Why do some people go ballistic over *other people’s* conversations in another language? Were they talking to you? Were you planning on eavesdropping?
‘My next call is to ICE!’: A man flipped out because workers spoke Spanish at a Manhattan deli
Is he afraid they’ll get a secret discount negotiated in another language? What?
His threats to call ICE make it obvious that he’s motivated by racism, but this sort of language freak-out is common enough in white people who *think* they’re not being racist. It’s like a gateway.
I want to believe we can short-circuit things like “OMG someone’s talking in a language that’s not mine!” before it progresses to worse things like calling the cops on a BBQ and threatening direct or state-sponsored violence against people they think are less human.