English Only?

So, I kinda got into it with some people in class today over whether the US should make English its official language. I was completely against this idea. Some of my classmates did not share my point of view. Needless to say, it got heated. So, as a calm down mode for me, I'm going to explain the pros and cons of making English THE official language of the US.

Cons:

-If you were to make English the official language, what you would be doing is institutionalizing essentially a separate but equal policy. I mean this by saying that the government would be saying that, although all languages are equal essentially, any language that is not English holds no weight in the country. This would essentially ostracize those who do not speak English and make the children of those people abandon the culture completely. This is already happening in the first place, this would just institutionalize it.

-Also, benefits for those who do not speak English would be diminished greatly. All official forms would be printed in English, making ballots, fliers, or even school letters printed in English. This would bar those who do not speak English from participating in many things.

-This might also bar non-English speakers from getting jobs.


Pros:

-English Speaking Privilege would be institutionalized.


Honestly, that is the only advantage to this proposition. There is nothing else, substantially that would happen other than English speakers would be able to institutionalize their bigotry.

So really, do you want to help others or gain no real material benefit?