English: the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto

That title is ironic, by the way. Just so you know.I also want to link to this article by Sylvia over at Anti-Essentialist Conundrum.Here's the bit I particularly like:

we simultaneously promote lockstep conformity to amorphous and contradictory “American” values whose only blatant connection is raw opportunism. We sit and we applaud blatant bigotry for our own personal security rather than any serious concern for the security of this country. Around what are we uniting? Do we care about the significance of that union anymore beyond materialist safeguarding and the polarization of classes?I was going to launch into a long rant about the value of bilingual education and the importance of cultural awareness. I was going to denounce the reprehensible coding of Gingrich equating these important goals for advancing understanding on a growing interdependent international landscape with “trying to understand the ghetto,” and the classist and racist implications of the word “ghetto” in American social society. Hell, I was even going to discuss the ignorant imperialist and colonialist tropes of associating the English language with “prosperity” — a language traditionally spoken by thieves of native cultures; by oppressors on a large, reprehensible scale. This emergence of a learn the language of your conquerors/superiors mentality. How his comments seem to erect a wall of ignorance to the fact that people who do not speak English in America are learning English to accommodate our systems. How those comments run counter to a land of opportunity where every person is given the tools to succeed.I was going to write all of those things, and then I grew disgusted with the fact that I wanted to spell them out in a post. It’s a disheartening feeling, one of those can’t people just see that for themselves? feelings. Those feelings that you can’t write everything down; you can’t properly capture in English how much perception of these narratives tighten an everpresent knot in your stomach. How onerous it is to read this tripe and its association with power, and then to look into the faces of others who work to survive day-to-day amidst this faux-intelligence that leads to an ideological hysteria that could cost them their livelihoods or even their lives. Their children. Their liberty.

Go on. Read the whole thing. You won't be sorry.Or maybe you will.