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But who defines standard English? Linguist Noam Chomsky understands the debate to transcend linguistics: "If the distribution of power and wealth were to shift from southern Manhattan to East Oakland, 'Ebonics' would be the prestige variety of English and [those on Wall Street] would be denounced by the language police."30 Not allowing African-American speech patterns into social discourse maintains white supremacy. The African-American language termed "Ebonics" is a creole-based language originating in American slave society¾the result of Africans being intentionally separated from tribe-members with linguistic similarities, making it impossible to foster commonalities. African slaves were forced to communicate via a hybrid version of English. Like any language, "Ebonics" has evolved, and it now more closely resembles so-called "standard" English than during the time of slavery. But for many young African-Americans, their language is labeled a "linguistic deviance" and these students are forced into "Educable Mentally Handicapped" (EMH) programs. A diploma from an EMH program is rarely even adequate to gain entry to a community college. In Duval County, North Carolina, 1,400 out of the 1,900 enrolled in the EMH program are African-American.31

This is the crux of the issue: who is being affected by the language debates? Like the English-only movement, the "Ebonics" backlash sought to immobilize non-whites. And like the English-only movement, it enjoyed widespread support. Although this dynamic is controversial, and language acquisition does not guarantee upward mobility, in many cases those whose language is determined to be "standard" within their society enjoy an unfair advantage. Although race is hardly the sole determinant in the standardization of English, white Americans are much more likely than non-white Americans to read, write, and speak an approximation of "standard" English. The standardization of language is an oppressive and racist agenda that limits social mobility for people of color. Whether through the belittlement of a distinct African-American dialect, or by the dismantling of bilingual education programs, the oppression of language successfully defends a society constructed according to the supremacy of whites. Who reinforces this racist ideology?

The English-only movement is not on the margins of American society; it is a mainstream operation. The first order in understanding the English-only movement is to understand the organization known as "US English." US English claims it does not maintain a racist, anti-immigrant agenda. Many of its original supporters were people of color or immigrants, including Linda Chavez, U.S. Senator S.I. Hayakawa, Alistair Cooke, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, according to federal records, US English has had close ties to the anti-immigrant organization Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and has been financed by the Pioneer Fund, a racist organization that promotes the use of eugenics and also funded Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray's infamously racist work The Bell Curve. A number of anti-immigrant and population control organizations have been linked to US English. John Tanton, the founder and original chairman of US English is the architect of this network. Tanton states that "the question of bilingualism grows out of U.S. immigration policy." To Tanton, the huge influx of non- English-speaking immigrants overwhelms the "assimilative capacity of the country."32

Tanton displayed his racist intentions in a 1986 memo, where he stated that the U.S must work to stem the "Latin onslaught." His anti-Hispanic message continues:

Gobernar es Poplar translates "to govern is to populate." In this society, will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile? . As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Perhaps this is the first instance in which those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down!33

His rhetoric may betray his racist intentions, but Tanton's roots lie in the liberal agendas of ecology and population control. Tanton worked as an activist for the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood and he was the national president of Zero Population Growth¾all liberal organizations. This should not be a surprise. Many liberals support the English-only movement. While the liberal supporters of the movement claim not to be racist, American liberalism-a product of Enlightenment thinking-is rooted in racist ideology.

Miami is the birthplace of the English-only movement. In 1980 this city, home to the largest immigrant population in America, many of whom were not eligible to vote, approved an anti-bilingual ordinance. The exit polls revealed that 71% of whites approved the bill, while only 15% of the Latino community supported it. At first glance, these results seem predictable. However, Miami is a curious case: a majority of the white community is Jewish, liberal, and votes Democratic, while a large percentage of the of the Hispanic community consists of right-wing Cubans who fled Castro's revolution. Race and ethnicity were the determinants in the voting, not political ideology. The Miami immigrant population is an anomaly-many of the Cuban exiles arrived in the city with capital, and social mobility is a reality for a large number of immigrants in this city. This was troubling to the liberal white community of Miami. Whether liberal or conservative, white Americans expect immigrant subordination, consistent with the racist ideology of the Enlightenment.34

 While this is not an attempt to lump all Enlightenment thought and thinkers into one category, and certainly not all Enlightenment conceptions are racist per se (indeed, some Enlightenment convictions most definitely improved the lives of many), the Enlightenment cannot be separated from the racism upon which it was constructed. The same holds true of American liberalism, which is linked to the racist Enlightenment ideology of "progress." The English-only movement constitutes progress in the eyes of many liberal and conservative Americans alike. The movement is not the first attempt to construct a progressive rationale to justify racism. One branch of "modern science" classified races and developed racial hierarchies, attributing to Northern Europeans the highest taxonomic levels. According to historian Robin D.G. Kelley, "The primitive mind was constructed as the very opposite of reason: atavistic, regressive, barbaric."35 The so-called universal humanism of the Enlightenment excluded most other races. Western scholars rewrote history and reduced the entire continent of Africa to savage status, allowing the white societies of Europe and North America to be the sole entities responsible for the progress of modernity.36

Enlightenment thought originating in the U.S. hardly strays from this path; the American Enlightenment, and the resulting American liberalism, is an extension of racist Western ideology. Thomas Jefferson, America's version of Rousseau, wrote in his Notes on Virginia...

The Negro is inferior to the white man in body and mind. Negro men prefer white women to black women much like male orangutans prefer black women to the female of their own species. In general, [the Negro's] existence appears to participate more of sensation than of reflection.37

The white supremacy inherent in the Enlightenment was a necessary tool that operated as justification for its many oppressive ventures.

The history of linguistic oppression is a history of civilizing the savage, domesticating the barbarous, and Americanizing the immigrant. Benjamin Franklin, another spokesperson for the American Enlightenment, was critical of the Pennsylvania Germans (taxonomically lower than those of English descent by his standards), who seemingly ignored the hegemony of the English language:

Why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by herding together, establish their language and manners, to the exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion?38

Jefferson, Franklin, and their ilk were interested in extending their humanism to those they considered the civilized few, not those defined as "inferior in body and mind." Manifest Destiny was the maxim of the American Enlightenment; all who stood in the way of progress were doomed to extinction. American Indians represented the savage, who by definition obstructed the path of civilization and progress. The democratic ideals of the United States, derived from the Enlightenment and further expounded by American liberalism, forced the Indians to either assimilate or die. The path of death was born out of a monopoly of force established by the white colonists. The path of assimilation required the American colonial power to embark on a program of linguistic oppression.

Franz Fanon wrote: "To speak means to . assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization." In the United States, as in other imperial and colonial societies, the language of the powerful is the language sought by those wishing to ascend into "civilization." The better one speaks "standard" English in the United States, the more likely one is to be elevated in American society. The speaker of "standard" English is then able to assume the role of a "civilized" being and is entitled the accoutrements of the civilized. The colonial model of language as oppression follows: the colonizer uses language to assimilate and control the colonized; the colonized strive to speak the language of the colonizer, and develop an inferiority complex to the extent that they fall short.39 The English-only movement embodies the colonial model of language as oppression.

The colonized need not disown the values of the colonizer in order to resist; sometimes the colonized avoid aggression by identifying with the values of the aggressor. However, the colonizer must deny the humanity of the victim.40 The oppression of language in the United States follows this logic: the oppressed consistently work to achieve the language of the powerful, and thus recognize the humanity of the powerful, while the powerful, manifested in the English-only movement, cannot recognize the language of the oppressed for they fail to acknowledge their humanity. The United States is a colonial power; the brutality of colonialism remains a constant in the society of the colonizer.

Filipinos learned first-hand about the violence of American colonialism and imperialism. After the U.S. invasion of the Philippines in 1899, President McKinley had this to say of what he termed "Philippine business":

...we could not leave them to themselves¾they were unfit for self-government¾and they would soon have anarchy and misrule. there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died.41

The invasion was devastating for the Filipinos. In one province, over one-third of the population of 300,000 died from combat, famine, or disease. The Philadelphia Ledger reported:

The present war is no bloodless, opera bouffe engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog.42

The brutality of America's colonial venture across the Pacific necessitated the dehumanization of the Filipino. However, to gain a full understanding of the American colonial mindset does not require a trip overseas. According to Ward Churchill, "The very core of U.S. imperialism lies not abroad in the Third World, but right here 'at home.'"43

In its constructed national mythology, the United States has considered itself a revolutionary, post-colonial society since the patriots of the American Revolution overthrew the colonizing power, Great Britain. This, of course, ignores the colonization of the Indians native to North America by the government and people of the United States. While all of present-day U.S. territory was stolen from the Indians, according to Churchill, "the U.S. lacks even a pretense of legitimate ownership of about one-third of its claimed land mass," because of treaty violations.44 Not only do Americans continue to live on land that does not belong to them; they also continue to accept the engineered version of history. In fact, in Orwellian fashion, most white Americans resent the "free ride" the Indians have allegedly been granted by the U.S. government. Blaming the victim is consistent with the psychology of the colonizer. This colonial mindset ignores the realities of Indian life in the United States: the lowest incomes of any ethnic group, the worst housing conditions, the lowest educational levels, the highest rates of deadly disease, and the highest unemployment.45

The American colonial process includes the oppression of language model. An 1868 commission on Indian affairs concluded:

Now, by educating [Indian] children in the English language . differences [will] disappear, and civilization [will] follow at once.. Through sameness of language is produced sameness of sentiment and thought. School should be established, which children should be required to attend; their barbarous dialects should be blotted out and the English language substituted.46

J.D.C. Atkins, federal commissioner of Indian Affairs, assessed the attack on Indian languages in his 1887 annual report:

There is not an Indian pupil whose tuition and maintenance is paid for by the United States Government who is permitted to study any other language than our own vernacular¾ the language of the greatest, most powerful, and [most] enterprising nationality beneath the sun. The English language as taught in America is good enough for all her people of all races.47

The speakers of the English language traditionally seek to civilize the savage, as noted by U.S. Senator Beveridge in the early twentieth century:

God has not been preparing the English-speaking peoples for a thousand years for nothing but vain and idle self-contemplation. No! He has made us the master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns. He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savages and senile peoples.48

The U.S. Government sought to "establish system where chaos reigns" through the repression of language in its Caribbean empire. Puerto Rico-of significance to the American Empire for its strategic military locale, investment opportunities, markets, labor force, mineral resources, and as a playground for the rich¾has been a long-time recipient of English language mandates. An October 1898 U.S. report on Puerto Rico qualified the language of Puerto Ricans as having "little value as an intellectual medium."49

Puerto Ricans, however, resisted English instruction. According to a 1925 Columbia University study, 80% of Puerto Ricans were dropping out of the U.S.-imposed school system that belittled their cultural values. A few years later, President Franklin Roosevelt, attempting to reconcile Puerto Ricans to their condition, stated his hope that they could profit from "the unique historical circumstances which have brought them the blessing of American citizenship."50 It is assumed that this "blessing" entails the responsibilities of civilization. One such responsibility, as indicated by the Brookings Institute, is mastery of the English language: "English is the chief source, practically the only source, of democratic ideals in Puerto Rico."51

The psychological inferiority of non-whites in a colonial society- the U.S. included-is reinforced by the standardization of language, as recognized by Fanon: "The Negro who wants to be white will be the whiter as he gains greater mastery of the cultural tool that language is."52 For the English-only movement, representative of American civilization, Spanish is no longer a Western language but has instead become the language of the savage, of the "wetback" illegally crossing the Rio Grande hoping to steal American jobs. It is the language of brown-skinned and hungry children growing up along a militarized border-militarized in order to block the paths of these millions of needy seeking to "sponge" off American civilization.

I have asserted that the English-only movement is a form of racism, but one that works well within (and is supported by) American liberalism. The spectrum of racism is much broader than the Ku Klux Klan, and English-only racism does not merely operate on the margins of society. The English-only movement enjoys popular support in the U.S. because American society is constructed upon the racist ideology of colonialism. But something is missing from this analysis-the role of capitalism. The English-only movement operates within a capitalist framework; capitalism is vital to its propagation.

An important feature consistent with a capitalist economic structure is fear and insecurity. Even in times of rapid growth and perceived prosperity, capitalism subjects human beings to the whims of an impersonal market. Globalization has extended this process as never before. The successes are enormous; the failures, apocalyptic. The long and tumultuous struggle to create labor security in the United States is being overwhelmed. Jobs in manufacturing and textiles are fleeing the U.S. in search of cheaper labor. American workers no longer enjoy the economic security they have come to expect-even if this security was more perceived than real.

The statistics are startling: one in four children in America lives in poverty, workers' average inflation-adjusted wages are 16% less than twenty years ago, even college-educated workers earn 7% less than twenty years ago. In 1960, the average American CEO earned 41 times the wage of the average American worker. Today the ratio is closer to 400:1. Full-time jobs are becoming a scarcity, replaced by a nation of temporary workers. Union levels are the lowest since the pre-World War I labor movement.53 Predictably, this social insecurity has created a surplus segment of the population engulfed by a prison-industrial complex. Over two million people are imprisoned in the U.S., the highest per capita level in the world.54 These developments have created a population searching for answers-and an atmosphere ripe for scapegoating. The English-only movement is one example of this process.

Patrick Buchanan, part-time presidential candidate and full-time right-wing demagogue, has capitalized on the insecurity created by global capitalism to further his racist agenda. Known for his anti-immigrant bias, Buchanan supports the English-only movement; both his 1996 and 2000 presidential platforms included English-only and anti-bilingual ideology. Buchanan draws support from the white blue-collar population-newly insecure and disenfranchised-and he opportunistically couches his agenda in the lingo of anti-globalization, anti-free trade, and social justice. He views rising "delinquency, teenage drug abuse, promiscuity, illegitimacy, and abortions" as the price of a global economy¾"the brainchild of utopian European intellectuals, none of whom ever built a great nation" like America. He purports to understand America's "true history"-a blend of protectionism and fierce nationalism, symbolized by the Boston Tea Party. Within the formerly secure workforce-ravaged by the excessive greed and competition of the new global economy- Buchanan's half-truths garner sympathy. But for him, rebuilding a strong America involves far more than autarkic policies.55 His vision of "social justice" does not include all Americans.

According to Buchanan, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is "the first step towards a merger of American and Mexican economies, a prelude to the merger of the two countries"¾a point not far removed from the truth. However, Buchanan ignores the obvious: as a result of NAFTA, American capital has been able to completely overwhelm the Mexican economy. Aside from the creation of a few more Mexican billionaires, Mexico has received no benefits and its poverty has increased dramatically.56 For Buchanan, NAFTA is a drain on the strength of America, grounded in a mythical Protestant work ethic and threatened by Hispanic immigration. Buchanan delights in the racist quotas of 1924-65, and he appeals to "common" (white) Americans to "halt immigration":

We need a moratorium, or at least a time out, on immigration. There is nothing un-American about that. There is nothing racist, xenophobic, or immoral in this. A country that cannot control its borders isn't really a country anymore.57

Men like Buchanan are not, in and of themselves, the danger for those that suffer as a result of racist ideology. The economic conditions that allow for the support of racist ideology are the main concern.

In targeting the Hispanic population, the English-only movement reinforces the divisive effects of capitalist stratification, thereby diverting the resentments of those who are on the bottom rung of the ladder. For example, the English-only movement places first- generation Latino immigrants at odds with those Latinos who have been in the U.S. for more than one generation, and who are thus further along the process of assimilation and English language acquisition. Second- and third-generation Latinos are acculturated to view new immigrants as a threat to their attempts to establish themselves in American society, as a large component of this attempt is learning how to speak, read, and write English. The victims are diverted from the economic causes of their insecurity. The victims are then blamed and blame others who are being victimized by the economic structure.

American capitalism has generated many such instances of programmatic stratification. The FBI and its Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) thus targeted leftist groups that had risen during the 1960s to challenge the Establishment. Stratification-the fostering of antagonism among potential allies-was a major COINTELPRO strategy as the FBI attempted to fracture the left through infiltration and provocation. The Black Panther Party, described by the FBI as the "most active and dangerous black extremist group in the U.S.," was a key target. In Chicago in 1969, Panther leader Fred Hampton's efforts to politicize an African-American street gang-the Blackstone Rangers¾became too successful for the FBI's taste. The FBI sent Ranger leader Jeff Fort bogus letters insinuating that the Panthers were targeting the Rangers¾in hopes of provoking violent retaliation against Hampton. When the Rangers failed to do the FBI's dirty work, COINTELPRO instead enlisted the Chicago Police, who murdered Hampton on December 4, 1969.58

Violent measures such as the ones employed by the FBI are not the only methods of repression exercised by the powerful. Language is also an instrument used by the capitalist ruling class, often deliberately, to fabricate rifts among those who do not widely enjoy the fruits of the system. In 1897, the state of Pennsylvania imposed an English-speaking requirement for coal miners-language restrictions specifically enacted to divide labor and combat the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a socialist and international union that translated its meetings into twenty different languages.59

Racial divisions were the most effective method to undermine labor solidarity. According to W.E.B. Du Bois, low-paid white workers in the U.S. "were compensated in part by a psychological wage." White workers' struggle with capital was made more livable through what historian David Roediger refers to as the "wages of whiteness." White workers, while not enjoying the riches of the capitalist class, at least had the benefits of being white, which included access to most, if not all, public facilities: restaurants, theaters, hospitals, parks. This was a benefit not shared by people of color. Roediger writes:

White working class racism was underpinned by a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanisms which reinforce racial stereotypes and thus help to forge the identities of white workers in opposition to blacks.60

While de jure segregation has been abolished in the U.S., de facto segregation continues through new and innovative wages of whiteness, of which one of the more important current versions is the English language. Most white Americans can operate from an advantageous social position granted them by their "standard" English language skills. White Americans learn to enjoy this advantage and seek to maintain it. The English-only movement recognizes the disadvantages of those who do not speak "standard" English. This rift in the population creates a fertile breeding ground for the English-only movement.

Sometimes such stratification is intentionally fostered by the powerful. Other times, it is an invisible hegemonic process arising from life in the capitalist system¾a system structured to reward the few. Groups perceived to be different from one another are left to fight for scraps, thus forming harmful divisions. The English-only movement, although supported by many government officials and other representatives of American capitalism, is not an intentional stratification program. But its end result is the formation of harmful divisions. The English-only movement is, in this respect, a form of social control.

Frances Kellor, writing in 1916, understood the power of the English language as a method of social control:

Strikes and plots that have been fostered and developed by un-American agitators and foreign propaganda are not easily carried on among men who have acquired, with the English language and citizenship, an understanding of American industrial standards and an American point of view.61

The language of the civilized, on this view, is also the language of capitalism. To be American is to understand the benefits of a capitalist system. To understand the benefits of a capitalist system requires the English language.

The hegemony of capitalism is increasing the standardization of American society. Sometimes this process is the result of direct decision-making, such as orders for every young person in America to be judged according to a single set of standardized tests. Sometimes the process is less the result of design, and more the product of a capitalist culture that posits technocratic values as primordial. In either case (and the difference between chance and design may be difficult to determine), we must resist the English-only movement, which reflects both the visible and the invisible hegemony of capitalism. The English-only movement needs to be denounced as racist. We must recognize the purpose of this movement as being to immobilize immigrants¾particularly non-white immigrants¾through harmful divisions and damaging policies. A concern for social justice requires us to reject it.

Notes

1. E.J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 171.

2. James Crawford, ed., Language Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English Controversy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), editor's introduction. Crawford is one of the foremost scholars and activists working to lessen the machinations of the English-only movement, and his research and knowledge have been an invaluable resource. I gained the census data from Crawford's website, www.ourworld.compuserve.com.