English Proficiency Matters

According to the latest findings of the liberal-leaning Brookings Institute, nearly 10 percent of working-age adults in Americans have limited or no understanding of the English language. Their findings rebuke decades of rhetoric from the Progressive left insisting that multiculturalism and language diversity is of benefit to the nation as a whole and a more "compassionate" way to look at American assimilation. Brookings provided the data to justify what conservatives have known all along, the mastery of English proficiency matters greatly. It is the first key step to upward mobility and vital to becoming a "true" American.

The concept of true American is one that rankles and offends liberal-Progressives, far more than it does the first generation immigrant. Let us never forget it is they who gave birth and fed the rise of the multiculturalism movement. It is the Progressives who are yanking immigrant children out of English immersion classes and purposely delaying their assimilation through bilingual education, despite the opposition of large percentages of immigrant parents. They have been the force behind the scenes ensuring that the DMV and voter guides are offered in a multitude of foreign tongues. This is not only counter-intuitive to the concept of Americanism, as Brookings proves, it has devastating effects on the educational attainment and incomes of millions upon millions of our countrymen.

While the left-wing has been without doubt the catalyst of the anti-American strategy, the right is in itself not completely exempt from reproach. The business community is likewise culpable for its acquiescence to a multilingual society. In the name of expedience, they have served as an enabler by increasing the number of "press 2" options available to customers one cannot go to a fast food restaurant in a major urban market without encountering menus and signage in at least two languages.

While the nation as a whole stands at ten percent lacking in English proficiency, they are largely concentrated in the big cities with some areas reaching jaw-dropping proportions. Not surprisingly, the New York City and Greater Los Angeles areas account for the most of this population, in terms of total individuals, together accounting for nearly five million individuals who do not speak English. The Big Apple's LED (lacking English proficiency) account for 18.3 percent of all New Yorkers, in Los Angeles they account for nearly 26 percent. The border areas of El Paso, TX come in at 30 percent of residents who speak a foreign tongue, mostly Spanish. Spanish-speaking immigrant, not surprisingly, are the largest group of LED's, although there are considerable numbers of Asian language speakers, who tend to grasp English much faster on the whole.

As major metropolitan areas become increasingly "foreign," they become less American and as such less desirable for native speaking middle-class residents. Over time these areas take on a different shape entirely, with notable increases in gaps between income groups, ultimately becoming bastions of extremely rich and extremely poor. This evidenced in what see happening in New York and Los Angeles in recent years.

For as Brookings has shown, the failure to obtain an adequate grasp of America's dominant tongue greatly impacts the economic options open to an individual and drastically impacts wages and earnings. LED's who speak no English at all make roughly half that as do immigrants who have mastered English and speak it at home. The study shows that as the ESL (English as a Second Language) individual increases their grasp of English, their incomes rise accordingly. It also highlights economic limitations that come with delaying assimilation, more than two-thirds of non-English proficient individuals work in seven employment categories. Without a working knowledge of English, one is relegated to a life of a janitor, construction, fast food, day help and other such fields with little hope of advancing themselves.

Knowing this, why does the left fight so hard to suppress assimilation in favor of policies which enable the immigrant to remain mired in the traditions, habits, lifestyle and language of the country they uprooted themselves from in order to become American in the first place? Understanding this involves understanding the two heads of modern liberal-left politics in this country. On one hand you have the old-school liberal who first and foremost consumed with an unhealthy desire to appear to be compassionate and fair-minded, above all logic and reason.

On the other hand you have the drivers of left-wing politics of the past five decades, the Progressive. Although smaller in number, they exert considerable force in driving the opinions of what is considered "liberal" today and have become the unquestioned dominant force in Democrat Party politics. By setting the pace of the debate, Progressives are able to skillfully play on their compatriots self-interest when it comes to a sense of community. For the average white urban liberal, the results of Progressive policy on the target constituencies are largely irrelevant, so long as they sustain the liberals feelings of self-worth and accomplishment.

Whether or not social welfare programs help lift the indigent out of poverty, it provides the liberal with "street cred," as vocal support of such programs show they care. Likewise, as Progressives frame the issue of multiculturalism as one which is compassionate, tolerant and "progressive," the liberal cannot help but align with this belief, lest they risk being cast as "ugly Americans." Thus, brown-pride is acceptable, the Stars and Stripes is divisive and we enter a period where the apple-pie values are vilified and old-world habits are shown the bienvenidos sign. The support of the all-important urban popular culture is crucial to the Progressive, whose goals are much more nefarious than the status seeking liberal.

For the Progressive, thwarting assimilation is all about political control. As evidenced above, keeping new arrivals locked in a world encompassed by a few square miles which in many ways are unrecognizable from their homelands makes them perfect fodder for the Democratic Party ward boss. Not only is influence of their vote virtually secure, but they are able to build upon the "successes" of this segregation to further long-term goals. The un-assimilated immigrant is more receptive to Democrat immigration goals, as these men and women mired in seemingly endless poverty will naturally find hope only in increasing numbers of those like them, in hopes of parlaying this into political gain. It also creates the perfect petri-dish to introduce the playbook they ran so successfully among black Americans, where the benevolent hand of public welfare becomes a tool to reduce two-parent households, institute multi-generational bureaucratic dependence and in turn blindly voting Democrat out of desperation. That they are unable to speak English only makes the Progressives job of keeping the immigrant in ignorance that much easier.

The Progressive also benefits greatly by American division, and thwarting assimilation drives this goal as well. It is impossible for the non-English speaking minority to develop substantial friendships and relationships outside of his ethnic group. Their choices for news and information and likewise limited. They will believe what they are taught to believe, their opinions formed based on the information available to them. One cannot be swayed to an alternative point of view if no such diversity of opinion exists. It is only through communication that pre-conceived notions are broken down and that trust develops. Their children may ultimately develop friendships with those who are white, black, Asian or American Hispanic, but they certainly will not. For those of us among the larger culture, we will never understand their point of view or their sincere desires in America, for we cannot discuss this with them.

Thus, the Progressive will speak for them. They will tell us they desire their children to be educated in a more "comfortable and familiar" environment. They will tell us that it is important that there are elected leaders, school administrators and government workers that "look more like them." They sew the fear and distrust on both sides and we the individuals are left to deal with it. We go football games, they go to futball games. We order the grand slam, they order huevos ranchero. They will be influenced by the rantings of La Raza Unida, but will be ignorant to the works of Adams, Jefferson and Henry.

The Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini defined a nation as "a collection of individuals brought together by chance and fate, who share a common goal, a common law and (most importantly) a common language." He further warned that lacking this, "they are simply a collection of strangers who will fall apart during the first significant crisis." As we look to the future of our country, it is time we seriously understood that English proficiency matters. It matters to the immigrant individual trying to build a better life for their family and it matters to the greatest political experiment ever conceived in all of civilization, a United States of America where "e pluribus unum."

They sew the fear and distrust on both sides and we the individuals are left to deal with it.

Is there an editor in house?

Just in case someone misses this, the proper word is "sow" (as in plant seeds), not "sew" (which is to attach two pieces of cloth together).

I got into an argument in an on-line game with someone because I had corrected another person's grammar. A liberal idiot chastised me for being insensitive and not understanding that people from different cultures or who live in poverty might not have the same opportunity to learn proper English as people like me have, etc. etc. The idiot finally shut up when I pointed out that it doesn't matter what a person's background is, if they don't learn proper English, they haven't a chance of ever getting out of poverty--and so, if you don't want to teach them grammar and stuff, you are dooming them to lifelong poverty.

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