By Jasmyne A. Cannick
When the first African slaves stepped off the ship they were given two things—Christianity in the form of The Holy Bible and a new language… English. Two hundred years later, the descendants of those slaves are now being punished for Mistah’s English Only law.
Unemployed African-Americans have more than just “ethnic” sounding names, criminal records, and their educational background working against them now when trying to pass the first phase of the employment process. Today, almost all job postings either require applicants to speak Spanish or make it clear that they prefer those who do to applicants who don’t.
Like with Toby Waller — or I mean Kunta Kinte in Roots, Black slaves were forced to assimilate into American culture. Whatever God we prayed to, African names we had, and languages we spoke were taken away from us and replaced with whatever Mistah told us.
Two hundred years and several generations later, the majority of Blacks are so far removed from Africa that when asked where they are from they either answer with their city of birth or the “set” they’re from and have no idea what tribe their ancestors hail from let alone their native language. For most African-Americans today, our native language is in fact English.
And while African-Americans were forced to assimilate and learn English, the same can’t be said for our Latino brothers and sisters who have found it easier to just make America learn Spanish and since there’s money to be made—America has seemingly obliged.
But like our President, most African-Americans don’t speak a foreign language. For most of us educated in America’s public education system, learning a foreign language was never a requirement in order to graduate from high school.
Now with over 16 percent of African-Americans unemployed nationwide, we like many other Americans, are finding out the hard way that more and more employers are adding to the job description: Must be bilingual or Spanish speakers preferred.
And this mandate isn’t just with entry level “may I take your order please” jobs. More and more employers from Main Street to Wall Street are giving preference to job applicants who are bilingual.
I don’t personally have a problem with people who come to America from Central American countries and choose not to learn English. What I do have a problem with is turning around and saying to generations of English speaking Americans, in particular African-Americans, that because you don’t speak Spanish, you somehow aren’t qualified to do any job.
Yes, I agree that there are a lot of Spanish speaking Latinos in America and there are some jobs where it helps if employees speak Spanish, but does that mean it should be the industry norm for employers to require that all job applicants speak Spanish in order to even be considered? And if it is, how does this help our Spanish language only friends learn how to assimilate into American culture, which I thought was the goal at the end of the day?
With hundreds of thousands of Blacks unemployed this is not an issue Black lawmakers and civil rights leaders can continue to ignore or one that we can let them continue to ignore.
Simply put–jumping up and down and screaming that Blacks need jobs is not going to get it, neither is playing both sides for fear of being called a racist.
As uncomfortable as it may be for Black leaders to talk about this latest form of employment discrimination against Blacks, it is what it is and no matter how uncomfortable it is for them, it doesn’t come close to how many thousands if not millions of unemployed job applicants feel who don’t make it past the initial application process. Because while they may be qualified for the job in question, they are overlooked because they don’t speak Spanish.
Uncomfortable is having your lights turned off, car repossessed, and losing your home because you haven’t been able to find a job through no fault of your own.
Yes–it’s common for anyone anywhere who brings up anything even remotely negative about Latinos, no matter how true it may be, to be automatically labeled as a racist, but this isn’t a popularity contest.
That said, cable television news sound bites about jobs for Blacks is not going to get it, because if and when those jobs come, if 90 percent of them require applicants to be bilingual, then what? Exactly.
It’s hard to take Black lawmakers and civil rights organizations seriously when they were among the first to champion and support The DREAM Act legislation paving the path to U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants, but haven’t found the wherewithal to address this latest form of employment discrimination that has a direct impact on the very people they are supposed to represent.
At the end of the day, all of the job development programs, job fairs, and town hall meetings mean nothing if employers are hiring us. It’s all for show.
By the same token, lawmakers need to recognize that if employers are going to mandate that job applicants be bilingual in order for employment consideration, lawmakers need to get with the program and require high school students take and pass four years of a foreign language, preferably Spanish, in order to be eligible for a high school diploma. Not doing so amounts to setting up future generations of non-Spanish speakers for the same failure faced today by their parents and grandparents. For adult workers, providing access to foreign language classes to those interested at no cost should be on the agenda.
Is it racist to ask that employers hire non-Spanish speaking Americans for jobs in America? I’d say it’s no more racist than it is to ask that job applicants in Mexico speak Spanish or those seeking employment in China speak Chinese.
Last I checked, this is still America and until Wikipedia changes it, English is still the official language.
There’s a difference between speaking to us and for us and for African-Americans the bottom line is that if Black lawmakers and civil rights organizations, particularly those whose sole mission is to fight for the economic empowerment of Blacks, refuse to talk us and really address this issue instead of just speaking for us, then maybe they don’t need to be representing us.
A former press secretary in California State Assembly and U.S. House of Representatives, Jasmyne A. Cannick is a communications strategist who writes about the intersection race, sex, politics, and pop culture from an unapologetically Black point of view. Follow her on Twitter @jasmyne and on Facebook at /jasmyne.
If you want the next generation to be bi-lingual or multi-lingual, you have to start in elementary school, not high school. Most students here in NYC take another language, usually Spanish, starting in junior school. You usually do two years in junior high and then another two in high school. Almost no one is bi-lingual or chooses to be.
If you want it to be second nature, it has to start the minute the kids start school. It really should start from birth but, since most of use promptly forgot whatever we learned the minute the last exam on the subject was taken, that’s not realistic.
There are plenty of language DVDs and CDROMs so there is no longer any excuse for not exposing our children to other languages as early as possible either via the TV or computer and making sure they have the best possible future laid out for them.
As for us, we has those same tools available to and geared toward us. It’s up to us to utilize them since we know we’re heading so that we don’t get left behind. We can’t wait and hope others will do for us, we have to do for ourselves.
Wow. I thought spanish classes still existed in grade school. When I went *ahem* way back when, I started learning spanish in the 3rd grade all the way up til end of jr high. I might have taken it in high school as well. Anyway, while I think it’s important to learn different languages even for certain job positions, that does not mean it is right for employers to discriminate based on how many languages a person knows. Another thing is that I think employers are banking on the fact that those who speak a foreign language that they can underpay them. I think it’s another ploy in trying to pay lower wages with no benefits to those who can barely speak or cannot speak english. If employers are asking for bilingual workers, then it should fit the position they are offering, i.e. customer service for certain services. It shouldn’t be just having a bilingual person and they will not utilize the second language. If the intent is just to hire a bilingual person to keep a certain group out, then that is a form of discrimination.
Well judging from your handles, I gather you’re in New York–not California where you only need one semester of a foreign language (and that’s debatable) to graduate from high school.
Now you can’t even work at McDonalds without all these unnecessary qualifications.
There should be a law against this, because it is racist and only meant to eliminate certain applicants.
And don’t even waste time asking the president or Democrats to do anything about it.
The Republicans were the ones trying to pass English only laws, but how about laws making it illegal to ask for Spanish only applicants unless your job is a translator.
Blacks have a lot to lose from Democrats getting too cozy with these illegals.
So do blacks have to ally with the Republicans to get this done?
Black people have to really start looking out for their own self interest.
It’s either that or be out in the cold.
Speak on it.
There is no reason why a fast food restaurant needs more than one, if any, translator.
Why do you need a store full of Spanish speaking people?
How many customers can they serve at a time?
Okay, two. So you may have the rare occurrence of needing one at the drive thru and one at the counter at the same time.
The law needs to be clear. Once those two Spanish speaking position are filled, the word Spanish should not be referenced for any other position.
It’s already out of control. More often than not when I drive by Wendy’s or McDonalds, they all up in there speaking Spanish.
If Al and Jesse won’t speak up, then eff them. If black people have to vote other than Democrat to get this done, then so be it.
These illegals are the biggest challenge facing black people. No racist could provide a worse threat. Yeah, most of them in those restaurants are illegals. Remember how many of them were found to be working at airports when they cracked down right after 9/11?
Moving from the heavy Latino populated Florida I experienced first hand a sort of different form of racism with Latino’s of authority now just wanting to hire other Latino’s for jobs whether they are qualified for the position or not so beware this trend will continue and it’s not just African Americans this happens to White Americans also!
Dear Jasmyne Cannick: I’ve been waiting for decades to spill my guts!! When I was a high school student it was determined that I had a gift for foreign languages. My junior year, I won the Indiana State Spanish Contest and was lauded as some sort of genius, which I DEFINITELY was not! I flunked algebra twice! LOL!! I went to Colorado State University and majored in Spanish & Portuguese and did quite well. Then the $h*t hit the fan! It was during the “Black is Beautiful Era” and all of my room-mates were African from Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana who spoke Yoruba/Igbo (Nigeria), Amharic/Tigrinya (Ethiopia) FANTEE/Tri/Ewe(Ghana) I agonized over the fact that I was as BLACK as they were and spoke a European language and was studying ANOTHER European language. I felt SOOO culturally deprived. I had my room-mates to teach me as much of their languages as they could and made grammar and pronunciation tapes to facilitate this effort. When I walked to class, I’d hide my Spanish & Portuguese books, because I was ASHAMED to study WHITE languages!!! I studied Arabic (some Arabs were slavemongers) for two years in graduate school and am also fluent in Amharic because I lived in Ethiopia. What pisses me off is that I go to my Health Club and speak Amharic, Arabic, Spanish & Portugese to folks from around the world there and have my OWN BLACK so-called Brothas & Sistahs whisper behind my back that I was a former CIA agent who had worked for the government and be careful around me. As a PROUD, BLACK AFRICAN-american that really hurts!!! I’ve spent my WHOLE adult life working for the liberation of OUR PEOPLE in all parts of the world and because of it, I never got good jobs in spite of my education, but thatz O. K. You damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Thank you ‘brothers’ & ‘sistahs’ at Ballys health club for being so nice to me!! Jasmyne, please respond to me. Respectfully, FANTEEKING
Jazmyne: One last thang, If I was Jewish and spoke Hebrew not a word would’ve been uttered behind my back! They’d say “Oh that’s a Jew who is proud and supportive of Israel.” Since, I’m Black and considered by some, I guess, to be stereotypically “ignant” I gotta be CIA! Some of OUR people are a trip!!! Shakin’ My Head, Fanteeking