West Virginia Secretly Adopts English as Official Language
West Virginia state legislators were surprised to discover that Senate Majority Whip Billy Wayne Bailey, a Democrat, had quietly slipped a provision reading, “English shall be the official language of the State of West Virginia,” into a mundane parks and recreation bill that passed during the latest session of the legislature. Bailey thus accomplished what English-only advocates had been trying unsuccessfully, but a little more openly, since the late 1990s.
“English only” movements are usually aimed at Latino immigrants, so it’s worth noting that West Virginia's Latino population, according to the 2000 census, is the lowest among Southern states, numbering only 12,000, or about 0.7 percent of the population. To be sure, it grew by 44 percent between 1990 and 2000, but that’s actually the second lowest rate of growth in the South -- in every other state but Louisiana (excluding Texas and Florida), Latino population grew by 100 percent or more in the 1990s (in six states, it was more than 200 percent). (See “The New Latino South,” a 2001 report by the University of Memphis, the Highlander Center, and the Southern Regional Council.)
“English only” movements are usually aimed at Latino immigrants, so it’s worth noting that West Virginia's Latino population, according to the 2000 census, is the lowest among Southern states, numbering only 12,000, or about 0.7 percent of the population. To be sure, it grew by 44 percent between 1990 and 2000, but that’s actually the second lowest rate of growth in the South -- in every other state but Louisiana (excluding Texas and Florida), Latino population grew by 100 percent or more in the 1990s (in six states, it was more than 200 percent). (See “The New Latino South,” a 2001 report by the University of Memphis, the Highlander Center, and the Southern Regional Council.)
5 Comments:
As silly as this bill is I don't really have a problem with English being the official language of any state. Chinese is the offical language of China and Spanish is the official language of Mexico, etc. Nation-states have official languages and that's ok with me- does anyone want to suggest that the U.S. should not have English as it's official language?
J.S.
http://voicesofreason.info
It would be interesting to run some demographic projections to see when Latinos become the majority population in any Southern states.
I wonder if they'll then push for Spanish as the official language of those states.
Actually, I don't think it would be a bad idea if the US had multiple official languages--English & Spanish, for starters. The fact of the matter is, with globalization & the mass migration of labor, it's no longer realistic to hold onto the idea of "one state, one language." Plus, historically, national languages only become national languages through the violent suppression of other languages, usually those of minorities or internally colonized peoples: so English became THE language of Great Britain at the expense of Irish Gaelic, Scottish, etc.
What's so scary about bi- or multi-lingualism? People in other parts of the world--and lots of immigrants in the US--routinely speak multiple languages. If anything, I would think that multilingualism makes it easier for people to communicate with each other, facilitates the business of governing, etc.
There's nothing scary about multiple languages at all, but it starts getting tricky very quickly if there isn't at least 1 that everyone is somehow required to speak. Look, I know that behind a lot of the "English-only" rhetoric is racism, but if I moved to China or Mexico I would expect to have to learn that language and I wouldn't resent having to do so. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume the same here in the US. By the way, I speak Spanish and love the language but pockets of America where no one speaks English is kind of bogus to me- if you want to be an American learn the official language- it's not too much to ask.
J.S.
http://voicesofreason.info
This is absurd! This bill only lets Latinos know that they are not welcomed in the state even if they are english speakers. It just goes to show how big of a hillbilly this state is. Of course, we all know the dominant language in the United States is English. So why adopt the English Language for a state? It doesn't make sense only to discriminate against Latinos.
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