Unpacking the Temper Tantrum of Aaron Schlossberg and Disrupting Linguistic Intolerance

Aaron Schlossberg’s racist rant in a Midtown Manhattan eatery that happened last week isn’t something I was shocked to hear or see. Sadly, incidents like this happen frequently in our country. Citizen journalism and social media have resulted in the increased visibility of these kind of disturbing incidents. Thanks to the organizing of thousands of people and the power of the internet, this whining lawyer seems to have already experienced a small dose of karma for his racist and inappropriate outburst. The public outcry against this overt bigotry and ignorance was refreshing to see and a nice reminder that Americans have a great sense of humor and more importantly, a majority of them disapprove of racism and xenophobia.

While I watched this entitled and arrogant “man” throw a temper tantrum that rivals the tantrums my three year old son throws, a few things came to mind:

1. There is NO official language in the United States. Nope- not one. English is the most commonly used language, but not legally required to be spoken. Since 1965, Spanish has been the second most common language in the United States. In fact, there are more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than in all of Spain. Spanish is such an integral part of U.S. American culture that not only is it formally taught in most schools, but many of our own states, cities, and streets have Spanish names (ex. Los Angeles, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, San Antonio, El Camino Real, etc, etc). Languages other than English were spoke in this country before this county was even officially a country, so people who have an issue with “foreign” languages being spoken on our streets and public institutions need to get over it!

2. New York City is an international city and is the gem that it is today because of the blood, sweat, and tears of the generations of immigrants before us. Yes, immigrants (those people who have the privilege and power to speak other languages) have been arriving to NYC since the mid 1800's. It is the diversity that these immigrants brought and continue to bring to NYC that makes this city such a beautiful, vibrant, and culturally rich place. If there is any city in this country in which linguistic diversity exists and is embraced- it is in New York City. With over 800 languages spoken on any given day, you are crazy if you expect that you will only hear English. If hearing other languages makes you feel threatened or uncomfortable, perhaps you should consider moving to a homogeneous town like Hialeah, Florida where you can ensure that more than 90% of your neighbors will be White Americans.

3. Shaming people who speak other languages is not only linguistic discrimination and intolerance, but it is plain stupid. If anything, we should encourage more young people in this country to learn more than one language. It will not only make them more competitive in the globalized world that we live in (many European countries require children to learn English AND another foreign language by the age of 9), but research has shown that people who are bilingual are smarter and have better social skills than monolingual people.

4. Newsflash- just because someone is fluent in Spanish doesn’t mean they are undocumented. More than 40 million people in this country speak Spanish at home- this constitutes both immigrants and native born Americans. Threatening to call ICE on these employees for speaking Spanish demonstrates this man’s lack of intelligence, exuberant ignorance, and desperation to enact the power to oppress others who are different than him. Aaron is not the only person who thinks like this—just a few days ago two American citizens were detained in Montana by a Border Patrol agent because he overheard them speaking Spanish at a gas station!

5. Contrary to popular belief, undocumented immigrants are NOT eligible for public benefits such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, or Food Stamps. Additionally, documented immigrants must live in this country for a minimum of five years before they are even entitled to receiving benefits. Undocumented immigrants also pay taxes-billions of dollars a year! Many Americans are misguided into thinking that immigrants and people of color are the ones who are largely living on welfare. The reality is that White Americans receive more benefits than other racial and ethnic group in this country. A recent Huff Post article states that in 2016, White Americans received more (43%) Medicaid benefits when compared Black or Hispanic people. They were also the largest recipients (36%) of food stamps when compared to Hispanic people (17.2%). So before you go accusing hard working people of free loading, do your homework and educate yourself about how the welfare system actually works.

6. As if threatening to deport someone wasn’t bad enough, ending his temper tantrum with body shaming a female employee showed the world that not only is Aaron Schlossberg a racist, but also a body shaming misogynist. The level of entitlement that someone has to feel in order to walk into an establishment as a paying customer assuming authority of what language is spoken and what people should or should not put in their bodies is outright disgusting. This man gives Americans a bad name and I am embarrassed and ashamed of his actions and words.

I want to end by encouraging all of you out there who speak Spanish or a second language to be PROUD of your language and your culture, and realize that your ability to be bilingual makes you more powerful in the diverse and globalized world that we live in. Let’s disrupt linguistic intolerance and embrace linguistic diversity because WE ALL BELONG HERE—including our unique languages, dialects, vernaculars, and accents.