Recently there has been some debate in this country, and on this campus, regarding race and language. Politicians and people of authority have touched on a sensitive subject when it comes to racial profiling and the use of a foreign language during a mandatory public announcement.
The governor of Arizona passed into law a bill that allows police to stop anyone who officers believe could be an illegal immigrant. Approximately 450,000 people are currently living in Arizona illegally. Furthermore, Arizona also is the state with the most immigrants entering it.
The law, which will go into effect this summer in Arizona to control the population growth of illegal immigrants, allows police to profile legal citizens on the basis that they look illegal. Once a person is stopped, the police have the right to ask them to show proof of citizenship.
Many Arizonians, Hispanic or non-Hispanic, are against the law because they believe it is giving police officers the right to racially profile. The law wasn’t put into effect to racially profile people. Whether it is intentional or not there isn’t any way the law could possibly be enforced without it, thus presenting the huge problem.
A large percentage of the population is Hispanic, therefore, there will be a lot of people who are legal citizens who will be affected by this in a negative way.
“The Arizona law isn’t right,” said junior Virginia Munoz. “I thought being racist was bad and everything is about protecting our rights. This means that the government has turned its back on everyone and let people get asked for papers just because they look [illegal]. There are many families that will get hurt from this law that just doesn’t make sense.”
Tim James, a candidate running for governor of Alabama, recently sparked some debate over an ad about the driving exam made available only in English.
When an ad by James about the driving test was aired, some people were upset. In the commercial, James said, “This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.”
The test is currently given in twelve different languages — English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, Farsi, German, Greek, Japanese, Russian, Thai and Vietnamese. James said it is safer if it is only given in English to make sure drivers can actually read street signs. People are split on what James wants to do. Many people agree with it but many people see it as just racist.
He does have a point about reading signs but the important signs like stop and yield have its own shape and color to help identify. Also, people wouldn’t pass the test if they didn’t know which sign meant what.
“Whatever happened to ‘It’s a free country,’” said junior Amanda Chavarria. “People should be able to choose what language they want to speak, especially since the United States is so culturally diverse.”
During TAKS week, principal Louis D. Martinez did the announcements over the intercom system and recited the pledge of allegiance. The problem that some students had is that he said the pledge in Spanish before saying it in English. The fact that it was said in Spanish first is disrespectful, according to some students, considering that this is a public school in the United States. By announcing the pledge of allegiance in a foreign language first makes it sound like that language is of higher priority.
“In a way it’s un-American,” said junior Ashley Yearwood. “It’s very odd and kind of uncomfortable.”
These different situations show that, even though America has improved dramatically over the years, problems still exist when it comes to race and ethnicity. Finding a good balance is hard to do and, no matter what, there will always be something happening in which people will continue to agree or disagree.
