This is worth a read. Matthew Yglesias implicitly indicates that it is easy for us as Americans to associate language with nationalism - we shove any large linguistic minority that consider themselves “Americans” under the rug. Consider our Latino or Creole populations. American Latinos have formed a significant portion of the population for many generations, and French/Creole-speaking Louisianeans are distinctly American. Yet, we have high support for listing English as our national language, and when confronted with an individual speaking another language, we can’t help but think: “where are you from?”
I mean, because it’s obviously not here.
