Professor to Soledad: GOP Uses English as a 'Language of Imperialism'
Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney have a "disposition of anti-immigrant," sounded CNN guest and liberal Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill on Friday's Starting Point.
"[W]hen I hear Rick Santorum talking, when I hear Mitt Romney talk, I hear a disposition of anti-immigrant. I hear a language of English as the language of imperialism and global dominance," Lamont Hill said. [Video below the break. Audio here.]
The panel was discussing Santorum's remarks that Puerto Rico would have to speak English in addition to Spanish to earn statehood, and Mitt Romney's reply that English is "the language of opportunity" and that proficiency should be encouraged there.
CNN host Soledad O'Brien did not refute Lamont Hill's statement, but drew comparisons between Santorum's comment and a racist chant at an NCAA basketball game directed at a Puerto Rican player. Both stories, she said, were about "people not understanding what it means to be from Puerto Rico, right?"
She did acknowledged that the fans were being "horrifically awful" to the player and it was clearly the worse of the two remarks.
Conservative columnist Will Cain was clearly exasperated with Lamont Hill's statement, and the comparison between the two stories. He said of the Santorum story "the conversation over language, was not one about xenophobia and what some people take to racism." He added that the racist chant was "much more legitimately about that."
A transcript of the segment, which aired on Starting Point on March 16 at 7:30 a.m. EDT, is as follows:
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And by the way, Angel Rodriguez is from Puerto Rico, right. Because he doesn't need a green card! He is an American!
WILL CAIN, CNN contributor: I got to tell you I don't like this juxtaposition of this story following one we just did, because what I don't want to happen –
O'BRIEN: Totally unintentional, by the way.
CAIN: Totally unintentional with my music as the kind of tying bond –
(Laughter)
O'BRIEN: Also unintentional.
CAIN: Because, again, the last segment we did, the conversation over language, was not one about xenophobia and what some people take to racism. And this story that we're doing right now is much more legitimately about that.
O'BRIEN: Or you could argue this story is also in part people not understanding what it means to be from Puerto Rico, right? No, truly, I mean, like green card –
CAIN: I don't think they knew –
O'BRIEN: Well they're also being or horrifically awful to a young man who's a freshman, who's trying to throw a free throw – trying to shoot a free throw. But at the end of the day you don't need a green card people, and I think that part of what's going on in that earlier debate is not understanding sort of the dynamics of Puerto Rico as candidates – I mean, your dad he's on the campaign trail. How does it work? Do people just hand you research?
ABBY LIVINGSTON, daughter of former Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman: All the time. You know, you really see a difference in the candidates that do their research before they go and do interviews like Santorum did in Puerto Rico. But at the end of the day, he wanting 20 delegate votes, or 30, whatever it is there.
O'BRIEN: I think it's 20, 23 ultimately.
MARC LAMONT HILL, professor, Columbia University: 23. Yeah.
LIVINGSTON: And at the end of the day, if you're going to be the President of the United States you need to understand the people. You need to understand the issues. And I think this really brings to fruition just how unfortunate this situation is. That they don't do their research, they don't know some of the biggest issues out there.
O'BRIEN: How exhausted was your dad?
LIVINGSTON: Never, we never –
(Laughter)
LIVINGSTON: It's very exhausting.
O'BRIEN: I just always wondered, you know, is some of that just at some point you're just physically exhausted.
LIVINGSTON: That's why it's so important to have someone who has just the basic understanding of some of these issues. You know?
O'BRIEN: That should be the entry bar, right? The basic understanding.
LAMONT HILL: It's not just the nuances of the facts. It's also a general disposition that people have toward race and ethnicity and things like that. Because when I hear Rick Santorum talking, when I hear Mitt Romney talk, I hear a disposition of anti-immigrant. I hear a language of English as the language of imperialism and global dominance.
(Crosstalk)
CAIN: No, no, no, no. Mark –
O'BRIEN: And certainly shouting "Where's your green card?" is part of that.
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Comments
Marc Lamont Hill is a bigot.
Submitted by tcm14 on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 1:51pm.
Marc Lamont Hill is a bigot. I change the channel when he comes on just as I would change it if David Duke were to come on.
But, on the plus side
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:28pm.
He's one of the most educated morons I've ever seen...
He Talks Really Fast
Submitted by tcm14 on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 3:37pm.
That means he's smart, right?
Of course
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 3:55pm.
HE obviously thinks so...
Not according to him...
Submitted by Dave the mailman on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 9:44pm.
He once stated that racism implies superiority and power, and since blacks do not have power, they are incapable of being racists.
Can you imagine what kind of crap he must be teaching?....
Hill is ignorant of the world
Submitted by Fredy on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:05pm.
Hill: "I hear a language of English as the language of imperialism and global dominance."
India, with 1+ billion people, speaks English.
China, with 1+ billion people, have hundreds of millions of english speakers and are been educating their people in english.
Why would ANYONE want to push for a different language to be spoken in a country, the USA, that already speaks english?
PS: I wonder if Hill knows that the California constitution defined english as the official language of California as a CONDITION of becoming a state?
Exactly
Submitted by Galvanic on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:24pm.
I would ask Prof. Hill that if English is the language of imperialism and global dominance, why does he continue to speak it?
Why not try something like Esperanto?
Prof. Hill is free to communicate in any language he wants, including sign language.
My guess is that he would
Submitted by Antisocial-ism on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:49pm.
My guess is that he would prefer Farsi.
Sign language would be good
Submitted by Blonde on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 3:55pm.
That way we wouldn't have to hear the silly fool.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Roger that, Blonde
Submitted by Galvanic on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 4:01pm.
It's interesting to compare how he talks on CNN, and how he talks on the O'Reilly show. In the former, he's far more left.
He said this to Soledad, a Latina who doesn't speak Spanish.
Submitted by drsamherman on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 5:21pm.
Soledad loves to tell people how she connects with Latinos, but she doesn't speak Spanish that well. Was that half-wit professor saying Soledad is an Imperialist? Soledad was not quite quick enough to catch that one. Not that she's that swift to start.
⇒ Give Soledad a break
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 5:25pm.
She did watch the "Mariachi Man" series with Antonio Banderas.
Good one!
Submitted by drsamherman on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 7:32pm.
...
If he said something like what he said on CNN on...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 5:22am.
O'Reilly's show, he'd be out of a gig.
I haven't seen his smily face on "The Factor" lately, so maybe he has already lost the gig.
Wouldn't that be nice!
Great post. Just got off the
Submitted by Edhenry on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 7:15pm.
Great post.
Just got off the phone with India and that was one of the certerpieces of their presentation: Most people in one country in the world that speaks English.
Good news, is this their best arguement? They lose.
I take offense to that, Fredy.
Submitted by Ogundipe S.O. on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 4:34am.
I understand making example of over 1B people in India is probably a little better but you erred by not making example of my country, Nigeria. Here, if you can't speak English, then you can forget about getting a job. I repeat, all 140M plus and counting of us here are English speakers and that includes the Almajiris, Madrasahs, in the Muslims dominated North.
I've seen Marc Lamont Hill on Fox News more than I can ever keep counts but every time he opens his mouth to spill these balderdash I only laugh at his intro: Col. Uni. Prof.
Then I'll start ROTFLMAO.
Honestly, Marc wouldn't qualify to teach pidgin to high school student not to talk of being a lecturer at a college or a Prof. at that. Insulting to other brilliant professors out there.
Why would ANYONE?
Submitted by mandrake on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 1:17pm.
Why would anyone want to push for a different language to be spoken in a country?
Fredy, meet Quebec :)
⇒ Quebec?
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 1:21pm.
When did Quebec become a country?
They're working on it!
Submitted by mandrake on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 1:24pm.
..the movement hasn't gone away, and likely never will.
yo mark
Submitted by D'saredumbpeople on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:16pm.
your crying shows you are anti smart....
*Sigh*
Submitted by Annie Ashe Fields on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:18pm.
Hill is a living, breathing example of the soft bigotry of low expectations. I'm sure he's a very nice guy. He's seems it. But every time I hear him talk he says so many things that are so DEMONSTRABLY, PROVABLY WRONG I end up YELLING at the TV.
I KNOW he has access to the internet. Has this kid ever ever ever EVER visited a website ending in .gov that WASN'T the White House website? Because if he ACTUALLY LOOKED, and CHALLENGED his assumptions, like every good academic should - ESPECIALLY before appearing on Fox for crying out loud - HE'D FIND OUT WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP HE'S REGURGITATING.
Jeezus H. Kryst I am so SICK of these SYCOPHANTS! ESPECIALLY the FAUX INTELLECTUAL ONES!
To blazes with green cards...
Submitted by gopcongress on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:48pm.
Where is the PRESS card? Journalism like this would not even make it on the High school newspaper, let alone the national media.
"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
Marc Lamont Sanford, errrr Hill, Where's Your Mensa Card?
Submitted by Motormouth KOS on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:53pm.
You're a race-baiter, just like Homey the President, errr, Dicator.
You're so "worried" about race relations, is that right?
Can you please use your big brain and please explain the following??
Greater than 90% of all African Americans vote for Obysmal, yet the national average for his approval is in the 40s. Doesn't that look like your race is voting strictly on skin color? Isn't that "racist"???
The Obamination... A crisis leading to a catastrophe..(please donate to MRC)
Does that make Maxine Waters Aunt Esther?
Submitted by drsamherman on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 7:34pm.
Or is that Corinne Brown?
This makes
Submitted by bobsmom on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 3:39pm.
my blood boil. Says a wife with a husband who lost his job in Tennessee on a construction site because he refused to fill out a form that was in SPANISH........they had run out of the English ones............believe it or not. My husband does not speak Spanish, and until then, we were under the impression that Tennessee was still an English speaking state. Silly us.
Mark Lamont Hill sounds....
Submitted by almostacowboy on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 3:46pm.
anti-intelligent.
Hill
Submitted by mmilesll on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 4:08pm.
This guy has sucked every entitlement program he can find. He would be selling shoes if it weren't for yet another entitlement program-black studies. His college "course" really prepares black to get jobs in the real world. No wonder college has become such an overpriced joke.
You just insulted...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 5:16am.
shoe salesmen!
"[W]hen I hear Rick Santorum
Submitted by celator on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 4:54pm.
"[W]hen I hear Rick Santorum talking, when I hear Mitt Romney talk, I hear a disposition of anti-immigrant. I hear a language of English as the language of imperialism and global dominance,"
So, Lamont, is this another "dog whistle" message, or a superspy "coded message"? Maybe it's Batman trying to get in touch with you.
Or is it just the marbles in your head making a loud noise?
If he means anti-ILLEGAL
Submitted by rbosque on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 5:10pm.
If he means anti-ILLEGAL immigration, then yes. All real American citizens should advocate that foreigners have the courtesy of obeying our immigration laws out of respect for this country. Otherwise, they have no business being here.
Dumb-ass.
The language of "imperialism
Submitted by redfish on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 5:37pm.
The language of "imperialism and global dominance" would be to say "even if you don't want to become a state, we're going to make you, and even if you don't become a state, we're going to force you to speak English" not "if you choose to become a state you'll have to learn english"
English is the international
Submitted by Barabbus on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 6:02pm.
English is the international language of business. When a German passenger jet is landing at Tokyo airport, the guy in the tower isn't speaking Japanese. And he ain't speaking German. And the German pilot isn't speaking Japanese. They're both speaking English. When a businessman in Russia is placing an order to someone in Mexico, guess what language they speak? To know English is to have a chance of success in our new "Global economy". To tell a young person that they don't need to speak English is NOT doing them a favor. Hill is one of those fake intellectuals that we've all grown sick of.
What language does this fool
Submitted by Rowane on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 6:26pm.
What language does this fool want to speak, swahilii or something? I am SO fed up with the hate America crowd. If someone said this crap to my face i'd probably go to jail, because I would surely punch him.
You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. (Aaron Tippin)
⇒ CaulkAsian?
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 6:30pm.
SOL informed me that the President started "Cash for Caulkers" and declared his birthplace, Hawaii, is in Asia, so it only seems Caulkasian would be right.
Funny
Submitted by CJohnson on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 1:11pm.
My Koran ESL student heard the word cockasian and asked me if it was a slur...
Affirmative Action, the curse
Submitted by Kevin Stowell on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 7:31pm.
Affirmative Action, the curse that keeps on giving.
Columbia "University"
Submitted by Unsane on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 8:46pm.
Regardless of how it got to be that way, the fact is that English is, in many fields, the closest thing to a lingua franca we have.
Is Columbia University staffed with idiots or what?
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Maybe Prof Hill
Submitted by Dave the mailman on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 9:49pm.
Perhaps he wants us to speak ebonics....
that'll teach whitey!
He almost sounds like a Ron Paul nut.
Submitted by Ars21689 on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 10:20pm.
Talking about imperialism and global dominance.
Ahhhh
Submitted by BondPlainBond on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 2:14am.
My favorite hater is still getting his racism on.
What?
Submitted by CO2Maker on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 3:59am.
"when I hear Mitt Romney talk, I hear a disposition of anti-immigrant."
What?
I think some of the syntax of the sentence trickled out before Marc Lament finished it. I think that's called premature ejectulation.
And of course, Solenoid O'Brien didn't pick up on it.
he hears..
Submitted by g55rumpy on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 4:48am.
voices,`eh somebody call 911. the man needs serious mental help
Why in the world does Fox have him on their network?
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 5:09am.
This guy is a hater and haters belong on CNN and MSNBC, not Fox News!
I glanced through all the comments. It is nice to know...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 5:22am.
that I am not the only one who cringes when he shows up on Fox News. I deal with it by hitting my "mute" button when his mouth starts moving.
I can't stand looking at the guy but I urge Fox to keep the camera on him when he's talking so I will know when and when not to "mute"!
My mama taught
Submitted by misterbee241 on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 9:07am.
me not to make fun of stupid people cause they cant help themselves.
Ok, mom, I'm trying here.
Harass Whitey
Submitted by CJohnson on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 1:08pm.
When a black/hispanic speaks to you saying ax and gunna and sumfin, just walk away looking for a non-Ferengi, and ask them to translate for you. Or give them a pencil and ask them to write their order down and promise them you will go get your hearing checked right away.
As an immigrant, using my
Submitted by DEEBEE on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 4:05pm.
As an immigrant, using my knowledge of the English langiag (undoubtedly a powerful language), I find your comment niggardly.
DEEBEE
Submitted by mmilesll on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 11:41pm.
If you are here illegally go home. If you are here legally, learn English and stop using racist remarks to make up for your lack of knowledge.
Hill
Submitted by mmilesll on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 11:39pm.
This "professor" has sucked every government program to get where he is. He would be a "professor" of nothing if it weren't for yet another government program. I love the way people who were given all this by "white folks" make a career out of blaming those same people for "holding them down". I would love to see him try to pull this "illegal immigration crap" in any other country in the world and see how fast his ass is out of there. Only in the US do we let illegals get away with living here, dipping into our education system, go to our hospitals for free, get unemployment money and then bitch because they don't like to be called "illegal". The Republicans he is making fun of are the ones that will put a stop to this crap and it won't be long before all this "racial preference crap" is gone too. Enough is enough and now we don't have the money.