No Hablo Espanol: Thanks to a Lack of Concern, English Speakers May Soon Find Themselves in the Minority in

The Right Angle: No Hablo Espanol - Opinions

You could call North Carolina an overachiever, of sorts. A report released on July 26th done by the Pew Hispanic Center reported that six Southern states had Hispanic populations growing at twice the rate of the entire country. Not only was North Carolina one of those six states, it had the dubious honor of being THE state with the fastest growth in the entire country.

The report went on to mention that three out of four immigrants to the South were born in Mexico and that a large majority do not speak English - not that many North Carolinians needed a report to tell them that bit of information.

This report comes conveniently just a few weeks after the Winston Salem Journal published a study showing increased immigrant births across the state. The Journal reported that in Forsyth County alone, immigrant births increased from 3% to 25% of all births in a ten year span. It also estimated that over 14% of all births are to illegal immigrants.

Sure, this is fairly old news. For years people have been complaining about illegal immigrants, but no one really cares enough to do anything. On the contrary, many Americans are actually catering to the Hispanic population. Several businesses run ads in English and Spanish, and even more advertise that they speak Spanish. In many places, you can walk in and simply say, "Hablas Espanol?" and within minutes you'll be greeted in Spanish by someone willing and eager to help you.

Rather than discourage immigrants from illegally entering the country, North Carolina is making itself more hospitable. It is becoming increasingly easier to obtain licenses in this state, and the schools gladly create entire classes geared towards students who speak Spanish. North Carolina citizens are often urged to learn Spanish in order to better help their neighbors. With so many people bending over backward like that, who WOULDN'T want to come to North Carolina?

All this has really done is give the illegals a sense of entitlement. Many illegal Mexicans have no interest in even trying to learn English. A good friend of mine who works in a Greensboro pharmacy estimates that over 90% of all her Hispanic customers do not understand a word of English. Many do not even try to understand what she is asking them, answering her questions of, "May I have your date of birth?" with blank stares and the occasional, "Hablas Espanol?"

I cannot fathom going to live in a foreign country in which I do not speak the majority language, and I would certainly not expect the people in that country to change for me. But these growing numbers show that they're still coming in illegally, still not speaking English, and still taking American jobs.

For years now, those in the political correctness realm have claimed that immigrants are not actually taking American jobs, but taking the jobs Americans don't want. Another study published in the News and Record in the past few weeks shows that this is no longer the case. In recent years, Mexican immigrants have begun taking jobs traditionally held by American teenagers. Employers favor these immigrants over teenage workers because they work longer hours and do not have to mold their schedules around school. So now, we are not only encouraging illegal immigrants to invade our country, but we are encouraging lower-class teenagers to drop out of school.

This is an issue we've dealt with for a long time, but thanks to political correctness, it is not an issue that has any simple answers. We cannot point out that these immigrants need to learn English, because that might be "offensive" to their culture. We cannot question the authenticity of their citizenship because that would be "racial profiling". All we really can do in this situation, apparently, is give them our own hard-earned tax dollars and learn their language.

The last thing we need right now is political correctness. What we really need is a national language to bind us all together and a President who doesn't think amnesty is the answer. With no foreseeable change in the near future, things could get a lot more confusing before they ever get any better. That's if they ever do, of course.