So now Spanish is the language of the Ghetto?

Question

Newt Gangrich said speaking english is essential. Hey I agree with that.

But he followed up with, "speaking spanish is living in a Ghetto?"

That doesn't sound racist? I guess you can reason away anything you say now as long as you don't upset "the base". America is so divided its crazy and these guys aren't helping.

I knew there would be long explinations of "what he meant" If he meant that, why did he say, Speaking spanish is living in the Ghetto? I speak spanish to my wife and I am no where near a Ghetto, should my kids not learn spanish so they won't be "ghetto?"

Answer 1

I find it a racist comment.

Answer 2

Well, not dictionary term for racist, but very stereotypical because you're generalizing the Latin-American community rather than the individual themselves. No different than looking at an African American citizen without knowing any of his/her history. What Newt Gangrich was saying is a yes and a no. There are programs that began to stipend the control on illegal immigration on the southern United States boarders. The TOEFL test (Test of English-Foreign Language) eliminates those who are not eligible to meet the standards of the language. Example, if you knew 50% English, the person cannot have an American citizenship because his/her language skills is not enough to communicate with other people. If an immigrant speaks 75% or even 95%, yes, they are granted citizenship because they learned the languages which I do not understand why we have to learn their language if they did not found the country at all except for Aztec/Native American descents which were basically the first Americans before Vikings or Puritans. However, to answer your question, that is a misconception based on what media thinks of the stereotypes. It's becoming horrible how were judge people from their nationalities. Racism is nastier and more hatred than stereotyping because Ku Klux Klan was a perfect example of racism in the southern United States when founded in the 1860s, and continues today. There's a huge different between stereotyping a person and making a racist comment. Racism is more on the physical side of things such as skin color, hair color, even the Nazi were racist towards the Jews because they believe that all men in the Jewish faith circumcises their penis at birth, most of the do but not all of them have their penises circumcised. Thus far, racist makes a nasty statement based on the physical (including some mental, on some degree) attributes that may seem different from a person's own physical attributes. Stereotyping is more of how a certain ethnic group interact.

Answer 3

I think what he said makes sense but people will take it as a racist gesture. I mean not everyone who speak spanish is in the ghetto but many are. Many people have a different views of what the ghetto really is and i think people shouldn't judge the ghetto unless they lived in it. I lived in the ghetto and I speak spanish but I met so many kind and caring people there and my best memories in life where in the ghetto. It's not a great place to live because that's usually the place where the state taxs never reaches. So you have a poor living environment but it's the only place you can afford to live until you have your feet firmly on the ground. I agree with you about America being divided. Some times I think we as a nation aren't helping this problem. It's sad really. I mean according to the US 2005 Census 62% of the people who took the census speak spanish and most of them speak very good english. I just think people shouldn't make comments like "speaking spanish is living in a Ghetto" because you picture places that we cherish in the US and think of them as ghetto like NYC or Miami. Okay im going to stop now!

Answer 4

I guess Newt wants everyone to like him, but I think that is being rascist. Politicians can and will always say what they what because there are no repercussions. In this day and age we all need a second language and right now Spanish is the main runner.

Answer 5

I guess, He forgot that spansish is a lengual not a socail class scale.

Ghetto, he should describe it, see the demography and compare, for my good undestanding Ghetto apllies for someone low educated and has ruins the lenguage ins CALOS (dailects or street lenguages) and i dont doubt that Sapish can be Ghetto when is rich in Origins, wich thos origins has rooted to diferent lenguages wich one of them is ENGLISH. You know, THAT WAS A VERY STUPID COMMENT, i am sorry for him that he merges communities by a lenguage!...

Answer 6

Yiddish was the original ghetto language.

Answer 7

Yes, mexicans are third world people. If you see a doctor with a mexican diploma, you are rightly scared.

Answer 8

not where i live, thank you very much. nothing but good old am
erican english lives here.