[Shakes Head]

So, via Atrios (it's a ways down the page by now), I was pointed to this site which apparently is a sign up page to disseminate right-wing Spanish-language material to interested parties. The issue at hand is that the page has employment boxes with only four options: Armed Forces, Teacher, Senior Citizen (I was unfamiliar with the idiom "Persona de la Tercera Edad," but then I never claimed to know Spanish), and Rancher/Farmer.

(The Virginian wondered whether the whole thing might be a hoax. The URL is a little odd, but if it's a hoax it also fooled the Washington Post. Several people on the Atrios comments thread signed up, so I can wait and see what they report.)

Now, this is an issue near and dear to my heart. When I was applying to colleges, I figured I might as well check out Dartmouth (not that I probably had much chance of getting in) despite my skepticism about its historical political leanings. I didn't want to be on an aggressively liberal campus either, but I'll take that over a student paper defined by the ministrations of Dinesh D'Souza and Laura Ingraham (where Chicago falls as a campus on the political spectrum is an issue for another post). On something of a whim, I informed Dartmouth that I'd like some materials, and that I happened to be interested in what they had to say to Hispanic applicants (I wasn't, but comedy can strike from an unexpected source). So I received some information from Dartmouth which included a letter to me, in English, addressing me specifically as a Hispanic or Latino or whatever the preferred term was at the time. Letter was only in English, not Spanish - ok. And they also sent a letter concerning the same topics to my parents. In Spanish. No English. Because the parents of a potential Hispanic applicant don't speak English. Right. (Incidentally, UCLA sent me similar materials, but they did it the right way: everything was bilingual.)

So my initial reaction to "Abriendo Caminos" was: "Good Lord, these people are so ridiculous." And clearly, not having even an "otro" box to check is an oversight. After all, what about the maintenance men, maids, babysitters, and restaurant employees out there? The outrage over at Atrios, of course, is that there aren't any boxes for lawyers, businessmen, doctors, etc. After about ten minutes though, it occurred to me - any white collar individuals who are eligible to vote for president are also (I have to assume) literate in English. (Except perhaps for small business owners.)

I harbor some suspicions about the legitimacy of this website, but I also (while finding it offensive) don't think it's quite as horrendously so as it appeared at first blush. Still, I think someone ought to get fired over this. Of course, in the world of Bush, no one ever gets fired for making a mistake. They just resign to spend more time with their family...