Inhumane Discrimination Toward Ethnic Minorities in the United States

Inhumane Discrimination Towards Ethnic Minorities

With the English-only movement being enforced, it has led to the oppression of people of color and those who do not speak the English language fluently. Acts of discrimination have led minority groups to feel segregated from their civil rights, and claim a violation in the First amendment which protects the basic right of freedom of speech. As a result of the English-only movement, there is discrimination in the work place where culturally and linguistically diverse individuals are prohibited from speaking their native languages while at work.

In the United States, discrimination continuously roams in work areas against the people of color. These minorities are being discriminated for various reasons like the color of their skin, speaking their native languages, not being fluent in the English language, or for their back grounds and where they come from. When English-only activism came out of nowhere in the 1980’s there were sudden legislatives to give the English language the official status of the United states. What this meant was that speaking the English language would be enforced in the work place, and in public with in the United States. Additionally, it meant that English-only activists would push to restrict the public use of minority languages. In the book At War with Diversity: US Language Policy in an Age of Anxiety the author states “True, the language-restriction movement did grow directly out of the immigration-restriction movement” (Crawford 4). This quotation justifies that the English-only movement is not just for the purpose of giving the English language the official status of the United States. The English-only movement and the discrimination toward the ethnic minorities that shadows it, can serve both as means of privileging certain groups over others and as tools for maintaining the power of the elites.

When Article 28 was passed in Arizona, minority workers were upset by it because free expression was being limited for the state employees. The article also impended the free flow of state services to limited-English-speakers. For example, thousands of Arizonans would be precluded from receiving essential information from their state and local government. Minorities felt as if the call to prohibition was a violation of the first amendment because they were being kept from their freedom of speech. Crawford explains “The court was extremely outraged by the idea of Article 28 because it threatened the survival of our democratic society” (43). This quotation describes exactly what minorities were taking a notice of which was the violations of free speech and the discriminatory acts of being left out towards minorities. I personally do not agree with any passing of an English-only law because it has been proven that these laws reduce opportunities for minority groups to get jobs or receive any benefits.

When English-only laws are passed and put into effect, they harm individuals who are limited-English-proficient speakers. It is stated in the journal article called “The Effects of Official English laws on Limited-English-Proficient Workers” that there would be less work for limited-English-proficient speakers if laws get passed in more states and that employers may even go as far as using the laws to easily discriminate against limited-English-proficient speakers. In the US, the annual income for English proficient speakers is incredibly high compared to the annual income for limited-English speakers because the minorities who don’t speak English fluently tend to be put in lower positions or tend to be left out of any jobs and the number in the earnings for minority groups would only continue to decline throughout the time. In fact, even individuals in the United states who had citizenship were not able to get jobs if they were not fluent in English.

The English-only measures are deeply offensive to ethnic minorities because they feel as if their culture is being taken away from them or destroyed by being forced to speak only English at work and in public. Just the way that minorities put effort into speaking English and assimilating to American traditions, they should also be allowed to keep their own traditions and culture. When proposition 227 was passed it was supported by language-minority voters. The evidence for this is in the opinion polls indicating that its popularity among all voters was closely correlated with economic status. People with annual income of around 60,000 were more likely to oppose bilingual education than those earning an annual income of around 20,000. In the book At War with Diversity the author shares a quotation that is constantly being stated by individuals in the United states that ‘to learn English as quickly as possible’ were keys to success in the United States which I disagree with because no matter the language everyone should be able to have equal job opportunities and equal opportunities with their goals of businesses without being discriminated by the employers or society over an English-only law. Specifically, the discriminatory acts on immigrants is by far extremely rough with the way theses minority groups are dehumanized and seen as nothing other than less just for being immigrants. The way the English language is used to discriminate the immigrants is by the way the use of the language degrades them. Immigrant workers are being called aliens or illegals when no human on earth should be labeled as illegal. On another note, the use of deportation toward the ethnic minorities is another way of discrimination and racism in my eyes. I state this because with deportation, it is simply another way to “legally” and properly eliminate people who are basically not of the white race in the United States. In sense, the author of a book chapter called “The Politics of Deportation” suggests that the deportation of foreign-national offenders operates as a kind of ‘social death’ as they are no longer given the opportunity to reintegrate into society and their communities. Lastly, the author of the book chapter “The Politics of Deportation” defines deportation as “a practice of the state power embedded in anxiety, uncertainty, and unrest the elicits different perceptions of (un)justice and deservedness” (Hasselberg 23).

In an article “Eating Your (Spanish) Words: ‘The English Only Restaurant’” the author gives an example of a play called “The English Only Restaurant” which gave a thorough example of the way things went down in businesses in the United States and how the workers were prohibited from speaking the Spanish language or any other foreign language. However, with pressure toward minorities on speaking the English language only, they began to assimilate and attempt to suppress their linguistic and culture in order to run a business the “American way” instead of running their business in their own style and culturist way. In my views, the United States has always been a multilingual society with variations of cultures, and minority languages should be allowed and have a rightful place alongside the language of the dominant majority group.

Another form of discrimination established in a work place would be when employers break certain rules that protect employees such as workplace protections. An example of this would be “when a worker gets fired for no good reason. Other times the workers are kept from receiving their pay and when the workers show up to get their pay the employers don’t have them” (Gleeson123). These kinds of actions are what make minorities feel less than others in the United States because they are constantly being told that they are less. In the workplace, there have also been cases of sexual harassment.

Discrimination in a work place toward ethnic

minorities is something that must be acknowledged to solve the issues that come with it. I strongly agree with this because the way people are treated reflects on how they will perform in the work place. When minorities are being mistreated they are also being held back and put down from reaching their goals. When the work place sets behavioral expectations along a white male norm, it puts pressure on minority employees and forces them into a white norm because being culturally diverse is not considered the norm.

I personally disagree with the division of people based on the color of skin or the native language spoken. In the United States, everyone should have the liberty and freedom to do and speak however they wish to do so, it is stated in the First amendment. However, this country has states that still push laws against minority languages and completely take away their civil rights as humans. No one should be seen as different or treated unfairly, the English-only movement has been used as an excuse to eliminate all minority groups to keep them from growing and expanding. Instead of using the English language to call the ethnic minorities aliens, illegals, or anything to make them less than, we should use it to help one another improve and reach our goals to our fullest potential. As people living in the United States, the ethnic minorities contribute tremendously to the economy and to things going on within the United States. Men should be allowed honest jobs to provide for their families and their children’s school. On the other hand, the children should be allowed the opportunity to follow through with their education to make better lives for themselves. Minorities who immigrate to the United States do not only do it to bring trouble, most times minorities come to chase a better future in the land of opportunity that they were not able to chase back in their home lands. Which is why everyone should be treated equal and allowed the same opportunities.