The Miami Herald's bilingual discrimination against anglo-americans represents the spanglocist community

Spanglocismo (Final)

SPANGLOCISMO
by
DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS

Introduction to Spanglocism

Knight Ridder's Miami Herald discriminates against job seekers who are not Spanish-English bilinguals and is using misleading advertising to conceal its spanglocism. Its spanglocist policy discriminates against job seekers because of their country of origin (the United States and other countries where English is the native, national, or majority language) and ethnicity (non-Hispanic).

The Herald's spanglocism mirrors the discriminatory practice of the bilingual (English-Spanish only) community. Alas for anyone who objects to spanglocism because it unfairly bars them from equal opportunity to gainful employment in Miami: they are likely to be called "racists" if not gringos. Nonetheless the issue is one that should be raised in hopes that a higher level of awareness will move the community to even more social justice and "diversity" than it advertises and believes it presently enjoys.

No doubt Knight Ridder executives would summarily dismiss as overblown any complaint about The Herald's spanglocism and misleading advertising in support thereof. Still, untold thousands of people who do not enjoy the newspaper staff's ingrained perspective have been deeply offended and angered by The Herald's spanglocism on behalf of its advertisers as well as on its own account pursuant to a policy similar to the one roughly described by its Executive Editor Tom Fiedler for selecting columnists when responding to a recent inquiry.

The Herald's Market Need

"A complex calculus comes into play in choosing columnists - market need, experience, reputation, credibility in a subject, demographic profile (i.e. race, gender and ethnicity) -- that goes beyond the ability to write well," wrote Mr. Fiedler in response to my application.

It is no accident that "market need" has priority over the other qualities mentioned given the emphasis placed by the publishers on the bottom line. After all, the publication has to survive, right?

Pues claro!

Ironically, the bottom line suffers because of money is emphasized and truth all too often plays second fiddle to market needs. Hence the newspaper loses credibility with otherwise informed readers, therefore subscriptions lag. And now, rather than resort to truth and merit, The Herald executives apparently believe better and more marketing including more sophisticated copywriting will sell more of the same content provided it is carefully crafted to cater to the ethnic, racial, gender and age prejudices of the presumably gullible populace.

Misleading Advertising

The Herald's June 29, 2005, advertisement for young bilingual telemarketers was graphically illustrated with the lovely faces of four Hispanic ladies and the handsome face of a Hispanic fellow, above this copy:

Make it work for you.

Pay off your credit card balance. Your school loan. Save for a new car. Grad school. A Harley. A hot vacation. Whatever you want. Choose the hours that make sense for you. Evenings? Weekends? No problem. We're as flexible as you are. Mornings (9 am - 1 pm)... Evenings (5 pm - 9 pm)... Saturdays included (from 9 am - 1 pm and/or 1 pm - 5 pm)... Sundays voluntary (9 am - 1 pm, 1 pm - 5 pm). Earn $ 7 hour PLUS commission, incentives and benefits. Our top sellers work 30+ hours and earn more than $700 week - you could too! Benefits included pension, stock purchase and 401 (k) plans, vacation and tuition reimbursement. Grow with one of South Florida's most progressive companies. Build your resume and gain valuable sales and marketing credentials. We'll train you! Requirements: Must be bilingual (English and Spanish). The Herald is committed to workforce diversity. We welcome applications from all individuals. Equal Opportunity Employer. Smoke Free/Drug Free environment. (emphasis added).

On July 3, 2005, a help wanted advertisement was run for mature bilingual telemarketers below a photo of what the younger telemarketers would probably call Hispanic "old folks":

Tired of being retired?

Have extra spending money. Pay off your credit card balance. Save for a new car. A vacation. Whatever you want. Choose the hours that make sense for you. Evenings? Weekends? No problem. We're as flexible as you are. Mornings (9 am - 1 pm)... Evenings (5 pm - 9 pm)... Saturdays included (from 9 am - 1 pm and/or 1 pm - 5 pm)... Sundays voluntary (9 am - 1 pm, 1 pm - 5 pm). Earn $ 7 hour PLUS commission, incentives and benefits. Our top sellers work 30+ hours and earn more than $700 week - you could too! Benefits included pension, stock purchase and 401 (k) plans, vacation and tuition reimbursement. Grow with one of South Florida's most progressive companies. We'll train you! Requirements: Must be bilingual (English and Spanish). The Herald is committed to workforce diversity. We welcome applications from all individuals. Equal Opportunity Employer. Smoke Free/Drug Free environment. (emphasis added).

And on the same day we see a Knight Ridder company advertising a 'Writing and Editing Opportunity, Bilingual English/Spanish. Copywriter for Marketing/Creative....

Now we do not see similar Herald advertisements directed to prospective telemarketers aged between Young and Retired - the Ideal Age in the United States is Thirty Something. Unemployed young people and seniors have difficulty getting good jobs and are often desperate for work, therefore they are targeted by slick sales-force recruiters. Anyone who has tried their hand at cold-calling soon discovers that a tiny percentage of sales persons make top dollars. It is safe to presume that very few if any members of The Herald's telemarketing staff consistently make $ 700 week, not to mention enough to adequately fund 401 K's and pensions plans - note well that the benefits advertised do not include the most important one of all for low-income workers: health insurance. Still, if $37,000 per annum were in fact the average earnings of telemarketers who work full time instead of exceptional earnings. The Miami Herald would not have to frequently run deceptive spanglocist advertising to fill telemarketing slots.

In sum, telemarketing requires little training and is generally regarded as bottom-rung, low-paying work, and suffers a high turnover. Companies generally "exploit" the young and elderly to (wo)man the phones and make the calls that few people want to receive let alone make. That is the truth of the matter. If that is not true, The Herald should fire its creative advertising director and proceed to advertise equal pay for equal work and guarantee a living base pay of $12 per hour for telemarketing. Then its copy would not suggest that The Herald is preying on young and seniors while discriminating against non-Hispanics as well as Hispanics - Ironically, spanglocism exploits Hispanics while favoring them for low-paying work.

And now The Herald, an "Equal Opportunity Employer... committed to workforce diversity..." has declared, "We welcome applications from all individuals." But not an application from non-Spanish speakers who speak English. And why not? Because all individuals applying for the job "must be bilingual (English and Spanish)."

That is tantamount to denying native English speakers who do not speak Spanish and who might or might not speak other foreign languages an equal opportunity to work for an English-language newspaper; to wit: The Miami Herald. The Miami Herald is in effect discriminating against Anglo-Americans and other, non-Hispanic American citizens and residents

Es spanglocismo? Si!

The Bilingual Herald

The Herald has a Spanish-speaking sister - el Nuevo Herald. Since Money is the god of the free enterprise system, it would seem to follow that The Herald’s behavior is economically appropriate. The managers are simply being efficient: Why hire two staffs when you can kill two birds with one stone? Thousands of Americans who do not speak Spanish are excluded from jobs every week. Pues que? Surely any conservative judge in his right mind would uphold Knight Ridder's right to discriminate against U.S. citizens who do not speak Spanish where Spanish happens to be the majority tongue!

Therefore The Herald intentionally caters to the ethnic and racial "market forces" fostered by the national government and multinational corporations and deems itself a "progressive" and "equal opportunity" employer, and "democratic" to boot because its owners and staff have unswerving faith in American-style corporate capitalism. Nonetheless The Herald is plainly discriminating on the basis of country of origin (the United States), and ethnicity/race. And by doing so The Herald condones and propagates the practice of "my language, my culture", ethnocentric apartheid.

The editors know they are guilty of spanglocism. From time to time their collective multicultural conscience and journalistic ethic moves them to publish something to rid themselves of their guilt-twinges. But they only sweep the dirt under the carpet. They really don't know what to do with it. Who can blame them? Still, the question begs to be answered if we would ameliorate the hard feelings and diminish the accumulating resentment of non-Spanish-speaking English speakers who dare not question the bilingual divide and challenge the spanglocism lest they be called "arrogant gringos", "ethnic bigots", and "racists".

A Knight Ridder Editorial

Given Knight Ridder's "market needs", its advertising is often passed off as news, analysis, and opinion. For example, on January 8, 2005, The Herald published an armchair editorial by Mary Sanchez of Knight Ridder's Kansas City Star under the rubric, 'America's fear of other languages is unfounded'. The fact that any English speaker would worry about being denied work and social status for not speaking Spanish, even when English is the native language and is also the official language of many of the United States, apparently irritates her to no end.

"The English-only crowd fears the societal effects of immigrants who seemingly refuse to give up their native language," Ms Sanchez indites. "The fear is distorted.... 92 percent of second generation Latinos speak English well or very well even though 85 percent speak some Spanish at home.... Pockets in the Southwest and California seemingly lend credibility to the idea that Spanish will somehow 'overtake' English. But even in the Mexican migration-heavy California, old patterns of assimilation play out... English is not in danger. "But, it is hoped, the American arrogance is beginning a slow, long-overdue death."

American arrogance? America embraces two continents of many countries. Of course the United States of America is somewhat arrogant for claiming the name "America" all for itself; but we think that assumption has escaped the attention of the reporter from the Heart of America (booster term for Kansas City). Nor does Ms. Sanchez put herself in the shoes of the untold thousands of people denied work in the United States because they don’t speak Spanish. We think she subconsciously resents "the English-only crowd" because they remind her of the gringos who put Hispanics down in several American countries, most of all in the United States where they are still being exploited, even by their own people.

Now gringo is a dirty word to the politically correct, a derogatory term for Anglo-Americans or Yankees; apparently a selfish sort of people who hang out downtown: "Fui al centro y puro pinche gringo por todos lados." But gringo used to mean "foreigner" where Spanish was the native tongue; the language of a gringo was "Greek" to Spanish-speakers. Ms. Sanchez is correct: gringos fear a backlash from latinos, now that latinos are assimilating and "corrupting" their ways. In Miami, gringos are gringos (“foreigners