jadis

Maybe the following analogy would be helpful:

Imagine if you will that there was a majority-Hispanophone US state (let's say on the Mexican border) and in it you had enclaves of Anglophones who were too proud of their historical status as the dominant group to deign to learn Spanish. Things have definitely changed since they were fully in control of the financial and education sectors and the Hispanophones were downtrodden factory workers whose education system was ran by the Catholic church. Many Anglophones are still very gainfully employed in private firms in the financial sector, but cushy government jobs are no longer accessible to them after a law was passed that you need to show a level of proficiency in Spanish to work there. There are fewer and fewer schools where their children can study in English and you need to jump through hoops to get in.

Now the state authorities are going out of their way to encourage the Anglophone minority to learn Spanish. Language courses are free and you get welfare while you're taking them. And of course there's the added bonus: culture. If you know Spanish you gain access to a world of cultural riches, to one of the world's most widely spoken languages.

And yet there's still a significant proportion of Anglophones who refuse to learn it because they have an idea of "heritage" that includes being superior to those who speak Spanish.

Of course there are many nuances I've conveniently left out, but the people I described as "parochial" share certain traits with those in the deep south who fly the confederate flag today. Their idea of the supremacy of anglo protestantism is very stupid and exclusionary.