This is the first piece I am posting about languages and the societal difficulties that go with them, such as prejudice, racism, and so on. Today's post main focus is on language discrimination.
WHAT IS LINGUISTIC DISCRIMINATION ?
Language discrimination, according to the website workplace.org, is the unjust treatment of an individual purely because of their native language or other features of speech, such as accent, vocabulary size, and syntax. Language discrimination does not entail prejudice based on an individual's looks, but rather focuses on an individual's speaking style. This is not to argue that discrimination based on appearance is unlawful; for additional details, check our sections on national origin discrimination, clothing rules, and religious discrimination.
This sort of discrimination is fairly frequent in the United States; nevertheless, it is a type of prejudice that is rarely discussed. Aside from racial discrimination against black communities, there is also prejudice against Spanish-speaking populations in the United States. Speaking Spanish in the United States, according to some newspapers, might be dangerous, but those with a strong accent cannot aspire to major positions or even find a respectable work.
EXAMPLES OF SPANISH LANGUAGE DISCRIMINATION IN THE STATES
Many incidents of this type of abuse towards Spanish-speaking groups are discussed in El PAIS newspaper. It is stated that some of the children of Hispanic immigrants face grave danger just because they speak this language at school. Some of them feel insecure and frightened to talk in their own tongue since their peers think Spanish is "ugly" and should not be used at school."
According to this publication, According to one source, "more people speak Spanish in the United States than in Spain, with a record 40 million individuals (12.5 percent) utilizing the language at home." As a result of the vast number of Hispanic populations in the United States, you are more likely to hear people speaking Spanish. Another terrifying example of language discrimination that we discovered was that of a Puerto Rican worker who is not permitted to speak Spanish because his supervisor feels uncomfortable when he does. The prior example dealt with children and societal pressure, but this one involves a threat to your identity and culture.
According to the publication, the following incident occurred when a border agent inquired for the documents of two women at a gas station in Montana only because they spoke Spanish. Between 2012 and 2013, a viral video showed a New York lawyer yelling at customers and a waitress in a restaurant for speaking Spanish. He cried, "This is America!" Employees of the grocery chain Albertsons sued the firm in early May over its alleged "No Spanish" policy, which is reported to have been enforced even during breaks.
SPANISH ON A FALLING TREND IN THE STATES
Despite the fact that Spanish is spoken by a large portion of the people in the United States, this percentage is rapidly declining. According to a Pew Research Center (PRC) research, while the Latino population is expanding, the number of Latinos who speak Spanish is decreasing. "It's a tiny trend, but it's rising quicker than it used to," says Mark Lopez, PRC's head of Hispanic research. Lopez believes that the reduction will be reflected in children under the age of 18 born to Spanish-speaking parents, pointing out that more Latinos are born in the United States than arrive. This declining trend can be attributed to a variety of factors, including parents' unwillingness to speak to their children in languages other than English due to social pressure, or children who do not want to speak their parents' language because they do not live or were not born in a country where the Spanish language is spoken.
According to Ignacio Olmos, director of the Cervantes Institute in the United States, the United States has become less linguistically isolated since bilingual schools were established ten years ago. However, the director acknowledges that racial harassment has increased since Trump's election. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the number of workplace discrimination complaints has stayed constant over the last two years. In 2017, the commission received 90,000 complaints about discrimination, including concerns about the use of language, arbitrary choices based on a person's origin, and abuse, among other matters.
According to Olmos, multiculturalism has thrived in major US cities, yet "part of the white population thinks that their nation is no longer what it once was, and this anxiety has racial connotations." While some individuals may not want to see the change, they cannot help but notice it. The growing popularity of Spanish and Latin tracks demonstrates how things are changing. Accepting some foreign influence that may lead to more open-minded future generations, as well as accepting language and cultural differences as strengths rather than weaknesses.
After defining language discrimination, providing examples of this form of prejudice in the United States, and examining the declining trend of the Spanish language in the United States, let us analyze the historical origins of discrimination against Spanish-speaking communities.
WHEN EVERYTHING ALL BEGUN ?
Olvera Street in Los Angeles is today a tourist hotspot, but it was the location of a terrible deportation raid in 1931. That year , police officers in the neighborhood kidnapped Mexican-Americans, many of whom were US citizens, and put them into waiting vans. Approximately 400 persons, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, were detained and deported. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mob violence against Spanish-speaking persons was prevalent. Historians believe that tens of thousands of Latinos have been slaughtered by mobs.
Anti-Latino bigotry has resulted in unlawful deportations, school segregation, and even lynching's since the 1840s. After being arrested for murder, a mob of nearly 100 people hung a 14-year-old boy, Antonio Gómez, in 1911. As the Great Depression began, anti-Mexican prejudice soared. Up to 2 million individuals of Mexican heritage were forcefully expelled from the nation by the United States. In order to avoid detection, several light-skinned Mexican-Americans pretended to be Spanish rather than Mexican.
People with disabilities and chronic diseases were taken from hospitals and abandoned at the border. One-third of the Mexican population in Los Angeles departed the nation, as did one-third of the Mexican-born people in Texas. When the deportations were ultimately stopped about 1936, up to 2 million people had been "repatriated." "Mexican schools" were set up to serve the children of Spanish-speaking employees on rural ranches and, later, in cities. By the 1940s, up to 80% of Latino students in locations like Orange County, California, were enrolled in separate schools.
WHAT ABOUT NOW?
These aggressions and acts of discriminations are not new in the united states. This hate and anger has been cumulated since the Mexican-American war until now. Today, there are an estimated 54 million Latinos in the United States, and around 43 million individuals speak Spanish. Despite the fact that Latinos constitute the country's biggest minority, anti-Latino discrimination is still prevalent. In 2016, 52% of Latinos polled by Pew stated they have faced prejudice. Lynchings or executions, "repatriation" schemes, and school segregation may be a thing of the past, but anti-Latino prejudice in the United States is far from done.
PERSONAL OPINION ON THIS MATTER
As I previously stated, this issue has lasted over a century and continues to be a major concern among this so-called minority group in the United States. This article's goal is to raise awareness of societal issues that we all face around the world. We cannot set up hierarchies and claim that some populations or ethnic groups are stronger than others in the twenty-first century. Because we are all equals as human beings, human rights should be accessible to everyone on this planet, with no exceptions.
SOURCES
-Media, LLC - Http://www.midwestnewmedia.com - (513) 742-9150, M. N. (n.d.). Language Discrimination - Workplace Fairness. Language Discrimination - Workplace Fairness. https://www.workplacefairness.org/language-discrimination#1.
-Laborde, A. (2018, May 30). Discrimination In the US: Abused for Speaking Spanish: “My Classmates Say My Language Is Ugly” | International | EL PAÍS English Edition. EL PAÍS English Edition. https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2018/05/30/inenglish/1527671538_960209.html.
-Blakemore, E. (2018, August 29). The Brutal History Of Anti-Latino Discrimination In America - HISTORY. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/the-brutal-history-of-anti-latino-discrimination-in-america.
Comments
Post a Comment