California: Senator fielding hate messages over language bill

[Harold Schiffman]

Senator fielding hate messages over language bill

By Steven Harmon
MediaNews Sacramento Bureau
Posted: 04/02/2009 01:17:16 PM PDT


Should business owners be allowed to bar non-English speaking patrons?

SACRAMENTO — The anonymous caller from Los Angeles had an angry
message to deliver. Some would call it hateful. And Sen. Leland Yee,
D-San Francisco/San Mateo, was the target. "Tell him to go back to
China," the woman said, leaving her message on the senator's voice
mail. "He's an immigrant. This is the United States. We speak
English." She was responding to a bill Yee introduced that would make
it illegal for businesses to prohibit the use of foreign languages in
their establishments. It's the follow-up legislation to the Ladies
Professional Golf Association tiff this past fall, when the LPGA
sought to ban players who couldn't speak English. After Yee made a
national splash by threatening to push legislation prohibiting the
golf association from imposing its policy in California, the LPGA
backed down, and has since offered opportunities for non-English
speaking players to study the language.

Language rights of employees of businesses are already protected under
the state's Fair Employment and Housing Act. But Yee's bill would
amend the state's civil rights act to cover store patrons or contract
workers such as landscapers. It was approved this week by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, and is slated to go before the full Senate after
next week's spring recess. As the caller continued, her tone grew
uglier and more xenophobic: "English is our language. Don't like it?
Leave our country. No one's begging you to stay. Stop coming to our
country and try(sic) to change everything to fit what you want. We
created it, we like it the way it is. You don't like it — you pack
your bags, and you go home. Have a great day, Lee. Leland. Which is a
white name."

It was one of about two dozen messages his office has received by
e-mail or phone that have, to varying degrees, expressed opposition to
his bill, SB242. The reaction, Yee said, has convinced him that
there's much more work to be done in leading the most diverse state in
the nation toward more tolerance. "There's still a lot of individuals
who don't get it, don't understand diversity," said Yee, the assistant
President Pro Tem and first Chinese-American to be elected to the
Senate. "I just feel sad to hear that there are people who feel
there's only one culture, one language. There are so many examples
where people are fighting each other. In my bill, I'm trying to bring
people together. Unfortunately, there are many individuals who don't
want that to happen, who want to be divisive."

Yee, 60, emigrated from China at age 3, growing up in San Francisco's
Mission District, the product of a California upbringing that has had
its share of racial tensions. He recalled when, as a child, he saw his
uncle upbraided by a storekeeper for speaking broken English.  "As we
were walking out, the salesman said, 'go back to where you came
from,'" Yee said. "These things stick with you. I grew up in this
environment, where on almost a daily basis, you go into a store and
you see someone that's denying service because that person didn't
speak English."

A spokeswoman for a self-described pro-family group, Capitol Resource
Family Institute, accused Yee of trying to "work out his personal
issues through the public policy process" and imposing
"nanny-government" rules in the private marketplace. "It's the
business owners' prerogative what language they want spoken in their
business," said Merideth Turney, the legislative liaison for Capitol
Resource Family Institute. "Some businesses may lose money if people
don't patronize them because of their policy, but that's freedom. Let
the free market figure this out." The bill has a loophole for
businesses that can demonstrate there's a necessity to demand their
patrons speak English. CalChamber, the statewide organization that
represents thousands of businesses, has taken no position on the bill.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12056500?nclick_check=1



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