Think Progress » Gingrich: When I Said âLanguage Of Living In The Ghetto,â I Meant Hebrew (Or Maybe Yiddish)
Newt Gingrich said this past weekend that the U.S. should abolish bilingual education so that people arenât speaking âthe language of living in a ghetto.â?But last night on Hannity & Colmes, Gingrich claimed his statement âdid not refer to Spanish.â? Gingrich insisted, âWhat I meant is very clear[],â? but then wouldnât say which language he was referring to.
Gingrich said, âNow, Iâll let you pick â frankly, ghetto, historically had referred as a Jewish reference originally. I did not mention Hispanics, and I certainly do not want anybody who speaks Spanish to think Iâm in any way less than respectful of Spanish or any other language spoken by people who come to the United States.â?
Gingrich made his comments in the context of bilingual education. Overwhelmingly, that means English/Spanish education. Peter Zamora, co-chair of the Hispanic Education Coalition, understood what Gingrich meant: âThe tone of his comments was very hateful. Spanish is spoken by many individuals who do not live in the ghetto.â?
There is now doubt what Gingrich was referring to when he spoke of the language of the ghetto. However, what was he doing when he tried to insist that he didn’t mean Spanish? The word “ghetto” was immediately understood to be used in a physical rather than a metaphorical sense. But rather than acknowledging this and offering an alternative interpretation, Gingrich chose to prevaricate in a way that must be obvious to anyone. After all, his point is a very accurate description of the respectable common-sense folk theory of bilingual education as something doing harm to children’s learning and prospects (which also happens to be dead wrong). If Hispanic children, the theory says, don’t use every opportunity to speak the “majority” language, English, they will end up being ghetoized, that is condemned to a life not conforming to the middle-class image of normalcy.
And Gingrich makes that clear (in a sentiment that is probably genuine, if misguided):
We should not have a program which traps people into not being able to speak English by failing to teach them the language that is the prominent language of prosperity, the dominant language of government, the dominant language of politics.
Of course, he loses any credibility with this:
And Iâve talked to experts who believe that an intensive program, young people could learn to be relatively fluent in four to six months, and older people could learn in a year.
Which about as credible as saying, I’ve spoken to experts who assure me that the Earth is in fact flat.
Peter Zamora is also being slightly disingenuous because ghetoization can happen even to people who don’t live in a physical ghetto. Of course, given that his interlocutor is Gingrich, jumping to conclusions of hatefulness is probably a safe discursive bet. Also, we might want to investigate what motivated Gingrich to take up the issue in the first place, which is most likely a xenophobic instinct – fear of people playing a role in your community who speak a language you don’t understand.
