Why do some people go ballistic over *other people’s* conversations in another language?

Why do some people go ballistic over *other people’s* conversations in another language? Were they talking to you? Were you planning on eavesdropping?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/05/16/my-next-call-is-to-ice-watch-a-man-wig-out-because-workers-spoke-spanish-at-a-manhattan-deli/

On Twitter

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.

On Twitter

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.

On Twitter