Grisham en Espanol? No mas for Ga. Library

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - The library system in this suburban Atlanta county says no mas — it won't buy any more thrillers, romance novels or other works of adult fiction in Spanish.

The decision has angered Hispanic leaders and thrust Gwinnett County — where one out of six residents is Hispanic — into the nation's immigration debate.

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.

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

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060621/ap_on_re_us/spanish_books

I am getting fucking tired of reading racist shit like this...what the hell is wrong with this country?

What's next, a book burning at the Libros en espanol sections at Borders and Barnes and Noble? These fucking American Nazis make me sick.

Unbelievable....what's next....they won't carry any books written by Hispanic writers..black writers, women writers, gay writers...

This is how it begins.....

and Limpballs, and O'leilly.....it's sickening...

If one in six residents are Hispanic, you better believe they contribute their share of taxpayer dollars.

boo hoo.

will serve them right

Then you belong right in that county.

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Wasn't May 1 the "Day Without Immigrants" or something like that?

I seem to remember all the Latinos in NYC taking that day off.

American overseas gets a menu written only in the local langauage and orders oven-broiled tractor, they actually bring him one and make him eat it.

about this. Considering how much trouble most of the libraries are having getting the funding for books for the majority, it's a bit unreasonable for a certain segment to expect special treatment. When parents were complaining that there weren't enough childrens books in the libraries, rather than throw a fit about it, they threw their own fundraisers and bought the books themselves and donated them to the libraries.

This might actually be a way to deal with this problem as well.

books? Or eliminate their gay and lesbian sections? If they do all that, even in suburban Atlanta, they've gotten rid of books that might be of interest to a significant portion of their population.
And when they say they'll stick to mainstream literature, that's a code for white, middle class and heterosexual.

but language. People who aren't African American or Native American often read these books as well. But only people who are fluent in Spanish can read the books they're asking for. If they want those books in the library, why don't they just hold a fund-raiser and provide them to the library themselves?

Don't get me wrong. I actually see both sides of this debate, and my wife and I argued about it for about fifteen minutes when I mentioned it to her. When you consider the funding problems, I do see her point. It's hard enough for the libraries to get books the majority of patrons will be able to read. I don't know how many times I've started reading a series out of a library and found they only had half of it...

.. to the illiterate masses ...

.. a good argument, then so is "We can't read so library shouldn't buy books with words in them" seems just as good.

OTHER than what it IS!
Indeed, the argument could be made that spending money on books that only 1/6 of the population can read is fiscally irresponsible.

with the acknowedgement that she had a valid point.

Thought I was completely alone there until you chimed in.

I think it's open to debate, but it's pointless to debate the subject when people scream "racist" at the first opportunity.

That whole social justice thingy?

And what about all those rich white kids who are trying to learn Spanish? Will they have to go to the barrio to buy contraband "Los Puentes del Condado de Madison"?

Or, don't rich white kids learn other languages any more? Used to be, you needed at least two years to get into a good school, and three to qualify as a doctoral candidate.

:)

And what has "rich" got to do with anything?

for that? :shrug:

Hispanic immigrants, legal or not, who work in low-end jobs live.
:sarcasm:

large group though they may be, have no monopoly of not knowing English.
(Koreans just a mere example.)

Rich white kids don't even learn English anymore.

It's not special treatment, it's just books in a certain language. This is just way to stir up more trouble.

... because the presence of the Spanish-language titles punctures the distorted view of reality of the Anglo library-goers. These people prefer to believe their community does not have a Hispanic component. Seeing the books on the shelves is acid proof that their beloved notions are nonsense.

It seems anymore, that reality in America is verboten.

BH

ranking in the United States of America between Muslims, Hispanics, and gblt?

Do you think bigots sit in their little social room after services on Sunday with some coffee and home made pastries and attempt to rank their hate for the three?

This is a sick country.

I prefer to live in a city where they go out of their way to accommodate languages to the best of their ability in the order of population numbers if there is more than one immigrant group - legal or illegal. It makes sense. For safety. For courtesy. For faster learning.

For decades, Americans have expressed their contempt for the French based on the perception that the French are not hospitable (and some have war issues completely ignoring the history of the two countries).

Well, it looks like we win for bigotry which is a little more serious than inhospitality.

This is a sick country.

I think you have a weak argument.

When I learned German, my teacher recommended that we read anything in German that we could put our hands on.

This xenophobia is not only harming people who speak Spanish as a first language; it also hurts people who are learning to speak Spanish as a second language.

Stupid myopic xenophobes.

no one is more in favor of arrest/deportation of illegal immigrants than i but you can spend a pee-pickin $3000 of your budget on a few spanish language books every year, this is the freckin' americas you know, there may be actually some legal residents for whom reading a best seller in spanish is more relaxing than doing it in english, and, imagine that, there may be even be a few native english speakers who would like to learn to read fluently in spanish!

from my local public library.

:rofl:

A library is supposed to serve the community as it is--not the way the library staff or members of the board would like it to be. If a community has a sizable proportion of Hispanic residents then it should purchase materials aimed at that population.

My library is in a town which has seen a big increase in Spanish speaking people. We buy books in Spanish, often using grant money when available, plenty of ESL materials and adult basic reader titles in English for this population. Since we do not have large groups of other immigrants in the community, we rely on interlibrary loan for other languages.

If one out of six people in the community is Hispanic, then clearly they have a community that needs spanish books. Not buying them because an illegal immigrant might read them is sort of like not buying true crime books because a criminal might get ideas. This board down in Georgia is not living up to its commitment to serve the community.

They've been getting a lot of press lately because they fired their director for no reason, except that the board didn't like her and the fact that she wasn't kowtowing to the fundiegelical homeschoolers in the county. Here are some articles:

http://www.ala.org/al_onlineTemplate.cfm?Section=alonline&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=130043

http://www.ala.org/al_onlineTemplate.cfm?Section=alonline&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=129624

because she refused a hug from a library board member. :eyes:

books...but it is the fiction stuff that was cut out supposedly to save money...

Now I know libraries have tight budgets and my husband and I have donated money regularly to our library with corporate matching to help buy books...but if you have money to buy English fiction...and 1/6 of your residents are Hispanic...then I would say...why not at least buy some Spanish language books for them that would encourage reading????

Is quite simple. The library board, which is no doubt made up of white "pillars of the community," don't care if the Hispanics are being encouraged to read or if the Hispanic community's needs are being met. More likely they are deliberately hostile and ignoring those needs to try to drive them out of the community (except for the ones who are working for them).

I'd bet 100 to 1 the library STAFF has been doing it's best to bolster the Spanish-language collection, but because the library BOARD holds the purse-strings, those efforts are being deliberately stymies.

That's for sure. Thank the gods that's one thing I don't have to deal with.

They are several very good US-based vendors that deal exclusively in Spanish-language books. PLus, many of the larger vendors like Ingram also carry them... at least from bigger authors (Allende, Grisham, etc.).

Sometimes this country sickens me.

among others.
Hooray for Durham, NC! (Despite the bad rap it gets in the national media...)

Edited to say these are fiction as well as non-fiction books, and there are some movies available as well.

get it suburban neighborhoods like the one in the article (I actually looked for a house there when my husband was thinking of transferring to Atlanta)...and it is a different story...

About 50% of the population is non-Caucasian and I think the library is doing a good job serving the population who live here and whose primary language is not English.

encourage diversity. Duke is a good school and yinz guys have a great medical center there as well..so it lends itself towards cultivating a diverse and open minded environment. About 20 years ago a couple I know (husband is a doctor) moved to Durham and at first they found the public schools awful but ...today they are very pleased with how the community has changed...

Gwinnett County is a big ole suburb of Atlanta and is filled with folks that in my opinion are part of the "white flight"..they ran from Atlanta to create their own "enclave" of special people to live there...and it includes such luminaries as Ralph Reed who lives in a gated community in Gwinnett...so is it any wonder they would screw anyone who doesn't speak "amerikun"...

And I do agree that the universities play a big role in enhancing the diversity and cultural richness of Durham's community.

I do hope the schools will get better though.

and other Spanish speaking radio stations be banned.

While driving around NYC once I heard a Chinese radio station and could tell that the program was about learning English. It was a radio program helping Chinese speakers learn English. I bet these morans never thought of that. They demand that the immigrants learn English, these Spanish books might actually contribute to that. Even if not directly, they might help them learn the culture.

To Whom It May Concern:

I just learned from Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060621/ap_on_re_us/spanish... )

that your library system won't buy any more adult fiction in Spanish.


The article also said that one out of six residents of Gwinnett County is Hispanic.

Excuse me, I've always thought that a public library was supposed to serve its public.

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

But some of them might be LEGAL immigrants too, has anyone thought of that? Some of them might be born in the United States.

I really hope the library's board will reconsider this bigoted and unfair policy.

Sincerely,

XXXXXX XXXXXXX

If you want to send your comments, go to http://www.gwinnettpl.org/AskUs.htm

I buy books in spanish (often the dual-translation variety) to help improve my rudimentary spanish reading skills. I'd like to know that libraries could help me out.

PLEASE. Make it stop.

Also, it implies that the only Spanish literature out there is translations of English best-sellers. (Yes, I'm easily offended.)

of the week. Of course, I prefer the English versions considering that is my first language.

who write the articles. It's usually the copy editors or page designers.

It is now a "family friendly" library. Soon it will be an information-free zone.

The money spent on fiction in Spanish is a paltry percentage of the library's budget. Money is not the issue.

The issue is the determination of the right-wing theocrats to push their will on everyone.

Their "watchdog" website is here: http://gcplwatch.org/news.html

if people start reading. This is just a blatant backlash against Hispanics.

And want to practice using foreign-language books?

I took German for a couple of years in college and spent some time in and around Zurich during the 1980s. I found that reading children's books helped me to learn the language. I would read simple books and progress to more difficult books (I have a copy of "Der Ruf der Wildnis" (Call of the Wild) that I'm plodding through now).

So how are those of us going to practice Spanish if we don't have these resources?

Remember how many times you've heard how someone learned to speak English by watching American TV shows and movies? Don't you wish we had foreign-language TV networks so we Americans could do the same?

I swear, we are an woefully ignorant nation made more ignorant through the practice of willful ignorance!

I might want to learn Urdu or Farsi.

I think the qualifier "learning a foreign language *that is often spoken in your community*" would validate the argument.

And if Urdo or Farsi is often spoken in your community, I would expect your public library to carry books in those languages...

Edited for clarity.

What the devil is wrong with some people?

has decided to stop offering books to homeless children.

I just went to look up the link again, and it appears the paper has closed down the link altogether!

For DU'ers who didn't see the thread, here it is. Very much similar, with very, very strange timing!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2348200

Two appalling library decisions in two days. Sounds so MEpublican, doesn't it? Sounds like part of their filthy plan to gut our infrastructure, and pass on the savings to those who need them least.

I noticed that the link had disappeared earlier, and looked up other stories on the subject. They still seem to be active. :hi:

But what is with literature which happens to be written in Spanish? A lot very high-class literature is currently coming from South America.

learn about the culture. Isn't that the one these morans want them to adopt?

What ignorant morans.

What if they are a legal immigrant, or just a citizen, native born and bred, who is a WASP, who just is trying to learn Spanish?

They are so dammned stupid they're barely human. Maybe THEY shouldn't have the rights in the constitution. After all, the constitution is for people.

Effing idiots.