WOMEN IN THE WORLD

Eva Longoria Takes On Xenophobia

By Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger | Women In The World – Fri, Apr 5, 2013

Speaking on a panel on "Latina Power" at the Women in the World Summit 2013, actress and education activist Eva Longoria took on xenophobia in the United States. "They are scared we're going to have a Taco Bell on every corner," she quipped. More seriously, she pointed out that by 2050, the population of Latinos in the United States will have doubled. "If you look at the numbers, that’s our future workforce. If we don’t educate them, we are in trouble.” Longoria also pointed out that the United States is the only country that "promotes monolingualism." She encouraged teaching children "French…Russian…Chinese—we need to be worldly." Longoria also discussed her non-profit foundation which aims to combat the high dropout rates for Latina teens by giving them tools to get into, and stay in, college.

Eva Longoria with child from Padres Contra El Cancer

COMMENTS

Maybe she can help combat the xenophobic principles of the French population of the Canadian province of Quebec whom have declared French as the official and only language allowed to have a presence and actually have Language Police that go around fining people for having English signs or conversing in English in the workplace with the ultimate goal of eliminating English as a 2nd language at the expense of those whose mother tongue is English. All of this without passing through a judicial trial. Guilty as determined by the gestapo. - Rbw 

English is the business language of the world, this is the language that needs to be taught first , then if someone wants to learn other languages, it is their choice and to their benefit. Canada is a bilingual country and look at the costs for this and the political problems they are having with Quebec. - William 

I'm from California so in my lifetime I've met a lot of people from other countries that came here to America. All of them learned how to speak English except for the Hispanics. Sometimes their English wasn't perfect but they still tried. I've worked with people from Sweden, Russia, Norway, Germany etc. I used to work with quite a few Egyptians that came to the USA to work. They all spoke perfect English and they went by American names. There was a Steve, a Kevin, a Mary etc. If other foreigners can do it they can too. We should not have to learn their native language, they need to learn ours as long as they are going to be in America. - Candygirl 

Agreed! Learn it or leave it. I am forced to learn Spanish for employment, and I HIGHLY refute that way of thinking. YOU came HERE, learn the native tongue. If our gov't would stop bending over backwards to please immigrants, etc, we would be much better off. - Kim 

Native American woman  Regina Lakota Sioux - fb

"My recollection of American history spoke a lot about the number of European, and Native American, and African languages spoken in the 13 colonies, and on into the decades onward across the continent! How the languages became less significant, and important to their People are varied and often sad. The Africans and the numerous tribes of the People (Native Americans in today's lexicon) have the worse stories and reasons for the loss of their primary tongue to English.


The missing link to understanding this complex question has to do with the dance we all do around the insensitivity of the French, and the English people specifically, and in general Euro-Americans, and their deep sense of supremacy we scientifically call xenophobia!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.6.13

Native American Chief Spotted Elk gunned down at Wounded Knee

native american men of the Maidu nation