Texas Election Official Fired After Making Fun Of Spanish-Speaking Voters
12 November 2009, 4:08 PM. By Alex Alvarez
Melinda Nickless, who worked as the assistant director of the Secretary of State’s elections division in Texas, was fired after joking that elections workers should deal with Spanish-speaking voters by communicating with them “loudly and slowly.” Specially, she told election workers at a pre-primary seminar in Austin to yell “Sit down, I will call someone to help you. Un momento por favor, me telefono somebody.” Tip your waitress! With un dollaro!
Nickless then offered an anecdote about her mother’s experiences with a Spanish-speaking woman at a local Wal*Mart, effectively making Nickless that one aunt who is maybe a little lonely and tells unfunny stories at holiday gatherings in a voice just too loud and too happy enough to betray the fact that she is hahahaha dying inside.
Nickless recounted how her mother returned to the Wal*Mart parking lot to find that one of them there Latinos had hit her car. The offender, recalled Nickless, said she “no speak English,” so her mother attempted to use broken Spanish in order to tell her she was going to go back into the store to call her husband. When relating to those gathered that the Spanish-speaking woman was gone by the time her mother returned to the parking lot, Nickless added, “Duh, mother!”
While some elections officials responded to the story with laughter, but Rosalie Weisfeld, a Democrat from McAllen, Texas, promptly told Nickless she felt her attitude towards Spanish-speaking voters was offensive and inappropriate.
Nickless, who apologized to Weisfeld, has since been fired, despite support from a handful of Texas Republicans.
We’d love to open this up to you and find out what you think about Nickless’ comments: Were they offensive? Were they inappropriate? Was she poking fun at people’s inability to intelligently communicate with those who didn’t speak the same language, or was she targeting Latinos with xenophobic language? Let us know what you think.
IN ENGLISH PLEASE! Duh, mother!
State elections official fired after poking fun at Spanish-speaking voters [Statesman]
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La sra. Nickless ha ofendido gravemente a la gran población hispanohablante del estado de tejas con sus desafortunados comentarios. Han sido completamente fuera de serie y de una índole claramente anti-inmigrante. El gobierno estatal de tejas actuaría mal si hubiera seguiendo empleando a una persona tan divisiva y llena de odio.
a chingar su madre. bye.
Yes, she was targeting Latino voters–especially Mexican and Mexican-American voters. But I doubt that’s why they fired her.
I’m sure they fired her for trying to sabotage the communication between election workers and voters. But there should be an additional penalty for targeting any group of people–no matter who they are. Despite my complaints I am happy they fired her.
I really don’t think she was funny. However, I do think this country needs to up its standards and require that everyone speak a common language (English) along with at least one other language. If you want to be part of this system you need to communicate and understand it.
by your comments it seems to me that you are truly hiding your feelings. what i mean is that you agreed with what she said but kind of hiding it in your comment. AQUI VAMOS HABLAR ESPAÑOL. CALELE A QUIEN LE CALE. Y AL QUE LE CALE MEJOR.
I’m sure the fact that Rosalie Weisfeld has connections with State Senator Chuy Hinojosa had a larger hand in her dismissal. It was wrong and people say dumb shit all the time, but she said it at the wrong time to the wrong audience. Que sad.