The Problems with an "Official" Language

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States used to take pride in our multi-cultural, melting-pot heritage, but with Trump now back in office we are quickly retreating to those good old xenophobic days of yesteryear with the emphasis back on European heritage, white privilege, and speaking God's chosen tongue, English.  We want English spoken throughout our society so that those of us who are not bilingual will still be able to understand everything that is going on around us.  It's less about the needs of others than it is about the convenience of the majority.  It's about "us" - not "them."

We seized and cleansed this savage land through God's grace and brute force, and anyone who tries to sully our title to it by speaking in another language can just go back to where they came from - one way or another.

This week Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring English the "official" language of the United States.  That is legislation by presidential whim without the involvement of a bothersome Congress with its expansive expertise and many viewpoints.  It is the viewpoint of Donald John Trump which reigns supreme.

The United States Census Bureau, which Trump and Elon are in the process of fixing, or gutting, has reported that a language other than English is spoken in more than 20 percent of American households, or by more than 68 million individuals, with Spanish being the primary language spoken in 13 percent of American homes.  Many of those homes have at least one or two residents who are bilingual and have English-speaking skills (and often those are children), but many also contain household members who speak no English whatsoever.  And while English-speaking Americans may wax indignant and declare that everyone should learn English, learning a foreign language to the point where one is conversant in that language, is not an easy matter - particularly for people who are aging and whose mental acuity is slowing.

Just "declaring" English to be the national language is not the major issue.  English has been our unofficial language since colonial times.  The problem lies in how this new edict is enforced and plays out across society.  If English is the "official" language, does that mean that it will no longer be necessary - or even allowed - to print official government forms in another language, or to have someone on staff to translate for people who speak no English?  Will schools even be allowed to provide special assistance to children with limited or no English skills? 

Society and our social order are becoming more cruel under the Trump administration, and it is happening at an alarming rate.  Making English the "official" language seems like a plan that could be specifically designed to make our laws more difficult to navigate and our educational systems harder for our immigrant families and communities to access.  Assimilation into American society is a much more complex process than just flipping a switch.

Having an "official" language is also something that could be misinterpreted by low-level bureaucrats and education officials, allowing them room to weave their own biases into their dealings with people who have come to our shores to start a new life with a safer and more secure future.  Here is an example from my own past when I was working in county-level child protection, and had come into that field from a background in public education:

Over recent years part of the county in which I was working had seen a steep increase in Hispanic residents who were employed at a local poultry processing plant.  Those immigrants into the community were, for the most part, American citizens from south Texas who had brought their families with them to our (until recently) lily-white rural community.

Many had been there several years by the time the following incident occurred and were adapting to the culture, with lots of the children quickly acquiring English skills.  Our child protection office had fewer contacts with the Hispanic community than their local Anglo neighbors, primarily because the Hispanic households were very often multi-generational with an adult always at home to manage and care for the children, while in Anglo households where both parents worked, that was not always the case and unsupervised children had more opportunities to be harmed or cause harm.

One morning two obviously upset Hispanic ladies showed up in my office.  Their grievance was with their local school, a place where I had once worked and was very familiar with the facility and the educational program.  They said that the principal had threatend to throw their sons out of school (a suspension) because they had been speaking to one another in Spanish while they were on the playground.  An older teacher had complained and taken them to the office.  In response to the teacher's complaint, the principal had quickly issued a rule that "English only" was to be spoken in the school.  

It took one phone call on my part to remedy that situation.  I knew the superintendent and also knew that he was smart enough to recognize a civil rights violation when it plopped down on his desk.  The matter was corrected before the ladies even had time to get back to their homes.

But what if that same incident would have happened in today's political environment, especially if school administrators chose to view an executive order making English the "official" language as a legal bypass

of the Constitutions's guarantee of Freedom of Speech?   Would our increasingly weak courts roll over and deny children the right to converse freely in their native tongues?

It's been less than a hundred years since children who were kidnapped into Indian Boarding Schools in the US and Canada were being beaten, tortured, and killed because they could not or would not learn English.

We are in ugly times.  Never doubt the Trump administration's ability and desire to get even uglier.  An "official" language could be another doorway leading into that downward spiral.

There is strength in diversity - and decency in caring.