I assume in your perfect world, everyone will speak Mexican and we’ll all be happy when illegal immigration causes the economy to collapse.
by Kevin Church
- Published:May 5th, 2008
- Comments:24 Comments
- Category:Blog Comments, Comics, Newsarama
DC Comics publishes around 50 different titles in its main superhero line in any given month, meaning that they publish something like 600 total individual periodicals in a given year. You’re with me so far, right? Last week, the latest issue of the sales-handicapped Blue Beetle series, set in El Paso, Texas and featuring a hispanic protagonist, featured mostly Spanish-language dialogue. This means that .16% of DC’s pamphlets released in the last year will feature a language that is not English, delivered by a mostly non-native-English-speaking cast.
Of course, this offends some asshole named Dave, who doesn’t notice that the issue in question is set in Mexico.
I thought it was the first ever comic that bordered on racism. DC: Now forcing its readers to read Spanish.
And for the matter - point me in the direction of one immigrant kid who has 3 quid fifty, to spend on a comic book.
The first ever comic that bordered on racism. I guess we can ignore every World War II cover featuring the yellow menace ever, then? Or this Angel And The Ape story? Awesome! I love revisionism. Throw in the “three quid” line and you’ve got someone who loves England so much he’ll fight for America’s right to read comic books in English!
Of course, someone points out that the book’s always had a Mexican-American cast and is set in a region where Spanish is more likely to be spoken than English, but Dave doesn’t let that fact halt his onslaught against those demon invaders:
Fine, Fine - DC is now forcing its readers to speak Mexican - make up your minds.
You know, we have this exact same problem in our country - a flood of immigrants coming over, refusing to speak English, trying to force us to learn their language. It’s ridiculous. I can’t wait to see the sales figures on this one - because obviously its going to outsell New Avengers, right???
That’s right - when you can’t make your point through racism, bring commercial forces into it! In a response, Alan Coil points out that an ability to speak English isn’t really key to being an American:
Which country in the world has the largest English speaking population?
China.
Dave is not going to brook this sort of “logic,” though, and wants you to know he’s down with the Chinese:
Wow - don’t mention China, you’ll set off that idiot who starts ranting about Tibet. And hey, do you know whats great about Chinese people? A great many Chinese students come over to my country, and they learn MY LANGUAGE. They have their own culture, and their own little Chinatown, and Chinese Rshops and so on, but, at the end of the day, they say “Hello”. It goes a long way towards helping people intergrate.
I’d love to see the “Chinatown” Dave goes to - I imagine it’s a strip mall in Topeka with a place called Lucky Wok and a video shop that has a single, lone Jackie Chan poster.
My favorite part, however, is when Dave somehow connects DC featuring a cast of American citizens speaking another languages to a tacit endorsement of illegal immigration and separatist culture.
Why am I a bigot? Because I want foreign people coming to an English speaking country to learn, I don’t know, ENGLISH??? I assume in your perfect world, everyone will speak Mexican and we’ll all be happy when illegal immigration causes the economy to collapse. Now, generally, when I go on holiday, I’ve only really vacationed in places that speak English (USA, and Australia) - but, if I go to a foreign country, I use THEIR language. Now, there’s a cultural thing - in Amsterdam, for instance, I was with a Dutch family member, and everyone spoke pretty good English. In France, however, everyone assumes you speak French, and, if you don’t - tough titties.
I digress, however. There is a larger issue here - DC are saying “illegal immigration is ok”, “lack of community intergration is ok”. This book could have been used to examine these issues - but obviously the creators have their heads in the sand.
I find it more than a bit amusing that something that could potentially have young hispanic kids reading DC superhero comics is seen as being exclusionary, but that’s neoconservative logic for you: the poor, oppressed white man who only controls 90% of the nation’s wealth is under attack by young Latinos who may want to read about one of their own interacting with icons like Superman and Batman.
Sometimes, I wish this site were named Get Off The Planet.
24 Comments
I think I need to make a sign:
“The celebration of different cultures does not equal the oppression of your culture.”
Then I will thwack bigots upside the head with it.
Wow. Speechless.
That dude is lucky I wasn’t lurking on the post somewhere.
“…everyone spoke pretty good English.”
TA-DAAAAAAAA!
Me gusta mucho.
I’ve heard of entitlement, but this is ridiculous.
“OH NOES! I was temporarily exposed to a culture that’s marginally different from my own! Unclean! UNCLEAN!”
a troll
an obvious troll
at least that’s what i like to think, because if i discover that people like that actually exists i’ll have to kill myself
LET ME LIVE IN IGNORANCE, GODDAMIT
What a self-parodying joke of a human being that guy is. If you put him in a script, you’d be accused of creating a cliché.
And yet, he lives…
This makes me want to learn Spanish.
I have no words — in English or Mexican.
What a bungholio.
I just want to say, while my name is Dave, Dave who wrote the post is not me, does not speak for me, and basically, as an El Pasoan, pisses me off to no end.
And for the matter - point me in the direction of one immigrant kid who has 3 quid fifty, to spend on a comic book.
who the hell would pay £3.50 for a comic book? that’s just silly, even allowing for import markup; either the guy is being ripped off or he screwed up his conversion.
actually, i kind of hope it’s the former. what a tool.
You know, we have this exact same problem in our country - a flood of immigrants coming over, refusing to speak English, trying to force us to learn their language. It’s ridiculous.
i cannot recall being forced to speak polish by a polish immigrant, although i did spend a year teaching english in poland one time!
wait, i just realised the irony of saying i taught english, while typing entirely in lowercase. i’m sorry…
Part of the irony is that Dave is not American himself. He’s British (the biggest give-aways are that he calls a unit of currency a “quid”, and says “go on holiday” instead of “go on a trip/vacation”). Perhaps he’s an immigrant from the UK, which would be fine, but he hasn’t learned the local dialect, has he?
Of course more irony comes from his general poor use of English (e.g. “intergrate” is incorrect even in Wales).
See, like I told you at NYCC, this is the problem with posting in blog comments under the name “Dave”: There’s at least 4-5 guys doing it, and several of them are complete assholes.
Todd, it’s entirely possible that he is that rare (but not rare enough) type of asshole: the anglophile. Nothing against our friends across the sea; I love England, and visit when I get the chance. However, some folks take that love a bit too far, avoiding American English terms in favor of English… English ones. Hence, using quid (even where dollar would be more appropriate, as when talking about, say, American dollars), flat instead of apartment, etc. Basically, the English version of that otaku retard you see at the comic shop that insists on abusing Japanese words.
The trolls… don’t feed them.
What I don’t really understand is that I’m assuming he can’t speak Spanish. So, how could he possibly know what kind of commentary the comic is making if he can’t even read it?
Also, weren’t they in Mexico? So shouldn’t they be speaking Spanish in the comic?
Either this guy is a complete moron, or he’s a troll. Or maybe, just maybe, he’s both.
SO MANY FOOLS , SO LITTLE TIME
BCOJ: I don’t buy the anglophile explanation. See, after getting back from a semester in Scotland, *I* did that kind of thing, using Brit expressions as a way of enriching my writing beyond my bland native Midwestern vernacular. But even the most retarded anglophile knows that a “quid” is always a Pound Sterling, not a bleedin’ Yankee Dollar. I hope. And for someone so strident about national identity to affect another nationality like that would be just too pathetic to bear.
JG: There’s a printout of the dialog - in all English - at the back of the book. (I assume the extra pages are why this issue is $3.50 instead of $2.99.) They don’t make a big deal about the fact that the family reunion is in Mexico rather than Texas; you’d have to pay close attention to the dialog and/or know that Juarez is on one side of the border and El Paso is on the other to catch that. And if Dave did notice, it probably gave him a stroke, because that means that Jaime and his girlfriend presumably crossed the border without going through Customs and Immigration.
Wow. Just… wow.
I certainly hope “Dave” has never seen a copy of “Love & Rockets” - his head would explode.
Then again…
Todd: Right, but the thing is that you actually spent time in Europe. There are anime fans that spent time in Japan, and use terms appropriately. Then there’s the otaku-tards that have never been outside of their own hometown, and they mix up terms, use them inappropriately, and generally make a mess of the language they’re attempting to borrow. I think this guy is the anglophile equivalent. I met a few like this before, back in college, that utterly adored the UK without ever having been there, and got all of their slang usage from Britcoms and (later) Guy Ritchie movies.
@BitterCupOJoe
The guy was Irish, rather than British, which doesn’t really surprise me. Without wishing to be racist meself, I’ve met more than a few Irish guys (not girls, weirdly) who are outrageously racist, particularly when it comes to immigrants. Possibly as a result of the horrific way the English treated them over the last few centuries.
I don’t think this particular guy is as bad as some I’ve met, just a bit thick more than anything else.