Across the country, the nationalist English-only movement is once again on the rise. Arizona recently passed legislation that now allows officers to investigate anyone if there is "reasonable suspicion" to believe the individual is not a legal citizen legislation which will certainly result in the infringement on free speech in non-English languages. "This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it!" is the platform of one Alabama gubernatorial candidate a state that takes its name from its native Muskogean-speaking tribe. A few protesters with signs supporting this cause have even infiltrated the usually libertarian-minded Tea Party protests.
Furthermore, the status of English as an official language has been used to justify the persecution of those with linguistic differences. In 2004, according to the Arizona Republic, an Arizona teacher was accused of physically striking students who spoke Spanish in the classroom. A year later, a Kansas student was suspended for saying the words, "No problema." In these instances, the issue at hand is not a matter of linguistics, but a failure on behalf of administrators to grasp basic American values and pass them on to our younger generation. If our school systems are demonstrating such issues with pluralism, it's almost terrifying to think of what will become of the recent SB1070 legislation in Arizona.
But interestingly, proponents of this cause haven't been able to quantify what sort of progress would be achieved by making the language of the British Empire our nation's official language. There is vague talk of fiscal conservatism a noble cause but no proponents have been able to put together figures of how much would be saved from the ink used to print documents in Spanish and Chinese, probably because the amounts are hardly significant. Instead, an online advertisement asks viewers if they are "tired of [being asked to] press one for English.'"
What members of this movement have largely lost sight of is our American tradition of resisting British imperialism and our pluralistic history predating the nation's independence. In actuality, we already have a national language. It is written in the historical documents upon which this nation was founded; it is our collectively shared values of individual liberty and tolerance of diversity. Implementing the proposal of the English-only movement will effectively move our nation a step away from the very unity this movement claims to bring, and could lead to the erosion of our constitutional rights.
The recent legislation in Arizona is one such example of how lawmakers have reacted badly to xenophobia. While SB1070 was intended to reduce the number of people living in Arizona illegally, it allows for the investigation of anyone with "reasonable suspicion" of not holding legal residency. Having such laws on the books will certainly deter Americans from speaking any language other than English for fear of police action particularly considering that even the Governor of Arizona admitted that she "[does] not know what an illegal immigrant looks like." An even closer read of the Arizona bill shows that being proficient in English does not necessarily coincide with a proficiency of the values which our nation holds dear.
The bill echoes a dangerous form of rhetoric that has been used across the nation. Americans across the country have grown overly accustomed to using such terms as "illegal alien" or "illegal immigrant." These terms may be correct in a linguistic sense, but certainly do not agree with our values of life and liberty. To say that a person's very existence is illegal, invalid or outlawed by their status of documentation is hardly American.
The nationalistic view that English should be our only language reflects a gravely misguided sense of entitlement bestowed upon those who were born in this nation to English-speaking parents. Fears of English losing its status as a dominant language are hardly warranted. Immigrants and first-generation Americans are already incentivized to learn English in this country for its economic advantages.
This continued push for "English-only" demonstrates an ignorance of our true national language that is vital to succeed in this country: American. If our nation has failed the followers of this movement, perhaps it is not in its lack of linguistic homogeneity, but in not passing down to them our values of liberty and tolerance.
