just a shame they met with such intolerance.
You must be an atheist because no Christian I know would use that kind of language. I would say you would not use that language in a professional environment. So my guess is you are not very professional either. People that have a need to curse God’s name while writing or talking are illiterate because they can not think of any other words to say. I have taken writing classes and if I ever used that language in a paper? The professors would not like it. Talk to me when you can learn how to write with out cursing. I do not think you are capable. Go take another writing class in the mean time.
Thanks for the kind, Christian commentary, John. Here’s hoping you’re enjoying the 19th century.
Thank you for your article. It is well stated. I have distinct memories of going with my father to register at a new school, watching him struggle to speak English, and my having to act as a translator. I’m 44 years old. We are a country of multiple languages and what a great advantage to have a bilingual person on staff to be able to translate. It is progressive and ‘global’ – to not allow that person to use their language skills to aid someone is IGNORANCE. Plain and simple.
Lastly, I lived in Europe for almost a decade. I remember struggling with French in a medical emergency to the point of tears. I later realized that one of the nurses was fluent in English, but refused to help me (a young mother with an infant in need) because she felt I should speak only French in her country. She, too, was a bigot.
All this childish “my dog is bigger than your dog”verbiage is nonsense. Please try to validate your sense of importance on another forum. What has not been said is that we are not a multiculural society. We are a multiracial society. We have one culture…it’s the American culture.
“Talk to me when you can learn how to write with out cursing.”
If you’re offended, why don’t you just leave? You clicked on this article, he didn’t shove it in your face. I can’t stand it when a (I’m assuming) fellow Christians makes all of us look like intolerant whiny douchebags.
Well I’ll god-fucking-damned Frank, but I am fucking surprised at you, Mr. Libertarian-think-with-your-head-instead-of-your-heart asswipe.
I’m surprised you of all fucking people think it’s “unprofessional” that Mr. Grooms used a li’l ol’ curse word, seeing as how the reasoned, unemotional way to look at it is that a fucking word is just a goddamn fucking combination of vowels and consonants that has no fucking intrinsic value. A word can only become offensive once some overly sensitive twit starts assigning his or her arbitrary moral fucking value on it.
So how the fuck is that unprofessional, you dipshit dumbfuck fuckhead?