The "English Only" movement, negative mass attitudes against immigration, bilingual programs in the public schools, welfare reform excluding immigrants, and, most recently, Propositions 187 and 209 in California are all indications that the public is ready for reforms which return greater power into the hands of the white and powered majority. In Texas and California, where the wars are primarily being fought, immigrants are being blamed for social malaise and a general lowering of standards. In those states, the public schools have been a special focus of attention. The following paper will examine civil rights in general, and the "English Only" movement in particular; in addition, Calfornia'a Propositions 187 (the initiative to deny basic social services to undocumented immigrants) and 209 (amends California's state Constitution to forbid racial and gender preferences in state and local government employment, contracting, and education) will be discussed. Proposition 209 is also called "C.C.R.I.," or, the "California Civil Rights Initiative."
English is the language of most Americans, and for the last two centuries it has been the key to an immigrant's economic success, yet today we are on a path toward becoming an officially bilingual nation, or so goes the argument from the right that we should act now to preserve English before it is too late--"English Only" should be the motto of the 1990s. An article in the conservative National Review cites Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California as four hotspots of insurrection:
In Florida, Spanish-speaking residents are increasingly demanding government services in their native language. In California and Texas, Spanish-language advocates like to observe that this land was Spanish before it was English. Last year in Tucson, the Immigration and Naturalization Service swore in a batch of new citizens in Spanish. We spend $10 billion each year on bilingual education, with the ...