Washington, DC – On July 22, 2013 Mayor Vincent Gray, along with a handful of aides and scores of reporters, paid a visit to Petworth with the intention of cracking down on synthetic marijuana and drug paraphernalia being sold at small businesses in the neighborhood. “That’s illegal, man. Can’t do that. That’s drug paraphernalia,” warned the Mayor. This isn’t the first time that Mayor Gray has posed as a law enforcement official in order to bust local shops, in his effort with the group Advocates for Drug-free Youth.

The visit took an unexpected turn, however, when Gray encountered an Ethiopian clerk who had trouble understanding English. “You don’t understand? How do you sell anything if you don’t understand? If somebody asks you for something, do you know what they’re asking you for?” Mayor Gray chided. At one point, visibly frustrated by the language barrier, the Mayor told the clerk “I don’t even, I really don’t know how you are working here if you can’t communicate with the people who come in here.” Despite criticism from NBC4 reporter Mark Segrave, the Mayor denied that his remarks could be considered insensitive and said that the language barrier was “irrelevant.”

According to federal and local laws, DC government must provide interpretation and translation when interacting with limited- and non-English proficient individuals. By asking for interpretation and having his request denied, the clerk was deprived of his right to “equal and meaningful” access protected by Title XI of the Civil Rights Act and the DC Language Access Act of 2004.

Over 85,000 DC residents speak a language other than English at home, according to the 2010 Census. The most common languages include Spanish, Amharic, French, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. With these facts in mind and the law on his side, it is difficult to watch the Mayor tell the young clerk that his actions are illegal — not to mention while Mr. Gray himself is under federal investigation for corruption charges.

It isn’t the first time a PR move like this has gone wrong for the Mayor. Just this time last year, he brought a small army of city officials with him to Martin Luther King Boulevard in SE to demand that shop-owners stop carrying rolling papers and selling loose cigarettes. In many of the stores, Mr. Gray and the Director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) Nicholas Majett also encountered language barriers. Then too, the City Paper’s Alan Suderman picked up on the Mayor’s disregard of language access laws:

It did not seem like many of the foreign-born clerks would be able to read the letters without some assistance, as they often appeared to have no idea what the mayor was saying. Majett said it’s a common ploy for immigrant clerks to claim poor English skills whenever dealing with the DCRA. “We always get that,” he said. And Gray said they were still getting the message. “They don’t speak English well, but they understand this is an enforcement visit,” he said.

Following the Suderman piece, the DC-based organization Many Languages, One Voice revisited the stores to get reactions from the owners, most of whom were Korean and spoke little English. MLOV also responded to the most recent incident in Petworth in a video made by English language learner youth in their student organizing program, S.M.A.R.T. (Student Multiethnic Action Research Team):

Lidya Abune, a former S.M.A.R.T. member was surprised by the Mayor’s actions, saying:

“The fact that he’s making fun of him, I don’t expect that from the Mayor. I really respect Vincent Gray, but this is really immature. And definitely in DC, we have the Language Access Act and we have to respect it. DC is very diverse. We have a large immigrant community and you will be respected if you respect someone’s language, culture…it’s really critical. It is someone’s identity…You have to show respect for the people that you’re serving.”

Laws are on the books for a reason. As progressive as the DC Language Access Act is, it is born partly out of the violence and bloodshed of the 1991 Mount Pleasant riots. Incited when police openly shot and killed a handcuffed Latino man, the riots catalyzed big changes in the way government worked with non-English speakers, and immigrants more generally:

Ultimately, government and community leaders realized that language barriers, discrimination, and unequal access to services in the Latino community had created the conditions . . . → Read More: Mayor Gray Must Understand, Our Language is Our Right