Opinion

The racism of requiring bilingual language skills

A bilingual help wanted sign for Auto Zone, a retailer of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories, is posted in Canton, Miss., Sept. 27, 2018. Readers debate employers’ desire to have bilingual workers. A bilingual help wanted sign for Auto Zone, a retailer of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories, is posted in Canton, Miss., Sept. 27, 2018. Readers debate employers’ desire to have bilingual workers. Photo: Rogelio V. Solis /Associated Press Photo: Rogelio V. Solis /Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close The racism of requiring bilingual language skills 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Applying for a job is nerve-wracking because of today’s requirements.

My daughter has been looking for a job for two years. Her qualifications are good. She graduated from college with a business degree. She has worked off and on for many years in business jobs.

She is currently looking for a job. But in South Texas, all the jobs she is qualified for have one box she cannot check. That requirement is “Bilingual English/Spanish highly preferred.”

In San Antonio, there are jobs that she qualifies for — except for that one requirement. At this point, most Hispanics, I believe, have learned to speak English if they have gone through public schools. No Spanish classes are offered until high school.

Many Hispanics learned their “foreign” language at home, with family members preferring to speak Spanish.

Somehow that one requirement is telling me that racism is used by companies, big and small, in San Antonio.

Actually, Spanish is not the correct word. The word to use is “Tex-Mex.” I have an aunt who married into our family and we were so anxious for her to talk to us, but, no, there was the language barrier. She wanted to move back to Mexico because she could not speak to Hispanics in Texas because they talked a “Tex-Mex” language.

It was a sad day for us when we learned that she did move back to Mexico, where the language spoken in her community was “Castilian Spanish.”

I was born is Mission in Hidalgo County. I am Anglo, but I failed to learn the foreign language that was spoken there. I did not know there was a difference between myself and Hispanic people.

When I was in seventh and eighth grades in San Antonio, I still did not see the difference between us. Finally, in high school, many students wanted to take Spanish as a class that was not required. I suppose I was not exposed to racism until later, in high school. I saw some students spitting and bullying an African-American in the hallway. Then my eyes were opened to racism.

As older adults, my mother and uncle were both living in a HUD building for older people. My mother was very sad because she and my uncle were the only Anglos living there. The Hispanic ladies would stop talking when my mother tried to be with them.

My uncle did not have the same problem, because he knew how to speak and understand Tex-Mex. My husband and I decided to move them to a subsidized home in New Braunfels. They were very happy there and had many friends.

So back to the question of racism in job applications — that preferred bilingual, English-Spanish job requirement.

Am I the only one who has noticed that inequality in job hiring? The news speaks daily of plenty of jobs that need filling in the United States. Because of this, the migrating Central Americans are actually better qualified than the Americans who have lived in South Texas for 80 years.

Barbara M. Kaler lives in San Antonio.