If somebody speaking anything other than English annoys you, seek anger management
From Rep. Brandon Gill to Laura Loomer to that one guy in college, being bilingual or multilingual is not a crime
“Why do you need to learn a new language anyway?” the student asked me. “What’s the point?”
The look of disgust on his face caught me off-guard. It was the same facial expression I made when our English professor gave us an assignment to research the hunting industry. I wasn’t a vegetarian yet — that wouldn’t happen for two more years. But since I was a child, I’ve felt the same way about hunting as I do circuses, aquariums and zoos. I don’t want a damn thing to do with any of the four. But his question still confused me.
He and I had already butt heads. When I heard that our group assignment was about hunting, I blurted out, “I don’t care about this” and let out a heavy sigh. I was getting ready to ask her if I could pick another topic for our writing assignment. He immediately replied back that he definitely cared about hunting. My eyebrows raised. At the time, I didn’t realize I was offending him personally by not wanting to cover this project.
As a native Chicagoan, hunting is not my world. I didn’t yet understand the culture of Marquette, Michigan nor why hunting was a big deal in the Upper Peninsula. That should’ve been the first hint to get the hell out of this college town long before I actually did.
ADVERTISEMENT ~ Amazon
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a percentage from purchases with my referral links. I know some consumers are choosing to boycott Amazon for its DEI removal. However, after thinking about this thoroughly, I choose to continue promoting intriguing products from small businesses, women-owned businesses and (specifically) Black-owned businesses who still feature their items on Amazon. All five of my Substack publications now include a MINIMUM of one product sold by a Black-owned business. (I have visited the seller’s official site, not just the Amazon Black-owned logo, to verify this.) If you still choose to boycott, I 100% respect that decision.
Initially, I thought his snippy response to bilingualism was just to match my energy over the hunting complaint. That is, until I held a conversation with him about taking Spanish for eight years — from eighth grade and onward — and how I went to a high school with Mexican and Puerto Rican students. To me, it was normal to sit in class next to someone speaking fluent Spanish and English, and I wanted to be a part of that. In college, there was one guy who would only send instant messages to me in Spanish, solely to quiz me on how well I understood what he said.
I felt the same way about learning more about the Native American students in a diversity program I’d signed up for. The millisecond I saw a native man (with a ponytail patting his butt), I beelined over to talk to him. Besides a trip to Canada, the odds of me meeting anybody who looks full-blood native is slim to none. (Refer to 1800s history of wiping out indigenous people in Chicago.) I was intrigued by his backstory. We became fast friends, and I drilled him with questions about his tribe.
When our group went on a camping trip at night, and with the worst timing ever because “The Blair Witch Project” was still in theaters, I was pretty much his shadow — and he didn’t seem to mind. I couldn’t have said “yes” fast enough when he invited me to a pow wow later that month. A Japanese friend of mine came along with me, and both of us watched him perform.
My freshman year of college is the Trump administration’s worst nightmare. The more I could learn about multiculturalism and diversity, the better — even if I was stuck in this predominantly white, conservative town. Interestingly, the school encouraged recruiting a diverse group of students. It just didn’t want any of the classes, the newspapers, the movie theaters, the TV stations or any special event to highlight minority groups. This university wanted everybody who wasn’t white to be educated on white literature, white history, white art and an Anglo version of criminal justice studies too. And absolutely none of the people in my social circle were willing to humor this level of erasure, so we mingled.
ADVERTISEMENT ~ Amazon
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a percentage for each sale made with my referral links on this page.
Explaining diversity, multiculturalism and minority cultures to this guy went over as well as if he’d asked me to eat venison. Neither one of us was trying to hear the other. He insisted that English was the only language I needed to know. It mirrored the same attitude as Texas House Rep. Brandon Gill reading a Twitter/X post that was translated into Spanish. It’s also the same passive-aggressive racism and proud ignorance that would make the White House think this is the way to go: