10/28/2005
Generally, a call from an MSM writer leaves me contemplating two alternatives:1) What a waste of time, of course there was no intention of quoting me, or 2) How will this be spun to demonize me?
So it was a pleasant surprise to find in Second language a part of building community- by Todd Mason, The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 18 2005 [Access requires free registration] a straightforward and accurate statement of my reservations about the trend for Americans to feel they have to learn Spanish:
"Immigration critics find fault with this "creeping institutional bilingualism," as Peter Brimelow described it.A second language adds costs for businesses and governments and raises economic barriers for the majority who can’t speak it, said Brimelow, editor of Vdare.com, an anti-immigration Web site.
Even naming VDARE.COM!
The rest of the article was a standard account of Spanish’s colonization of America, noting that
The problem is more acute in suburban and rural areas, where immigration is new. Latinos come for construction and service jobs in the suburbs and agriculture jobs in the countryside
("The problem" is people speaking only America’s historic tongue)
implicitly conceding that institutional biligualism advantages the immigrant:
Mihaela Fulga, a legal secretary, spoke to the advantage of being bilingual before class began at La Comunidad Hispana. "If you are bilingual, you get more money
passing over the traditional method of dealing with non-English speaking arrivals:
Latinos in exurban areas work harder to fit in, said Isidoro Gonzalez Jr., La Comunidad’s executive director. "There is a lot more to pick up faster," he said. "It forces people to assimilate."
But letting an opponent state the contra case,and identifying him is a great addition to the standard story, and I salute Todd Mason.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.