Tancredo has a little problem speaking English himself, but that’s beside the point. The racist platform upon which his campaign is built is very saddening to witness. Watch his reasoning for boycotting the Univision debate.
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Q: Tom Tancredo, taking a lot of heat for refusing to take part in this Sunday’s Spanish language presidential debate, it’s airing on Univision. —why take yourself out of this, sir?
Tancredo: Because I wonder to whom this audi…to whom you are supposed to to be speaking in a debate of this nature. Remember, that we are supposed to be talking to American citizens who have the right to vote. Alright, that’s what a debate is for so you can inform that electorate. It’s against the law to become an American citizen without the ability to speak and understand English. The law requires that. So, to whom are you speaking?
Q: Many Spanish speaking people still view Spanish as their primary language even if they have passed that test.
Tancredo: And that is the problem. We should not be encouraging that. My grandparents, when they came here. They would only let my grandparents speak Italian. They only let them speak English.
OK, jackass. Who is the “they” that made his grandparents only speak English? And who monitored their progress? What a fool. The “they” that he’s talking about are the racists and now he’s become part of that mob. And in the process of his race baiting—he attacks Univision’s entire audience—essentially calling all viewers of Univision “Illegal immigrants,” because they speak Spanish.
It’s interesting to note that I never heard Tancredo mention his grandparents before. I wonder if he got the idea after Geraldo Rivera brought the subject up and shamed him about them in this video.
My grandparents came to America in 1915. The ONLY reason I don’t speak Italian at all is because of the intense racism that they were subjected to. PERIOD. For years, I would ask my mother why I couldn’t speak Italian when I was a kid because I thought it would have been an important language skill to possess and I was proud of my family’s heritage. Finally, when I was a teenager she told me. I find it hard to believe that Tancredo’s grandparents weren’t subjected to that same racism. This is what makes Tancredo all the more loathsome. My relatives would hang out during holidays speaking in Italian because it came natural to them, as it should. What kind of America would we have without the melding of our cultures? It’s one I certainly wouldn’t want.
Now Tancredo says the other GOP candidates are pandering…
“It is the law that to become a naturalized citizen of this country you must have knowledge and understanding of English, including a basic ability to read, write, and speak the language,” Tancredo said, in a press release e-mailed by his campaign to reporters. “So what may I ask are our presidential candidates doing participating in a Spanish speaking debate? Pandering comes to mind.”
“America has been a melting pot of people from all over the world but it can not survive as a nation if our immigrants do not assimilate. A common language is essential to that goal. Bilingualism is a great asset for any individual but it has perilous consequences for a nation. As such, a Spanish debate has no place in a presidential campaign.”
I’d say the country has been doing fine all these years and have found no evidence of any “perilous consequences,” because of bilingualism except the fact that I had to study a language in HS and then take tests on what I learned…
Filed Under: Racism/Bigotry
Tags: Immigration, racism, Tom Tancredo
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There is NO law, whatsoever, that recognizes English as the official language of the United States. It just so happens that the majority speak it and it has become the most POPULAR language in the U.S..
Law? What law? This guy needs to go back to grade school. Another asswipe pandering to his racist, pieces of s**t supporters.
exactly. when was this law passed? it never was although many wish it had been. This man is an ass.
Tancredo’s so stupid he even refuse to learn a few words of Yiddish!
And he calls himself an American Politician!
How the hell does he expect to win without at least learning ‘Putz’, and ‘Eisl’,
and ‘Gefilte Fish’, and ‘Lox’?
What a narisch goyim!
Boy, did Geraldo suck you in.
He had no grandparents.
wow! that interview alone should have him looking for a job elsewhere
The guy is a self-loathing bastard, we all know this. Notice it’s a defense mechanism with all of these GOP-hypocrite types: I hate gays, even though I’m gay, I hate adulterers, even though I am one, etc.
It’s terrible that you were not allowed to learn Italian. The problem with this is that people who are told they cannot speak their own language or religion, eventually believe all the crap that’s being fed to them and start hating themselves for what they are.
This asshole will not get any votes as long as he realizes that whether he likes it or not, people from other cultures and languages are registered to vote. I’m Puerto Rican, born, raised, living in Puerto Rico, and Spanish is my primary language, so this pendejo can go straight to el carajo.
The only good thing to come out of this is that most people will see this racist jerk as for what he is.
Bravo Tancredo for Boycotting this, after all, im sure with his numbers he can afford to miss any publicity……………
See black people don’t have this problem. You know, where after a couple generations your children become sycophantic whitebread Republicans who forget where they came from…just kidding. Condi, Powell, Thomas.
No hablo Tancredo.
Sorry guys. I’m usually right there with you, but Tommy is right in this instance, and the candidates who participate in this debate ARE pandering.
Oh for Chrissakes don’t tell me this guy is a “uniter not a divider” too.
Pinche Pendejo!!!
Sig Heil Tom! I’m sure you’re parents are still loyal to Mussolini.
Peope actually watch this shit?
“AHHHHHHHH!!!! Brown people!” This would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad….
:(
But Univision is conservative, or so I thought.
I was in the crowd at a SF pro-war demonstration (it’s fun to watch and argue). At some point–
leaders: “do we watch CNN?”
crowd: “NOOOOOO!”
“Who do we watch?”
“FOX NEWS!”
“And Univision!”
“WHA?????”
“No, really, they are here in support of our rally!”
“Oh okay. Yay univision!”
tools.
I wish my parents had taught me more of the language that they learned to speak from their immigrant parents…. now that tongue is lost to me forever. Such a shame that in America, we don’t respect other languages or the cultures that they come from.
No, pandering is where you’ll do or say anything for a corporation or voting block, regardless of your beliefs for a few more bucks or votes.
Introducing yourself and educating the electorate, in a way which makes you accessible to them, and at same time allows them to become enfranchises in the national debate is both part of democratic process and is SMART.
Ignoring said group because they talk funny is xenophobic and racist. it also is scape goating, which in self has long been political pandering through out this nations history AGAIN and AGAIN. Ask the Irish, Italians, Polish, Japanese and Chinese etc , etc.
The only difference here is the Hispanics are a larger voting block than any of those groups, which makes them scary to white men
Does Tancredo even have a shot? Why even give him attention at all?
cg @ 19:
My guess would be further exposing the right wing for what it is and he is an elected representative, so….
The transcript is wrong. Tancredo says “My grandparents, when they came here. They would not let my PARENTS speak italian”.
There is no ‘they’ that forced his grandparents to speak English. The criticisms in the original post are invalid
McMike @ 16:
That’s what I thought, my perception of Univision is that it is FoxNews, with all their beautiful bimbo head babes, except its produced, narrated, and aired by and for brown people.
Btw, John Amato:
Nice post! Very passionate. Bolstered by personal experience.
Bravo!
Tancredo will most likely be one of many Republicans running as Independents this next election cycle. I say the more the merrier.
Im surprised any of the republcian candidates are taking part in this debate. It could make them look like therye for illegal immigration and against ‘english only’. Those are two killer issues in a republican party primary. They actually may be bad in the general election too.
The issue is its ’spanish language’, so Im assuming it will be translated?. If it was english language for hispanic people that’d be different.
Not all Hispanics are illegals. I would love someone to tell him that Puerto Ricans (the island being a U.S. commonwealth) conducts all official business in Spanish. My birth certificate for examples has English subtitles; I bet he’ll flip his lid. But sure, let everyone only speak one language in this country, while the rest of world encourages multilingualism in grade school - where science has proven that the earlier one is introduced to a foreign language, the faster and better they will learn it - because they know that a person that speaks more than one language is worth more as an employee. When we find ourselves worse off economically globally, we can pin the blame on the next ‘it’ race.
Oh racists idiots, I loved when I got my promotion that they complained because I was a minority, and not because I speak 5 languages fluently and a currently studying for a 6th.
Both of my mother’s parents moved to the United States from Nova Scotia. I wish that I could go back there. The two places that I’ve wanted to move to have very stringent immigration policies, New Zealand and Canada. It’s not that I necessarily want to abandon America; I’ve wanted to try living in those place for a long time, they’re beautiful.
I wonder about lefties.
And righties.
Who seeks and wants truth?
Just a question from an old guy who hates both parties,
Mr. Tancredo is free to participate or not; his reasoning for not participating are rather nonsensical and pathetic, to say the least. His comments not precisely what one would expect from a senator; on the other hand, surprises, however disagreeable are part of life. It is quite possible that as he hates Hispanics, he has no idea, that many of us, are educated, here and abroad, hold good jobs, speak several languages, take our civic duties very seriously, pay our taxes, are not looking for hand-outs and are respected members of the community; was forgetting, either when we retire or even before that, we volunteer, and no, we do not ask what race the person/group belongs to, because we realize that we all, including mr. Tancredo, belong to the HUMAN RACE and refuse to be put in boxes!!!!
it’s just going to take some time to shovel all the shit bigots and racists out of the govt.
too bad we have to tolerate them, but then it’s America. at least it used to be.
I find it hard to believe that Tancredo’s grandparents weren’t subjected to that same racism. This is what makes Tancredo all the more loathsome.
John, this is yet another instance of right wingers failing to connect their policies to their experiences, like Cheney’s gay daughter or the Bush daughters’ drug problems. I remember when Dan Quayle told Larry King that abortion would be alright if his daughter got raped. Next day, his wife held a presser saying Dan misspoke. As always, it’s alright if a Republican does it.
Congressman Trancredo is a refreshing voice of bigotry. When you listen to him you know without any doubt that you are listening to a racist bigot. He is straight forward about it. That is why I like to have at least one person being honest about what they are saying. Most of the other politicians and many of the so called media people try to sugar coat the shite they are putting out there. Not Tom! He is honestly a bigot a racist and a hate monger. The real question is why there are so many people who are hate mongers and racists who elect these people to congress? What is wrong with the USA? It is a very sick country. Liars, crooks - that pretty much constitutes all that we have in DC at this moment. There are so few examples to the contrary that they prove the rule.
Well, Tancredo is a lucky prick that at least his grandparents were allowed into this country, unlike his attitude toward immigrants. I despise these self-loathing purveyors of racism, pandering to the lowest common denominator of humanity.
My grandmother, a white Baptist to the core, was also racist. My father married my mother while he was stationed overseas, and my grandmother never got over it. Although my mother is fair-skinned, my grandmother initially referred to my mother as “that Italian n***er.” Eventually she became a bit more tolerant, but not much, and she never accepted blacks as equal, much to my dismay and sorrow.
I’m proud that I’m Sicilian, and I wish my mother had persisted in teaching her children Italian. We were just all too obstinate :)
I hope the Hispanic community is watching this closely……..so there can be no doubt.Tancredo is being very vocal about the Immigration issue…..they all feel the same way…make no mistake about it.
I can’t stand Tancredo, but on this I agree with him (in the words of Studs Terkel, “If the communists are against cancer, does that make them wrong?”)
Lookit, if you’re having a debate for the presidency of the United States, the language of the nation is English. Have it in English. And if you’re trying to be a part of the United States of America, the official language of business, of airport traffic controllers, banking, credit card terms, etc. — is English. Not German. Not French. Not Spanish. Not Portugese. Not Ductch. E-N-G-L-I-S-H.
Let’s flip it — if I move to Mexico and I’m interested in understanding the candidates for the presidency of Mexico, am I going to kick and whine because they won’t speak English. Of course not — that would be immature.
Tancreepo makes my skin crawl. However, he is a poster boy for GOP intolerance and should be viewed as a teaching tool of why not to vote for Republicans.
This is what the GOP has come to. They don’t even try to hide their racism anymore.
as for the language thing….It’s common courtesy to try to speak the language of the country you’re in…at least that’s the way I see it.And if you intend to stay and live in that country…and you refuse to learn the language…..that’s just being downright RUDE.
What the hell is the United States becoming when there is no real outrage over his bigoted remarks? And where is the Latino uproar?
Who is Tancredo fooling speaking in such an affected manner? Why is he being taken seriously?
So many questions and not enough answers.
.
Umm…
So it’s perfectly acceptable to use religion in measuring a person’s character, as a qualifying factor to become the president (A TEST) - but it’s not acceptable to mingle with dark skinned people?
Tancredo’s view of America is a perverted view. Nay, an UNAMERICAN view. He’d rather forgo his ancestry to be able to join an ideology based on supremacy of body color and belief in spirit.
I deeply question his ability to faithfully PROTECT and PRESERVE the Constitution of the U.S.A.
.
As an immigrant and son of immigrants (who had to learn the language) I’m opposed to injecting Spanish into the public domain. Private business no problem, this is a “free country”, put up your store front sign in any language you choose. Public business … on the tax payer dime… English only.
AA64 @ 21:
Also, no one forced his grandparents to get on the ship and leave their beloved Italy for a far and away place.
I guess the irony of the fact that he is from a state named Colorado, which is Spanish for “red,” must have flown over Tancredo’s feeble little mind… here is a hint, there are far more people who descend from Ute-Aztec or Mexican stock in Colorado than there are whiteys of the Italian persuasion, wonder why? Hum….
i’m sorry ancestors but i’m still p.o. ed at you all because i wasn’t brought up knowing how to speak: german, welsh and dutch–i’ll forgive cherokee — well sort of. but point is if you have a family history you should teach all of it to your kids and grandkids.
think how much better off this guy might have been if he’d been multilingual.
wonder if gwb2 would be better off if he was lingual?
Mudshark, does this mean that if I live in the U.S. I can’t even speak Spanish in my own home? Is that what that means?!?
Wilfredo @ 44:
c’mon….this is a ridiculous question.
Tancredo doesn’t speak English; he speaks Gibberish.
Tancredo is playing to his base.
All politicians do this.
Question: Which candidates, R or D, in their heart, want what’s best for America?
GreyGhost @ 41:
First off, a lot of people who speak the Queen’s English may object to call what is spoken by a majority of Americans as English. If English is such a priority to you, at least you would learn to spell things correctly (colour vs. color and other lazy spellings for example :-) ).
Also for you consideration, a lot of those Taxpayers, in states like California for example… not only speak Spanish as their first language but they can trace their Spanish speaking roots in that area to times where English was nowhere to be heard in the state. Since they also pay taxes, I assume they can also have a similar thesis and make a case for the fact that English has no business to be used in places paid for on their dime… After all they were there first, and it is you the rude one for not wanting to learn the language spoken in the area. See there are two sides to a coin… :-)
If you check some of the state constitutions in South Western states (like California) they are written in both