No more Spanish books for a Georgia library system

Wed21Jun2006

No more Spanish books for a Georgia library system

15:03 H | Topics: Books - Georgia - Language

Thinking of heading out to the library to pick up a couple of books en español? According to AP, if you live in Gwinnett County, Georgia, think again. The library system in the heavily Latino county has decided it won't be purchasing any more non-children's books in the language of Cervantes:

Last week, the library board in this fast-growing county of 700,000 people eliminated the $3,000 that had been set aside to buy Spanish-language fiction in the coming fiscal year. It offered no explanation, but the chairman said such book purchases would lead readers of other foreign languages to demand the same treatment.

I can see it now. All those French residents of this Georgia county taking to the streets to demand original versions of the works of Baudelaire and Victor Hugo.

"We can't supply pleasure reading material for all language groups, so we're not going to go down that road," said Lloyd Breck, chairman of the library board.

Gimme a break. And what is "pleasure reading material"?

According to AP, at least one board member has spoken up about the real reason why there will be no more Spanish books in the library system:

...Brett Taylor, said the move came after some residents objected to using taxpayer dollars to entertain readers who might be illegal immigrants.

"The argument was we didn't need to cater to illegal aliens," Taylor said. "I'm personally offended by that. We've to look out for everybody."

At least this city has one sane person on its board. Meanwhile, NCLR is speaking up:

"A library is more than a place for kids to read books; it's often the center of the community," said Raul Gonzalez of the National Council of La Raza. "A vast majority of the people who don't speak English as their first language — guess what — they're citizens of the U.S."

I guess anyone who is not a child and interested in learning Spanish is out of luck, too. Nice.

Via / Yahoo! News and AP

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Feedback (4) » Share your opinion

1. Teresa ~ Wednesday, Jun 21 2006 | 23:08H:

Oh my GOD...how has it become legal and excepted to openly show racisim in this country...I have nothing agianst any race but I do want to say if it were this much to do agianst black people{I KNOW ABOUT THE PAST

2. Teresa ~ Wednesday, Jun 21 2006 | 23:23H:

I cant understand how this is OK...How did we get to this point? How are we accepting that these people are treated like they are wild animals? Please people look at what is going on around you..What is happining to us?.......

3. True ~ Friday, Jun 23 2006 | 14:43H:

How sad, how absolutely sad that these are the measures that are being taken to in order to*EDUCATE' your society and bring *HARMONY' and so-called 'cross-CULtural understanding' amongst people in your state. How sad that the appreciation of the beauty of different languages is so harshly being abused by such an act. HOw angered and offended the Spanish-speaking people of your state must feel? No wonder hate is spread when education is annhialated. And just as important, where did those dollars for the spanish books go? Bureacracy has failed, hypocrisy has won once again. People have got to stop being so self-centred, open your eyes a bit.

4. Jaime Morales ~ Saturday, Jul 01 2006 | 00:53H:

This attitude towards Hispanics can snow ball into hate and discrimination toward our people. In south Philadelphia is starting to be obvious. The slow to react Hispanic leaders needs to get active on this issue.

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