Tim James: Your Racist, Bigoted, Republican Nominee for Alabama Governor
A few days ago I saw someone post a video from Tim James, the Republican nominee for Governor of Alabama. After watching it, I wasn’t necessarily surprised since it was a public service announcement from someone openly Republican, but it still made me ridiculously angry; so angry that I left a pretty long comment on the post, which spawned into a bit of a debate of about 40 comments. After going to the source of where this person found the video, I saw that it posted by Justin Taylor, the Mayor of Carbondale, Pennsylvania–the closest sort of big city near me; and this Moderate Democrat Mayor thought it was “awesome.”
After leaving two comments about this video, one on the post where I first saw this video and another on the Mayor of Carbondale’s Facebook page, and getting some varied responses, I thought it was about time to spread the anger-inducing, discriminatory video of doom to all of you.
[The video has been removed from YouTube and I can't seem to find it anywhere. Obviously Tim James realized he put his hand in the wrong pot with his views on the English language and immigration in this country.]
Oh yes, another “if you want to live here, speak the language” declarations from someone who is incredibly proud of their close-mindedness.
Currently, Alabama gives their driver’s license tests in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese. That exact order was taken directly from Tim James’ own website and it is listed alphabetically instead of by the largest population who speaks a non-English language and so on. A major advantage of this alphabetized list is also so that Arabic can just so happen to be listed first and as a Southern state where most of the population has the deeply embedded “war is great” mindset, they immediately think of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when seeing Arabic and then the mindset easily develops into Arabic > terrorists > we don’t want terrorists operating vehicles in our state.
Tim James seems to be piggybacking on the recent outrageous Arizona immigration policy that gives law enforcement the power to act like Nazis–literally.
According to Arizona’s SB 1070, law enforcement officials have the right to demand documentation from any person they personally feel may be in the country illegally. As Debra W. Haffner, a minister and sexologist, stated, this law is “nothing short of a full-frontal attack on people of Latino descent.” This law could also push racial profiling into law in the state of Arizona and from the looks of it, Tim James is probably sad he didn’t think up this law for Alabama first.
Tim James may also want to look up a little bit on the history Alabama has when it comes to enforcing English-only driver’s license examinations. Alabama politicians have been singing the English-only tune for quite a while now and have racked up millions of dollars in legal fees due to the general close-mindedness that comes with this “speak English or get out of the country” stance.
After an advisory opinion issued by Jimmy Evans, the Attorney General in 1990, Alabama did only offer the driver’s license exam in English and six years later in 1996, the Southern Poverty Law Center defended Martha Sandoval, a Mexican-born Alabama citizen (notice I said citizen, not “illegal immigrant,) who was limited in her ability to speak English and was unable to pass the exam. Because of this, Sandoval had been arrested several times for driving without a license. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal class-action lawsuit under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that said:
“The regulation had impermissible disparate impact on the basis of national origin in violation of Title VI, and was not supported by substantial legitimate justification.”
In 1998, the state of Alabama lost in federal court and the state returned to offering the driver’s license exam in multiple languages and the ruling was upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Current state Republican Governor Bob Riley has been a consistent supporter of English being the official language of the state of Alabama but has maintained the position that based on the US Supreme Court ruling in favor of Sandoval, returning to an English-only driver’s license exam would put the state’s federal transportation dollars in jeopardy since there would be even more class-action lawsuits filed. He, as well as Democratic Governor Don Siegelman stated that the testing options helped people with limited English skills pass the test and become legal drivers, which of course helps these people become active in their communities and help the economy of their communities by being able to work, get an education and stimulate the economy by shopping.
As for the obviously un-researched point James made in his public service announcement about saving the state of Alabama money by only offering the exam in English, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety stated that no extra cost is involved in offering the exam in multiple languages because the test is given automatically by computer.
Obviously, Tim James is proud of the fact that he is a “business man”, but from the looks of it, he is a very poor one.
This video has received a great deal of press nationally and James has defended is political viewpoint many times, even going as far as to making up a very condescending poll on his website saying that while the “far left” has a problem with this language PSA, he believes that “normal” Americans will support this stance. Yes, he did indeed use the word normal, as if saying people on the left are some sort of crazy; what a divisive stance you take when trying to be elected, Tim James, very nice! The poll includes very basic questions as if James believes he is explaining his stance to a crowd of kindergarteners.
Luckily, some Alabama voters are seeing what a dim-witted, discriminatory man Tim James really is and they are making sure their voices are heard in the comments section of the Alabama State Blog.
So no, Tim James, this legal minefield you wish to put your state in does not make sense and it also doesn’t seem to make sense to a good number of the people who will not be voting for you.
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I don't understand how he's a racist bigot for supporting making English only driver's license tests. There's nothing racist about that. Are you sure you know what racism is?
The driver's license tests in France are given in only one language… French. Does that mean the French are nothing but racist bigots? What about the Germans? With German as the official language, they don't offer any other language options on tests. You are required to speak German. Is it discriminatory for them to do that? Of course not. It's just common sense. Learning to speak English is a necessity in America, where English is the most common language. You're not going to be able to find a decent job anywhere without a good, comprehensive knowledge of the language. Making exams in English only is a good idea. If we choose to cater to every other language, that will cost millions of dollars that could be used elsewhere and only serve to further the language gap between people. And with English as the official language, businesses would be a lot better off. They wouldn't have to hire translators and everyone would be able to understand one another and operate more efficiently. If you're building a house with a German guy and a Mexican who don't speak any English, that's going to make things very difficult and far more costly.
I believe the only reason you don't like Tim James is because your prejudice and preconceived notions of Republicans have clouded the truth from you. You assume that because some Republicans may be bad, that not only are they all bad, but their ideas and beliefs are bad. You do this and then hypocritically spew your own hateful and bigoted opinions and mock those who don't think the same way you do. You assume that what you think is right and anyone opposed must therefore be wrong.
I apologize if I came off as a bit brash or abrasive. I'm simply stating my opinion on the matter. I fully support Tim James and I don't like it when people attack my beliefs so viciously without proper cause.
I actually don't think you came off as brash or abrasive and I actually enjoyed your comment. You made a lot of great points and I may have put a little too much thought into the alphabetical order thing, but it's what I was thinking and it's what popped into my head immediately and so it was written.
I'm actually not prejudice against southern states in the least, which I would like to clear up, hence this reply. I think that there is a preconceived notion that those who live in the south are more Republican or right-wing in general and from what I have been able to tell, that is true. But I also know that it is not just the south, since I live in Pennsylvania and this state is consistently referred to as the “southern state of the north” and I live in a middle to lower class area where these same Republican, right-wing ideals are held and I do not agree with them in any respect whatsoever. Whenever I reference this mindset, it can be compared rather easily to the south, which I am guilty of doing.
As for Republicans and those who are generally right-wing. I don't agree with the politics at all, being an unapologetic liberal and that is where we are truly divided. Just like I cannot agree with the Republican or conservative political stance pretty much anywhere, those who are Republican feel same way about those who are liberal or Democrat. I do assume I am right in what I believe in, just as you assume you are right in what you believe. No one can change that and that is where news warps into opinion and that is just the way it is. When it comes to opinion blogs, there is no representing everyone because you very often stumble onto an issue where no one is going to agree with everything that is said. That is not being called a hypocrite, that is called having beliefs.
Nevertheless, thank you for your comment and taking the time to submit it. It made me think and while I do not agree with everything you said, I did enjoy hearing from you and hope that you can give me the same respect in my opinion as I am giving you.
Those countries have official languages.. The United States does not have an official language, and Spanish is very quickly becoming a HUGE linguistic staple in America.
“Those countries have official languages”
I know. That's what I'm saying. They have official languages, but there, it isn't racist when they do it. It's just common sense. Here, when we say we want an official language, it's apparently racist. If you go to France expecting them to speak English and translate everything into English for you, they'll just laugh and tell you no. Why? Because the majority of them speak French and by making French their official language, they save a lot of money and make things so much simpler. Everybody is expected to speak the same language, so society runs smoother.
“Spanish is very quickly becoming a HUGE linguistic staple”
Yes, it is. Don't you think we should do something about it before it's too late? If we allow everything to be made in Spanish as well, Spanish speaking people will have no reason at all to learn English. That'll make jobs more difficult and cost companies millions of dollars.
Speaking from a UK point of view, i have to say that our two great countries seem to be going through the same phase at the moment, meaning, the indigenous white populations are suffocating from political correctness overwhelm.
But i believe that the US is in a worse state than the UK, maybe it’s because of the sheer size of your county, so many more stupid people, fear mongering. Don’t get me wrong i love the US and will always defend it, but at the moment you have to stop apologizing for just existing. Let’s be honest your current president is not helping the situation.
And i ask you, what other county would allow illegal immigrants to stay, claim benefits abuse the system and march in the streets demanding rights when they have no business being there in the first place. Oh yea, that’s right, that other soft touch, the UK.
But in a strange way, it’s what makes us great, but at what cost? Will future generations know what it is to be an American and British citizen if our identity’s become eroded?
Surely all this should be common sense, a no brainer.
-Regards