Shocker my ass.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich equated bilingual education Saturday with "the language of living in a ghetto" and mocked requirements that ballots be printed in multiple languages.
The language of living in a ghetto. I don't get it. Hablo español, pero no vivo en un "ghetto." This is flustering my inferior bilingual mind. Sígame después del salto. Follow me after the jump.
"The government should quit mandating that various documents be printed in any one of 700 languages depending on who randomly shows up" to vote, said Gingrich, who is considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. He made the comments in a speech to the National Federation of Republican Women.
"The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. ... We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto," Gingrich said to cheers from the crowd of more than 100.
Ay dios mío. What is this crap? This is racism and insensitivity to the plight of the urban poor all in one. This hotshot politician will never get away with this.
OHHH. You say he's a Republican? Then move along people, nothing to see here...
But seriously folks, it's things like this that make me think, is this guy seriously really truly considering running for President for real?? It's ironic really, because maybe if he and his fellow Republicans gave half a shit about helping the poor and minorities improve their prospects, instead of whining about "welfare queens" and "tyranny of the minority," people wouldn't live in ghettos.
Maybe when he runs for president, he should make helping us idiot bilinguals get up out da ghetto, since, you know, ghettos are such evil, evil places. Just typing that right now, I couldn't keep a straight face. Eso no va a pasar--not gonna happen. Instead, look for his rhetoric to be molded around "small government" and "welfare reform."
On its face, Gingrich's basic argument, that non-English speakers should learn English primarily in school and native languages secondarily, isn't such an offensive claim. But Gingrich is going way further than that. He thinks that non-English speaking kids should be plopped down in schools that teach in English only. There's a big problem with this half-assed idea.
Obviously, it's that a non-English speaking child must learn English before he can actually understand what he is being taught. It doesn't take too long, especially with younger kids, to learn English, but still, that's usually a year or more of acquiring the language and falling behind English speakers academically. What we currently have is transitional bilingual education, which usually doesn't last more than three years, and serves to keep English learners on the same academic levels as English speakers as they learn the language. And what about non-English speaking teens? It's generally agreed that after the age of 11 or 12, language acquisition becomes a much longer and more difficult task.
And besides, what the fuck does bilingual education have to do with living in the ghetto?! Was it really necessary to say this particular abomination of the tongue to outline your position, Gingrich? You could've said other languages shouldn't be taught in our schools. You could've even said that foreign languages suck and that you hate them. No, instead you had to attack two entire disadvantaged groups, minorities and the poor, by rhetorically attaching a stigma to "living in a ghetto," and then attaching biligual people to ghettos, all in the same package. Why would he do that??
Why? Because of course, Gingrich doesn't really know what he's talking about and is just trying to pander to his white, racist, rich, and all around mouth-breathing audience. So what else is new?
Oh yeah, he confessed to having an affair while impeaching Clinton for lying about doing the very same. That's new. Ish.
Wanna know what one of my secret hopes is? Even though I REALLY REALLY REALLY despise Gingrich, I want him to win the GOP nomination. That way, 2008 wouldn't really even be a contest. It would be a rout.