Phase 3: Rhetorical Critical Analysis Essay
Abstract: As I watched the clip of Aaron Schlossberg who is a lawyer became viral as you heard him making racist comments to a group of employees at a fast food restaurant called Fresh Kitchen in Midtown Manhattan. This critical analysis essay holds not only the opinion of this man that people might agree with but it also holds my opinion and what I believe to his racist comments with articles and people that agree with me. I decided to analyze the video and see all the absurd comments this man made for no exact reason. With this I focused on picking articles that would prove the comments Schlossberg made were unacceptable and how wrong his judgments were to the hardworking people in the food place.
Language Acceptance
As I grow up in the 21st century I tend to see a lot of language discrimination between different ethnicities as they might feel as if they’re language is superior to other languages. One really impacting video I saw was of a lawyer not accepting the workers in a food place speaking Spanish as he believed they should only be able to speak English since they live in America. It is really upsetting because it’s hard to believe that people can’t accept the language and dialect of others in the 21st century and we still are facing discrimination. My main argument is that no one should be oppressed to speaking the language they feel more comfortable with because by rejecting one’s language it will not stand true to the United States being diversity acceptance. No one should feel as if they are inferior to others just because they speak another language other than English instead they should feel welcomed and proud to be a reason of diversity in the country, no one should silence someone’s language as it just shows the racism within that person.
On May 15,2018 a video of a forty-two-year-old man by the name of Aaron Schlossberg who is a lawyer became viral as you heard him making racist comments to a group of employees at a fast food restaurant called Fresh Kitchen in Midtown Manhattan. Throughout the 
video we see Schlossberg furious as he heard the employees at the fast food place speaking Spanish to the customers that were in front of him. In the video we hear the man yelling at the manager of the restaurant “Your staff is speaking Spanish to customers when they should be speaking English” and he continued by saying “It’s America.” As the manager tries to give the lawyer a respond the man continues to argue basically by himself and is unaccepting of hearing another language other than English. Schlossberg makes a disgraceful assumption that the employees are probably illegal immigrants and threatens them by saying “I will be following up, and my guess is they’re not documented. So, my next call is to ICE to have each one of them kicked out of my country.” He believes that if the employees are working they should be demanded to only speak the English language since it’s the national language of the country. His powerful voice is still the one to be heard the most as he continues to make assumptions and affirms that he pays for their welfare. Throughout this whole video all I see is a man being very ignorant of what America is supposedly known for and not welcoming the diversity of the country. We see the man being very serious about his threats and having no type of respect towards not only the employees but the manager of the fast food place himself, we can see that by his harsh hand movements and arrogant tone he uses he feels superior to all the workers in the restaurant just because he’s speaking English. In my opinion Schlossberg wanted to speak out for the people who think the same way as him who believe that since we live in America we should only be able to speak English and I feel that this man felt more supported to saying all these racist comments because of the amount of hatred and support the president Donald Trump gives to racism. As some may agree with Schlossberg belief that we should all speak English since we live in America and that if you aren’t American then you are probably illegal in the country and only come to take away from true Americans. As this image shows people like the “linguistic police” feel that because they live in America and only speak English they have power over someone who speaks a “foreign language” and then make assumptions based of the language they are speaking and their culture. I don’t believe that is the case because the diversity of the citizens in the country is what builds up the country and making racist assumptions of a person based on their language and ethnicities isn’t what the Bill of Rights says builds up the United States of America.
In my point of view this video is giving us an example of the world we live in today in the 21st century as racism is starting to be brought up once again from people who are ignorant on accepting a person’s language, ethnicity, race, gender, etcetera. We shouldn’t be living in a country of hate and unacceptance of language because it just causes more distraught throughout the states. As Gloria Anzaldúa a Chicana from Mexico and America wrote in her text about a horrible situation she faced in school for correcting the teacher for saying her name wrong the teacher responded “If you want to be American, speak American. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” (Anzaldúa, pg.34). Anzaldúa remembers feeling attacked and that wild tongues like her cannot be tamed since it is the representation of their identity. As we can see limiting a child to only speaking English it brings their self-esteem down and affects who they are as a person, as Schlossberg wishes to limit the employees to only speaking English it will just limit their ability to present their identity and what makes them up. Furthermore, Maria Marta Maldonado a Hispanic woman who did research about “English only” in a place called the Perry in Iowa she learns about the mistreatment Latinos face and how they felt by the mistreatment of Americans just because they speak Spanish and are Hispanic. Maldonado illustrated “Many Latinos in Perry questioned and rejected English-only practices in formal and informal settings, given the heavy reliance on a Spanish-speaking labor force. Several women who worked at a health clinic in town reported being yelled at and admonished for speaking Spanish.” (Maldonado, pg. 12). We see the mistreatment that is being done to Latinos just for speaking their native tongue and how it makes Latinos feel unwelcomed to the country yet for jobs it is very important to hire people who are bilingual to satisfy all customers. The harm of limiting one’s language takes away from the diversity of the country and having the ability to translate to one another if someone doesn’t speak English yet people like to be ignorant and say we live in America only speak English, to Schlossberg I say that the only thing he wants for this country is to enforce these English only rules just to destroy what the country is known for. You don’t want to see the country prosper you just want to cause more chaos where there shouldn’t be any because someone’s language should not be touched upon since it is their identity.
Furthermore, I see the man in the video be absurd and not understanding of how hard the workers are working, I can just believe that he isn’t educated on accepting diversity in a country. As people educate themselves on why they should accept an individual’s language they realize that it is as if they are accepting the individual themselves. As Lynn Isenbarger a graduate and teacher by 1998 set goals for herself “to accept each child as an individual” because she took into great consideration what Delpit asserts, “To reject a person’s language can only feel as if we are rejecting him” (Isenbarger, Willis, pg.126). People like this teacher and author start to appreciate the language of a child in the classroom and take interest in accepting and the students how they are. When Isenbarger read this quote, she asserted “I began reflecting on and questioning my own teaching in relation to that premise” (Isenbarger, Willis, pg.126). Making her realize that with all the rules schools put on students that we should only write SAE, it hurts the students at such a young age because they won’t completely understand why their language isn’t accepted. Going back to the lawyer, I ask do you think it is okay to reject a language knowing that you are not only hurting adults but children as well since their native tongue is not what you wish it to be? Can you live with the heavy consciousness of discriminating the Spanish language just because you felt it is wrong to speak the language, yet the employees were helping a customer in their native tongue, which didn’t involve you at all. How hypocritical can you be in not wanting anyone speaking Spanish in “your country” yet in your firm you offer translations to your customers and it includes the Spanish language? All I can see is just a hurt man who can’t stand to hear the beauty of other languages as he can’t seem to understand and appreciate the diversity of what builds up the country.
Therefore, it can be concluded that people like the man in the video only like to cause chaos and limitations on the diversity of languages in the United States. No one should ever be able to quiet down or shut down a person for speaking the language they are more comfortable with as it represents themselves, we should learn to accept everyone’s language and educate ourselves. Schlossberg and people who have the same belief that we should only speak English in America should educate themselves on all the hurt their discrimination causes and how badly the country would be seen if they don’t accept everyone.
Work Cited
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 1987, pp.34
Isenbarger, Lynn; Willis, Arlette Ingram. “An Intersection of Theory and Practice: Accepting the Language a Child Brings into the Classroom.” Language Arts, 2006, Vol.84(2), p.125-135
Maldonado, Maria Marta. “Latino Incorporation and Racialized Border Politics in the Heartland
Interior Enforcement and Policeability in an English-Only State.” Psychology & Psychiatry Journal, Dec 20, 2014, p.243
Reflection:
As I picked the example of the man discriminating the workers at the fast food place for speaking Spanish I made my intended audience to be Aaron Schlossberg himself and for teachers and educators to teach about language acceptance. In my phase three essay I focused on getting my purpose across to my audience which was no one should be oppressed for speaking the language they feel more comfortable with because by rejecting one’s language it will not stand true to the United States being acceptable to diversity. My focus was to make sure that people like Schlossberg educate themselves on the beauty of languages and that just because we live in America we shouldn’t feel stuck only speaking English. All we see in the video is an angry lawyer who feels superior towards the workers just because he speaks English and he assumes the workers are illegal immigrants. When I went to research about the example and topic I focused on finding sources that will support my view on the whole situation. One thing I did was include an image that agreed to Schlossberg because I also wanted to include that people in society tend to agree with his beliefs as well since they don’t understand the acceptance of speaking what they call a “foreign language” in America. I feel that I appealed mostly to pathos with the sources I used because it gives vivid examples of what Latinos and immigrants have faced with language discrimination.
During phase three I feel that I have accomplished more course learning goals as it has helped me develop my writing skills. One course learning outcome was being able to learn further on dialect acceptance and culture acceptance. With the sources I used I learned the multiple struggles immigrants have faced when they spoke a “foreign language” and it made me understand the importance of accepting one’s language and culture to make them feel welcomed and accepted in the country. Another course learning outcome was developing my research skills in finding the sources that will best support my essay/ purpose because with one-search I got to narrow down my search to what I mainly wanted my evidence to be about. During the class time I was able to accomplish on focusing on improving my writing through the different course readings we did and using the examples of those writings to give me a template or an idea on how I wanted my essay to be structured. One reading that did help me the most was the last one in the course reading packet “Should Writer’s Use They Own English” by Vershawn Ashanti Young because he wrote in such a way that was formal but very informative and it got his purpose across in such a unique and creative way and I used this as a template for my essay.
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