I’ve hears stories of some Americans telling other people who are speaking a non-English language “This is America, speak English!” even if the conversation has nothing to do with them. Why do they do this?
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RACISM!
They are ignorant, taught hate, and told incorrectly that English is the official language of the United States, but in reality the United States doesn’t have an official language. In fact before WW1 there where so many German speaking Americans that spme cities had German spelled street names, and German festivals.
I agree with the first part, but pre WWI was over a hundred years ago. I’m sure there’s more relevant and recent examples that could be found to strengthen an argument.
Happens in every country and in every nation. This isn’t a strictly American issue
Yep, went to france to kearn french, was questioned (by an idiot) why I didn’t knew (spoke) french well.
They exist in all countries.
Don’t you DARE speak French in France unless you’re a native speaker!
That country is the reverse complaint put forth in this thread.
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Same.
Of course, the first phrase I made absolutely certain I could rattle off was “excuse me I don’t speak French well”. Deliver that with a smile and they can be pretty damn forgiving.
Fear… At the bottom of it is always fear
because racist people are stupid and ignorant
True.
Also, there is a psychological effect of people either feeling excluded from a conversation, or suspicious that they are being secretly insulted when they can’t understand it.
This happens in other countries as well. I’ve been told to speak the local (non-English) language when visiting friends overseas when having a private conversation.
Generally, it seems to be nosy old people who are upset about not being able to eavesdrop
Racism
I remember smoking outside a pub near Chinatown with a mate something like ten years ago when two Chinese people went by speaking Chinese, and he said “they should be speaking English; this is Britain,” so I asked why, and he couldn’t explain why. Just on a vague principle.
This is not an American thing. People around the world are biased against immigrants.
It’s not JUST an American thing. People are biased against outsiders and people that are different.
Ftfy
No. That’s not a fix. You’re still focusing on this being American, while it is pretty universal.
goddamn bro, just let your racist flag fly proudly huh?
You need to realize there are americans, born here, with generations going back hundreds of years, that still speak other languages. And still get the snide ‘this is america’ bullshit.
The post may include immigrants but that’s not the entire population. what a chudworthy moment.
I think you maybe read something that the op didn’t write? Pointing out that “there are racists everywhere” is in itself not a racist statement.
This is not an American thing. People around the world are biased against immigrants.
this is their statement - assuming anyone they hear not speaking english are immigrants.
it’s incorrect.
You are not making sense here. Please try to clarify your point because it seems to be disconnected from the comment you are responding to.
Its not incorrect. People around to world are biased against immigrants, and someone who is stupid enough to get mad at someone speaking another language is also stupid enough to assume that they are not from the US even if they were born and raised there.
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Sure it’s incorrect, but saying someone is racist because of that is asinine. It’s not like they said that they are worse people just because they’re immigrants, it was just a shortcut for saying “people who speak languages other than English in day to day conversation”. Don’t get hung up on such details.
y’all are just too racist to realize. goddamn
It’s almost funny how hung up you are on that
Funny how you have zero shits to give. Privileged life huh?
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Reason: rule 1Sorry but chud is not a protected class.
Xenophobia.
Because those Americans are entitled, insecure, ignorant, xenophobic assholes.
Just like any other asshole who gets mad about this. It isn’t a uniquely American attitude.
This is true however there are much more documented instances of this in America. Could be a pure numbers game (more people more cases) but no full proof of that.
Oh really! Can you link to one of these documented instances? Since there’s so many …
Conflicts over language have been tied to other conflicts (political, cultural, war) for a very long time. Cultural genocide against indigenous people has targeted indigenous language use among young people. Many people in India have objected to the establishment of Hindi as a UN language because they fear it will advance the extinction of their own language. I’m not saying some Replacement Theory bigot kvetching because someone dared speak a language besides English is equivalent. It’s more that language does have a special place in culture in a way that is very common.
Find proof and come back to us, then.
(I didn’t downvote you, by the way.)
Just as there are two kind of race, white and political; and there are two kinds of gender, male and political; there also are two kinds of language, English and political.
A different perspective - my grandparents grew up speaking French. Then the state passed a law saying only English in schools when they were young children. They would get hit on the hands with rulers for speaking French.
This was of course passed down to my parents and myself. But my mom still bitches about kids where I currently live being in school and unable to speak English because they’re new immigrants.
She doesn’t see the hypocrisy and it’s sad.
If they’re anything like my mother, they automatically assume anyone speaking in any language other than English within earshot of her is shit-talking her, specifically. The thought that someone might be saying something mean-spirited about her is just too much for her tiny brain to handle. If you think she’s a bitch, she needs to know. It reeks of desperation and the need to be liked by all people at all times while also doing nothing to bridge that gap yourself.
It’s called xenophobia, the fear and dislike of anything foreign. Some people believe that if your group isn’t dominant it will be dominated, and peaceful coexistence isn’t possible between different groups.
These people are afraid that, if the English language isn’t forced onto other people, one day other people will force a foreign language onto them.
Not everyone disliking something is necessarily phobic towards it. That’s just one possoble explanation.
It would greatly benefit your argument to provide another possible explanation.
They could simply
A) dislike X
B) hate/despise X
C) came to the logical conclusion, that X is bad/wrong/shouldn’t be/whatever
D) genereally mistrusting against X due to a careful nature
E) have had traumatic experience with X (e.g. Being raped/attacked by a member of a specific ethnicity) and hence totally overreacting to an otherwise harmless stimulus, even forgetting the rules of civil behaviour
Those all don’t mean there’s the medical condition of a phobia for X.
A real xenophobic has an irrational fear of anything unknown/alien. Doesn’t mean the person just hates e.g. Mexicans for no real reason. It might even like them once they get to know the better, which often just won’t happen as phobics tend to avoid the cause their phobia instead of treating it.
I just dislike the lax use of medical terms until they’re bereft of any real meaning.
So, a person who yanks “speak English!” to someone, could have many reasons to do. None are neither polite nor politically correct. While the asshole is probably just the uneducated asswipe, the phobic could be helped and probably even feels bad afterwards for being so compulsive and insulting.
Xenophobia isn’t a medical term. All the examples you listed are xenophobia.
It’s literally in the term. But yeah sure, it’s easier to just smack the same label on everything. Whatever makes you happy.
Some words just have more than one definition is all. It’s not about me, it’s about the dictionary.