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| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
Some of you may recall the story I wrote a few months ago about the new Target in Columbia Heights’ decision not to install bilingual signs – despite the region’s concentrated Hispanic population.
People commented that it’s a trivial issue, that Spanish-speaking folks don’t need signs to find shampoo, and that I was painting Target as anti-neighborhood when really they’re creating jobs for local residents and providing valuable products.
But it’s not simply the store’s lack of signs that merited the most attention, it's how the store decided not to install bilingual signs – and how this decision reflects on the store’s expected demographics.
The Target Spokeswoman told me “the Target team surveyed Columbia Heights’ demographics and commerce trends and concluded that the store does not fit the criteria for bilingual signage.”
What kind of survey did they conduct? Did they even conduct a survey? Have the surveyors ever visited Columbia Heights? The spokeswoman could not answer these questions.
Ward One Councilman Jim Graham had no idea that Target had no plans for bilingual signs. In an official statement from Graham he told me the city would immediately look into the issue.
Well, the city didn’t think the lack of signs was trivial. Now every major hanging sign in the store reads in both English and Spanish.
Hopefully this inquiry shone light on Target’s methods of conducting demographics and commerce trends.
And I could only hope that the newly installed signs will make navigation in the store for Spanish-speaking customers easier and more user-friendly.
I thought it might be because racist conservative economic policy messed up our society building up to situation where our generation has a harder time getting jobs and living 'the american dream' then our parent's generation.
Oh, silly me, you are right, it must be because of affirmative action and bilingual signs that a privileged white guy can't get a job.
While it may be at first blush their right to so, it makes it infinitely more likely that they create a burden on society rather than providing it benefit. And for that reason alone I am against bending backward to accommodate.
Here's a data point for you:
"Only 7 percent of the children of Latino immigrants speak Spanish as a primary language, and virtually none of their children do. Just as they did a century ago, immigrants largely come knowing little English. But they learn, and their children use it as a primary language. The United States is not becoming a bilingual nation."
From: Link.
Read the rest of the article, which is by a prof from George Mason, that great bastion of liberal academia. Enjoy, and bring some data next time.
Your information refers to immoigrants children and not the immigrants themselves. I have lived in the Mt Pleasant and Columbia Heights area and can tell you it is definitely possible for people living up there to never learn English, and I definitely came across many who never did. You can find people working restaurants and stores there that don't speak any English. Who does this help?
Well done to Bobby and to the Target decision makers who have decided to put in bilingual signs in the very Latino neighborhood of Columbia Heights!