It’s been a long time / I shouldn’t have left you / without a dope blog to … step to?
Anyhow.
I’ve been brought out of my blogging sabbatical by this article from the Washington Post this morning, which discusses how a Latino student in Kansas City was suspended from school by his principal for speaking a few words of Spanish in the hall.
Being the angry brown butch that I am, I decided that I need to give this sinvergüenza of a principal a piece of my boricua mind. So I did a little google research, found an email address, and sent the following off:
To Jennifer Watts:
I read about your suspension of a student for speaking Spanish in the hallway in this morning’s Washington Post. After reading the article, I felt compelled to write to you to express my utter outrage and disgust for your actions. The suspension of this student for speaking his native tongue was not only completely baseless, but also a thoroughly ignorant and racist act.
Like Zach Rubio, I am Latino, and I can barely speak my own language. It pains me to see that a boy like Zach, who actually can still speak his own language, is being discouraged from doing so by the very people who are supposed to be nurturing and educating him. I have been robbed of an integral part of my culture because of the insistence of Americans like you that I am in America and should therefore speak English.
Using that logic, I put forth to you that you are living on land that has been stolen from native peoples, and that you should therefore be speaking -their- languages, not English, a language that was foreign to this land before white Europeans came and colonized, pillaged, and wreaked genocide on the native people. Of course, since the United States has succeeded fairly well in its aim of total destruction of Native languages and culture, you might be hard pressed to find a tutor of one of the true native tongues of this country.
I sincerely hope that, if nothing else, you learn from this incident that blatant racism and discrimination is unacceptable in our schools. If you aren’t able to learn that, I hope that the school board of Kansas City is wise enough to remove you from your position as principal, since you are clearly unfit for the job.
Enojado y asqueado,
Jack …
Brooklyn, NY
Who knows if this woman will care about what I wrote, or if this email won’t just go off into the abyss of some unused email inbox. Regardless, it was very satisfying to hit the send button on this one.
You know that you and I don’t always agree on the types of issues you blog about.
But I read this, and I have to say, that suspension was bullshit, possibly more than any other stupid school suspension I have ever read about.
Thanks for the comment, Chris, and for agreeing, this time at least. 🙂
i think that its stupid.. pppl should be able to speak there language when ever and where ever they want to… can you imagine if white ppl couldnt speak english in another state.. how would yuo feel?? like pissed motha fucka .. soo dont be a hypocrit .. let them speak in whatever language they want
That is some serious fucked up. what is with some people and their control freakery anyway?
“I put forth to you that you are living on land that has been stolen from native peoples […]”
I will always disagree with people who is using historical arguments to defend their opinion.
However, the US is experiencing an increasing xenophobia to Latin American immigrants. Why? I know why, but I’m not able to express it into words. As I said before, I strongly disagree with people who uses historical arguments.
Nevertheless, I can give an actual present-time argument.
All the USians (remember, America is a continent, not a single country) that come to Mexico, demand for English speaking people, documents, etc. in all services and areas. So what we Mexicans should do? Tell them “Esto es México, aquà se habla castellano”? Obviously not.
Anyway, all this matter is very complex. But I know three things for sure.
1. Bilingualism, or polyglotism always enriches both mentally and culturally a person.
1. Mexico-US relationship always have been a love-hate relationship. It’s time to end the “hate” part.
2. Mexico needs the US, as much as the US needs Mexico. It’s a matter of reciprocity, and we have already acknowledged it. How about you?