Remember Geno’s Steaks in Philly? Well, the city’s Commission on Human Relations (is this anything like the Alberta Human Rights Commission?) has ruled that the shop’s “This is America: WHEN ORDERING ‘PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH” sign does not violate the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance.
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15 Comments
Well, that avoided a nasty First Amendment fight.
RE: The Alberta Human Rights Commission
I knew Ezra Levant from the university debate club. I have never seen anyone better and recommend everyone watch the complete series of videos featuring Ezra versus the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
Good for Geno’s. They could probably drop the “This is America” part, though.
They could, but why should they? I mean, it’s just the truth. Being ashamed of the truth is what gets people into heaps of trouble in life. Just admit that Philadelphia is in America and move on.
#3,
Even then…He should reword the whole thing. “Service only provided in English. Sorry for the inconvenience”.
…then again, that would be going against the tough guy image that people from Philly like to project (my guess is the sign is more about playing up on the image than politics).
#4,
The truth is the US is a ‘melting pot’, remember?
The truth is that a lot of cultures are merely settling in isolated colonial pockets in Canada and the US without integrating themselves into their new home country.
do people actually go into a restaurant and order in foreign languages? am i to believe that geno has had customers try and order sandwiches in russian or chinese? seems like complete bs to me. reminds me of the jackasses that get upset because an operator asks them to press 1 for english and 2 for spanish. i could understand being upset if my language wasn’t available but being upset for offering other languages seems pretty idiotic.
I may be a bit behind the curve on this one, but it seems to me that alienating 99.999% of Americans just because they don’t speak English is just not smart. Why doesn’t he just point out that there’s no bath in the bathroom, people shouldn’t try to take a rest in the restroom, maths has never been singular unlike physic and economic, you shouldn’t try to put gas in your car and there’s no such university town in England called Arxford.
#9 - The whole row was started with people ordering in Spanish, as I recall. Not Chinese, not Russian - Spanish. Because the US has a lot of Mexican immigrants these days, ya know? They were ordering Philly cheesesteak in Spanish and it pissed off the owner, so he told his employees to only accept orders in English.
#10 - But while there are a lot of Mexican immigrants in the US, its not 99.999%, so I don’t know where you got that number.
I think if some guy wants to make a restaurant where you can only speak English its a free country, don’t worry about it and move on with your life. Its ambiance. Nothing to bleed a heart over.
The commenter was taking a poke at the bastardized language that passes for English in the United States.
judge judy’s right, just drop the “this is America” bit
#12
I guess I was unaware that los numeros are now bastardized in the U.S.
Actually, recent immigrant settlement patterns are the opposite: new arrivals are moving into smaller cities and towns to find work, lower rents, and safer communities. That is one reason why we are seeing more vocal opposition to immigration. Foreigners are becoming visible in relatively homogenous places where people aren’t used to ethnic and linguistic diversity.