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| 'Speak English' Signs OK at Philly Shop |
| 2008-03-20 |
| PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The owner of a famous cheesesteak shop did not discriminate when he posted signs asking customers to speak English, a city panel ruled Wednesday. In a 2-1 vote, a Commission on Human Relations panel found that two signs at Geno's Steaks telling customers, "This is America: WHEN ORDERING 'PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH,'" do not violate the city's Fair Practices Ordinance. Shop owner Joe Vento has said he posted the signs in October 2005 because of concerns over immigration reform and an increasing number of people in the area who could not order in English. Vento has said he never refused service to anyone because they couldn't speak English. But critics argued that the signs discourage customers of certain backgrounds from eating at the shop. So he loses their business if people have a problem with the signs. He seems to be willing to take that economic hit. Commissioners Roxanne E. Covington and Burt Siegel voted to dismiss the complaint, finding that the sign does not communicate that business will be "refused, withheld or denied." In a dissenting opinion, Commissioner Joseph J. Centeno said he thought the signs did discourage some customers. "The sign appeared immediately above another sign that had the following words: 'Management Reserves the Right to Refuse Service,'" Centeno wrote. So move the sign... Geno's and its chief rival across the street, Pat's King of Steaks, are two of the city's best known cheesesteak venues. A growing number of Asian and Latin American immigrants have moved into the traditionally Italian neighborhood in recent years. Vento had threatened to go to court if he lost. His attorney, Albert G. Weiss, said he was "pleasantly surprised" by Wednesday's decision. "We expected that this was not going to go our way," Weiss said. Neither did anybody else in PC Nation. In February 2007, the commission found probable cause against Geno's for discrimination, alleging that the policy discourages customers of certain backgrounds from eating there. The case went to a public hearing, where an attorney for the commission argued that the sign was about intimidation, not political speech. The matter then went to the three-member panel for a ruling. W. Nick Taliaferro, the commission's executive director, said he would not appeal. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #7 "All with an adorably ineradicable American accent." Mr. Wife is adorable, period, tw. ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-03-20 23:54 |
| #6 If the ATMs offered a Dutch option I'd press for that, if only for the bit of practice of a language I didn't live long enough within. Hoe gat het, y'all? ;-) Functionally, though, even the Canadians are much better off than the Europeans. I remember when Mr. Wife was involved in opening up the Eastern European markets after the Wall came down, and they had to add usage directions on the package in the languages of the newly added countries. One needs the eyes of an eagle to read it now -- English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, the three Scandanavian languages... and then Czech, Polish and Hungarian. Separately, I believe the Chinese have one written language, but speakers of most languages and dialects cannot understand one another (my Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking friends talk in English as the only path to understanding). Arabic is like that, too, Mr. Wife has told me. The written language is constant across the Ummah, but when read aloud the words are completely different in different countries. That's why the Koran must be learnt in the oral language of Arabia... beyond the traditional lack of literacy in Muslim societies. (Mr. Wife learnt Arabic when he spent almost a year starting up a factory in Egypt, underwent formal training with a Palestinian teacher here, worked in Morocco, then shocked his native colleagues in India by reading the Urdu shop signs... written in the Arabic alphabet. All with an adorably ineradicable American accent.) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-20 23:27 |
| #5 Fully agree... Nothing wrong with having what is considered a default language. Everyone should be free to speak what ever they want but they should respect the pragmatic need for ONE default language. China as an example has one default language and it work really well. As a Canadian I can attest to the major problems having 2 official languages... After you grant a second official language, every other culture wants to be the third and forth, and fifth ect. and it gets ridiculous having multiple languages plastered on every road sign and cereal box...Its a slippery cliff... |
| Posted by: mac-d-only 2008-03-20 22:07 |
| #4 fair practice ordinance? what kind of pc crap is that....private business = should be able to run his business how he wants and take the economic consequences/benefits there of. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2008-03-20 21:50 |
| #3 I'm still amazed that our ATM card has our bank information on it but they can't squeeze in a language preference to avoid annoying customers every single time they deal with the ATM. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-03-20 18:04 |
| #2 Now, can we do something about the ATMs that make you press "1" for English? |
| Posted by: Darrell 2008-03-20 16:51 |
| #1 The Commission on Human Relations sounds waaaay too Canadian. |
| Posted by: Gabby Cussworth 2008-03-20 15:59 |