Cringe/Virtue-Signally Hot Take - If more Americans were fluent in Spanish/ANY other languages we'd have a different attitude toward immigration

Blah blah I've studied Spanish. Very quick back story was I'd been planning to move to Spain. But upshot is I've been taking daily online lessons, and, here's the cringe part, that's allowed me to have conversations in Spanish with people throughout central and south America.

This, plus the reaction to Bad Bunny from some parts of MAGA have caused me to reflect that some prejudice probably comes from only understanding people when they try to speak their second language. I think there are studies on this. Americans are also famously mono-lingual.

The experience of learning another language - here comes the NPR-tote-bag cringe again - shows us 2 things: first, we learn what it's like to be in the shoes of immigrants and those who learn English - trying to "finesse" things in a language you didn't grow up with. Which gives me profound respect for anyone who uproots in middle age and moves their family to the US without speaking a word of English.

Second, as you get more fluent, you get to hear people in their first language, and it goes without saying you see the depth of their education, thought, self-expression, etc in a way that's limited sometimes when they have to speak English.

I think some combination of only hearing Spanish-speakers in not-very-practiced English, images of border caravans we've seen since we were kids, and a fair number just being "brown" has contributed to this kneejerk prejudice.

Sure, people desperate enough to cross the Darien gap and trust their fates to US immigration authorities are also more likely to be from the lower socioeconomic echelons of their birth countries. But I think there's an additional layer of simply monolingual Americans interpreting people's intelligence as lower because they're always hearing them in their second language, and have zero experience being in their shoes.

I know this is cringe.