English

Darksyde has more on the English only vote.

It figures that in an election year, the GOP, quickly sliding into the abyss, would resort to this kind of race baiting.

Yes, I said race baiting. Language is inextricably tied to identity, and to taxonimize one language, especially a language like Spanish, which so many speak, as wrong, and English as right, is contrary to our national mission and, moreover, is historically disingenuous. Spanish was spoken here before English, after all.

But beyond these appeals to tradition, there exists a greater problem with an official standardization of English: Whose English is to be the standard? Who sets the standard?

Of course, we already have a kind of de facto standard english, the kind propagated in schools and on television. You know, the the mysterious, from parts unknown but more or less midwestern "dialect neutral" variety. The effect of this de facto standardization is an othering of the rich dialects present throughout the country. This othering allows for judgements to be made about those who speak in these others, in effect privileging the speakers of one as right and true and everybody else as stupid, illiterate and possibly corrupt. The ebonics "controversey" is a good example of this othering (A good primer on the standardization debate can be found in the excellent Authority in Language, which discusses the standarization of English in the UK, as well as the historical context of the movement to standardize all the way back to the Venerable Bede. A good overview can be found here).

So what will constitute this official form of English, and will this official form further entrench the dialiect biases already present, further alienating the speakers of a non standard variety, as well as making this country inhospitable to non speakers of English? Most of the world has multilingual signs on roads and businesses, accomodating English speakers, yet, in this country, any mention of bilingualism is treated by many as something akin to flag burning, and now, the Senate is just cementing the spoiled brain lazy brat attitude of Americans who think everything needs to cater to them.

Apparently so.