Race- Privilege, Relations, Racism, etc.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/

Your numbers are misleading. Just because there are that many Natives doesn't mean they are speaking that language.

Above is a link to the 2011 language census, you can download the table with a breakdown of language by language amount in the middle along with the report.

At most about 400,000 native Americans speak a native language total.

This may be enough to use the tribal language in local school systems which is pretty common actually, but not enough for a nation wide transformation. Preservation sure. But implementation as a second language? Not outside the direct community really.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur

Pretty much, yeah; though I'm not quite sure how much the two overlap. If fluency in one means at least basic literacy in the other, either works as a second official language, next to English.

And how much are those languages still used?

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur

That simply confirmed my numbers; the language use question "how many people speak something other than English at home" said there were just under 170,000 Navajo speakers (169,471 in fact). It's right there on Table 1, in "Native North American Languages Spoken at Home in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2006–2010". The other survey has a slightly smaller number, but still over 169,000. It doesn't seem overly-difficult for the US government to offer, for instance, census forms or papers in native languages. You can get Scottish parliament documents, for instance, in 14 languages.

edited 7th Feb '14 6:58:29 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

This is basically why Brits will have a tendency to look sideways at American language provision. We're... pretty used to seeing official documents in with multiple interesting scripts. As standard. (Heck, you can't look at the ingredients list of most products without meeting most of Europe. And Turkey. And Israel. And Arabic. And, occasionally, Gujarati.)

edited 7th Feb '14 7:25:38 AM by Euodiachloris

The question arising - why would you ever want to?

Overall, though, having one or more official languages simply means people will know they'd get fair service, so long as they speak at least one of them; rather than rely on shoddy improvised translations if they don't. It'd also be a gesture of respect to cultural heritage if local native languages are officiated thusly, though again, I'd consider it on a state-by-state basis.

Because Britain has a lot of minority languages knocking about? We don't kid around when we talk "multi-cultural". And, we take provision of governmental services to anybody who needs them rather seriously (even though the Conservatives are currently trying to attack that: I'm still not happy about the fact that you can no longer take a driving test with an interpreter).

edited 7th Feb '14 7:23:34 AM by Euodiachloris

Because everybody wants to come to Scotland!

Well, by everyone, I mean Poles, Pakistanis, and the Chinese, but they do come!

Schild und Schwert der Partei

RE the Spanish thing, New Mexico doesn't have any official languages on record, but Spanish is afforded a special status, IIRC laws are published in Spanish and many local government offices conduct everyday business in Spanish. Helps that a good chunk of the people are either Latino immigrants or descendants of Spanish settlers (there's a pretty neat dialect of Spanish native to the region).

ok boomer

400,000 people in a country of millions isn't worth it, especially when most of that community will be spread out.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur

So it seems the strongest argument in favor of an official language is that it will supposedly provide some sort of official incentive for immigrants to learn the language, which will reduce the demand for expensive translation services. Do I have that correct?

1) I didn't know Native Americans were immigrants.

2) The money for translations are most likely cheaper than all the work needed to integrate a language used by such a small minority of citizens.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur

Well, 2) was my argument from several pages ago, but I want to make sure I am still tracking what people are claiming.

From what I can tell, the cost of providing on-call translation versus officializing the respective language depends on its prominence and number of exclusive speakers - Spanish is a good example where it's perhaps better to add it next to English as an official language, at least in some states. The same applies to native languages, although, per the Maori and Cornish cases, additional weight may be given to concerns of cultural and national heritage.

As for immigrants, the state is free to pose any requirements, including linguistic ones, and is not obliged to provide for the fulfillment of said requirements by de facto foreign nationals wishing to apply. Thus, the burden of knowing the language lies with the applicant, including regarding finance - making it cheaper for the state itself, and making any on-call translations the exception, rather than the rule.

Groundbreaking interracial relationships

I have been personally experiencing an increase in harassment for my interracial relationship from my job. But at the same time, I am very grateful that we have not had to endure what some of these couples and their families had to deal with.

I can handle a few snide comments here and there because at least Aprilla and I can walk down the street and us not be lynched. Scary to think just one to two generations ago (depending on location) we wouldn't be able to say that.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur

Back around the early 1900's there was one instance in my town where a white woman married a black man. Rather than lynch them or drum them out of the town, they did their best to make the woman an Unperson. All of her records (birth, tax information, census, etc etc) were "lost" from the local courthouse where they were kept, and she was shunned completely from the community. The only record of even her name was a single first name written on a picture taken sometime before she died.

damn. O_O

I'm baaaaaaack

When my white great-grandfather married my black great-grandmother, his family disowned him for it.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

that kind of happened to my cousin for a while. The family was in a kind of collective shock over the whole thing for a good few months, but everyone's gotten over it by now. her dad was really pissed for awhile.

Partly because it wasn't marriage, she just ended up pregnant(she was kind of "the good one", but they're still together and getting married...eventually. They're engaged but haven't set a date that anyone knows of.

edited 13th Feb '14 6:56:19 PM by Joesolo

I'm baaaaaaack

According to my parents, my late grandfather was not pleased about Irish Catholic blood entering the family line, though he got over it.

edited 14th Feb '14 12:10:21 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Black inventors and their inventions

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

-School PC-

My grandmother who was the child of a italian and a portuguese-descended lady married a man who was descended from Africans and Indigens.

I don't remember how my grandmother's family reacted, but I do think that they, at the very least, were present during their marriage.

"Please crush me with your heels Esdeath-sama!

Jury in loud music trial reaches verdict on 4 of 5 counts. This white man shot 10 rounds at a car full of black teenagers for playing their rap music too loud. From the same lovely state that brought us the Zimmerman trial. I am listening to the trial now and he was charged with 3 counts of attempted 2nd degree murder but there was a mistrial on the murder charge.

edited 15th Feb '14 4:05:04 PM by wuggles

>Is guilty of 3 attempted murders

>mistrial on the one person he killed

What the fuck

Do we know why the Judge declared a mistrial?

Because that is important.

edited 16th Feb '14 1:17:18 AM by SaintDeltora

"Please crush me with your heels Esdeath-sama!