Wow, I don't think I've had more assumptions made about my linguistic ability or my place of residence so many times in... ever.

MMM, I do speak Spanish. I am not a fluent speaker, certainly. But I do have some ability. Four high school and one college class saw to that. No hay dudo que puedo hablar un poquito del español.

Also, I don't live in Southern California. Southern California is as much a Disneyland playground to me as is Japan, though it's more like the Toon Town, and I want to go to Space Mountain, y'know? SOCAL is like a six hour trip south on U.S. Interstate 5 for me. Yep, California is a big fricken' state. Whoodathunkit?

Anyway, if you're whole issue was with that I stated that I wasn't trying to be racist, then I think that's kinda stupid. EveV kindly pointed out that it may make my position seem like it holds some guilt for me, but when I wrote it, I wrote under the assumption that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE on the wide wide web would be over-sensitive enough to take offense at that. And go figure, the irony, that my trying to avoid THAT is what actually did me in :rolleyes: .

This is why I hate politicians. Well, actually, I just hate people that concern themselves overmuch with this shite. They're all so concerned with making sure they won't offend anybody that they get tongue-tied trying to say the simplest things, and then get all panty-bunched when someone comes along and in no uncertain terms speaks their mind out loud!

And I really don't see how not expecting to hear a language in a country where over 98% of the people there speak a very different language makes anyone ignorant :P . Hell, I went to Hawaii a few years back and was surprised to see a group of kids body surfing all jabbering in Spanish. It made me feel right at home, really, which was a rather unwelcome feeling since I was on vacation. If there is a definition of 'ignorant' that fits that, then I apparently can't speak English very well. Or maybe there's a definition of 'ignorancia' in Spanish that I'm not aware of, which is quite possible.

I feel like I need to further clarify my stance: I don't dislike the Spanish language at all. It is the first foreign language I learned, I love speaking it, I loved every minute of learning it. I don't have a problem with people who speak it as their first language--why would I? I kinda wish that people would stop coming over the border illegally, but then again it's not exclusively Spanish speakers that do that, nor does it directly affect my quality of life in any way that I'm aware of. I just wouldn't like to go on vacation and get the sense that I haven't really gone anywhere.

On the other hand, vacationing in Spain would be neat because I'd be hearing a lot of Spanish with spatterings of English, which would be a contrast rather than just a difference as would be lots of Japanese with spatterings of Spanish.

So. This has been an interesting international incident. *sigh*

I think I made my statements pretty clear, so I don't feel the need to repeat.

My bad then. But I kinda got the vibe that you called him a racist because you pointed out he was saying "blatantly racist" things (which is usually what a racist would do).

I am calm, sorry if that didn't show.

I don't know how I would feel if i was mexican, as I am not. If however he was living somewhere in the US with a high swedish population (this may be true somewhere?), I would not care at all that he wanted to get away from my language. This is obviously not the same thing, but it's all I can speak for.

I would however like it if a real mexican person could give us his view ,)

Anyways, I don't think Amnell was racist, is a racist, or has said anything racist. He said he wanted to get away from familiar things, one being the spanish language that is a part of the everyday life where he lives. I don't see any problems with that.

Is it really racist to be sick of an illegal invasion of people who come to your country or state and hold contempt for it, refuse to learn english or follow the law, but expect plenty of free services at taxpayer expense. If you lived in California, Texas or Arizona. maybe ...

It's ok to dislike some parts of another culture, or all of it at that. I'm tired of people labeling others as racist just for having an oppinion of an aspect of another culture or a dislike of the current political/social trends.

Talk about manipulating my words and Amnell's words into political punditry...

Calling someone a racist and pointing out a statement they made can be percieved as racist is two very very different things.

Hardly. Maybe in downtown Tokyo, not everywhere else where most people have never even met a foreigner.

You started hinting at things by stating that the person who originally made the statement was from southern california and bringing certain ethnicities. You opened that box!

Well over a million foreigners live in Japan.

There are many places in the US where Americans have not met a foreigner as well.

I didn't intend to "hint" at anything. I said what I meant in a straight-forward manner. If you read more into it then that is not my fault. I don't know what "bringing certain ethnicites" means.

No you didn't. Even did some backpeddling.