Having watched that one clip of amphibia where Polly claims to have learned fluent Thai by watching rom coms, Thai sounds VERY different from Mandarin.
That being said, I think even this guy is being a bit naïve, the racists aren't mad you're speaking an Asian language, they aren't busting out a phrase book to check and make sure those tones are Punjabi and not Tibetan or whatever. They're mad you're speaking any language they can't understand at all. Why?
Because every last one of these redcaps has an incurable complex surrounding being incensed by the idea of having a fast one pulled on them or their property or their beliefs. They're dead against emergency exemptions for abortion bans and even treating women who miscarry more sympathetically than "with complete and absolute contempt" because they're living in a nightmarish hellscape where literally every woman is already plotting to use those claims to sneak an "unneeded" abortion past them.
They don't see speaking a different language as you just talking, they see it as you talking shit about them because the world revolves around them and why else would you "go out of your way" to avoid them being able to eeves drop overhear if you're saying something untoward? I could be speaking french with my teacher over a culture lesson and these people would only skip the racism to instead accuse me of spying on them and talking shit in front of their faces to rub in that they can't understand what I'm saying.
I have gotten dirty looks for talking to my dog in gaelic(she understood commands in both english and gaelic). The US really isn't friendly to any other languages at all. I'm also in a blue state.
It's gotta be WAY worse for POC. Like... scary worse...especially for folks stuck in red states. There are some cultural aspects of the US that really need updating. Like the rampant xenophobia.
That's crazy! You mean like the greenbook that was written for traveling Black Americans during the Jim Crow era so they could avoid places like sundown towns and businesses that refused services to POC? Sorry if that's not what you meant, it's the only greenbook I'm familiar with... unless greenbook is a general term for avoiding places filled with racism?
Either way I had no idea that prejudice towards the Irish was still prevalent up into the 80's. Thats...really something else.