There are bigots everywhere. The cry of Viva La Raza! is used by some in exactly the opposite of the meaning of its creator. Vasconcelos coined the term as La Raza C¢smica, to indicate the coming together into one people the genes and the culture of not just the Am‚ricas and Europe, but of Africa and Asia as well. He meant it as generally quite positive overall, as an optimist he felt we could learn from each other.
South of the R¡o Bravo you will find ethno- and linguicentric bigots, lots of them. There are [or were anyway] T-shirts for sale in mercados printed 'Comamos Los Geros' [let's eat the whites] alongside 'Comamos Los Ricos' [let's eat the rich].
On the language thing, you won't find much difference between an anglo bigot and an hispano one. And languages have been used as tools of domination over other peoples, e.g. the spanish, french, english, and portugues in the Am‚ricas, the Han chinese in Asia, the romans in Europe two millennia ago ... i do think that a second language is a fundamental part of a healthy basic education for children, its learning has benefits far beyond its utility of use, as it widens the horizons of the mind in general. And that's what bigotry is about - blinders, lack of horizons, inability to see the cosmic vista and one's own place among his fellows. The answer is education ... though always some will refuse to learn.
This organisation is imho one of the peaks of human endeavour to date -
sil.org |
