cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/1006130
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/aboringdystopia by /u/Last_Salad_5080 on 2023-10-03 14:21:04.
cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/1006130
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/aboringdystopia by /u/Last_Salad_5080 on 2023-10-03 14:21:04.
are you soft blaming this on the immigrants? Immigrants are more likely to speak, read, and write 2 or more languages fluently than it is that the average american can do any of that for 1
Not op but it’s pretty clear they’re not blaming it on immigrants. They’re just pointing out that the map has a bias because immigrants may not have as good English skills specifically.
Its an incredibly large thing to leap to on literally no evidence. Its pure fact that immigrants have far better language skills than the average american, as I said above. They may not know of the racism, but that doesn’t mean its there.
Is it racism to suggest that someone might not speak a second language as well as their first language? I’ll freely admit that I’m much worse at my second language than English.
Pinning the entire problem immediately on immigrants is racist. Immigrants are not a problem, they’re a scapegoat.
I never said they were the entire problem, it’s just one reason there’s such a gap between say California and Colorado.
To be clear I wasn’t trying to leap on, “haha Mexican immigrants can’t speak English”. I was pointing out proximity to a primarily Spanish speaking country is going to lead to a greater population whose native language is not English, and therefore less fluent English speakers.
I grew up in an area of the US with tons of immigrants, most of whom learned Spanish before English. Going the other way I learned Spanish after learning English, and as such I probably have a less than 6th grade reading level in Spanish because it’s not the language I learned from birth, nor the one I speak at home.
I also specifically mentioned Mexican immigrants because the other country we border also has a primary language of English, which is why our northern border has better English literacy rates.
It’s a pretty easy correlation to make, and doesn’t require a whole study to identify the trend. Spanish is also the second most spoken language in the country so naturally areas with low English literacy rates are likely to have higher populations speaking the second most spoken language in the country. Hell, if you look at a map of latinos in the US it’s almost identical to the above map.
Considering what article this comment is under I kinda have to ask now: is English your first language?
Because an understanding of the comment above yours should center on the word “bias”, not on the word “immigrant”.
I’m saying if you’re basing your data off of English then of course states who border a country whose primary language is Spanish will have more people who cannot read/write in English. They’re more likely to have immigrants from said country. As is this post kind of implies not speaking/reading English == dumb, which is not at all true.
To be clear I’m from California, grew up speaking Spanish (even though I’m white AF), and have 0 issues with immigrants. It’s just kind of a dumb statistic to use given the diversity of the US, and our lack of an official language. A much better metric would be the percentage of people who do not have a reading level above 6th grade in any language.