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Language shouldn't be barrier to mutual respect

August 14, 2005


If you're not comfortable around people speaking Spanish, you will be. Hispanics became the largest minority in the United States in the 2000 census, edging past African Americans 12.5 to 12.3 percent, and that share is expected to double in the next 50 years -- a quarter of the American people will trace their origins to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Latin American countries.

Not all of them will be Spanish speakers, of course. But a demographic shift of this magnitude cannot happen without debate, challenge and difficulty, and much of that will center around language. How much and how quickly should immigrants be expected to adapt to English? And how much should the country adapt to them?

The latest twist is reflected in the lawsuit by former stylists at the Supercuts hair styling chain, alleging they were forbidden from speaking Spanish, even while on break. Though the company denies any wrongdoing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has joined the suit.

Few would question the rights of employees to speak any language they please to each other while on coffee breaks. When the issue is interacting with customers, however, it becomes more complex. Is speaking your native language -- be it Spanish or anything else -- a civil rights issue? A safety issue? A courtesy issue? One can fully embrace the idea that the influx of Hispanics will only enrich and enhance our nation -- we certainly do -- and still not be comfortable when people around you are saying things you don't understand.

Businesses have a right to require certain forms of conduct from their employees -- that they dress a certain way, greet customers with particular scripted greetings and, yes, speak the language of the native country, so as not to cause unease in customers. The larger question remains: Is this discomfort legitimate? Is it the unease of being left out -- something you might feel if a pair of dining companions started whispering to each other? Or does it reflect unfamiliarity and fear?

It is an issue that calls out for tolerance on both sides. Spanish speakers should remember they are in a new country now, and might want to get with the program. Non-Hispanics who might be concerned about their changing nation must keep one thing firmly in mind: Hispanic immigration is saving our country from demographic decline -- the aging work force and decline that is going to cripple the economies of nations such as Japan. The United States will be 25 percent Hispanic in 2050. Whether they live in a nation of harmony or discord depends greatly on how all Americans today understand our responsibility to treat each other with the respect and dignity that everyone deserves.


Grievous error in judgment

Placing candles, stuffed animals and flowers on the spot where a young shooting victim died is a ritual in some neighborhoods. But we also see the makeshift shrines at the sites of deadly car crashes, and even outside the homes where innocent children were slain, allegedly by a parent.

Invariably, the shrine springs up from a community's grief over the senseless loss of life regardless of the circumstances surrounding that person's death. That's why the decision by Chicago Police Cmdr. Bruce Rottner to dismantle a shrine for a slain Evanston man who police said had gang ties, has offended some families in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Alex Vernon, 19, was shot in the head in an incident that police say was gang-related, but some community members claim stemmed from an argument. Although police officials may see shrines erected under such circumstances as "glorifying gang violence," people who live in these communities may have another view. That's why it was paternalistic and insensitive for Rottner to dismantle a shrine others erected to mark Vernon's death.

"We can't go on the public way, start erecting memorials to someone who is known to the police as a gang member," he said. That was a judgment call that put an unnecessary strain on community relations.

Since there is not a departmental policy banning shrines for alleged gang members -- or drunken drivers for that matter -- Rottner should have left it. Allegations that Vernon had gang ties didn't stop members of his community from regretting the violent death of yet another young black man.