Asian-Americans Blast Texas Congressman's Call for 'Easier to Deal With' Names
We read:
"Asian-Americans say they are outraged that a Texas lawmaker suggested in a hearing that Asian-American voters should adopt names that are "easier for Americans to deal with" at the polls. Texas Rep. Betty Brown, a Republican, made the comments on Tuesday as Ramey Ko, an associate member of the Organization of Chinese Americans, testified before the Texas House Elections Committee on voter identification legislation.
Ko testified that people of Asian descent frequently have difficulties voting due to differences in their legal transliterated names and the English name shown on their driver's licenses. Brown asked Ko: "Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese -- I understand it's a rather difficult language -- do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"
Brown later said, "Can't you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that's easier for Americans to deal with?"
The Texas Democratic Party called on Brown to apologize on Wednesday. The exchange, which has appeared on YouTube, has angered many Asian-Americans.
Jordan Berry, a spokesman for Brown, defended the lawmaker and said her comments were not racially motivated. "It had nothing to do with race," Berry told FOXNews.com. "What she was talking about was the Chinese name, just transposing it from Chinese to English."
Berry said Democrats were "looking for an issue" and took Brown's comments out of context.
Officials from the Asian American Institute said Brown's comments were "outrageous, offensive and hurtful."
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Since many people from non-English-speaking backgrounds, including Asians, DO already adopt names that are easier for the majority to remember and pronounce, it would seem that they agree with Rep. Brown. Are they racist too? Are their actions "outrageous, offensive and hurtful"?
It is certainly true that foreign names often do give English-speakers a lot of trouble. "Nguyen" (the Vietnamese equivalent of "Jones") is an example. People make a real mess of it. It's actually very easy to say. Pretend that it is spelled as "naWIN" and you will get it right. But getting the right pronunciation of ALL the foreign names around is an impossible ask.
I think Polish names are the hardest. I have a Polish friend whose surname to this day I can neither spell nor pronounce. I just address him by his first name.
9 comments:
Historical Note:
At Ellis Island in New York, immigration officers would simplify names that were difficult to pronounce and/or spell. I was in Navy Instructor School with an AT2 whose grandfather came from Poland and had this happen to him. so now, folks get their panties in a wad?
GMAFB
I remember I went to the corner store and they gentleman behind the counter was of Middle-Eastern descent. Everybody called him Sam. I asked what his real name was and with some coaxing he finally told me. The name was 10 ft long and did not easily roll off my American tongue. Sam it is!
He wasn't offended at all. He came here to be an American, and he did become an American. Of course, this was about 2 decades ago.
Was what the guy said insulting? Sure, I can see that. I really can.
But, was this guy being intentionally insulting or racist? No, I don't think so.
How about consistently spelling your name in english. This is an "arabic" letter -vs- other (character, cyrillic, hebrew, etc) issue.
For example, how many ways can you spell Mohammar Qadaffi (head of Libya)?
One place I worked at had one guy who office name plate was three plates long one on side of the door and three plates long on the other side of the door. Turned out that was the short version of his name. His full name was four paragraphs long. With hundred charactor names in. But he had fun with it too! When he told "government" types that was the short version of his name and they wanted his full name, he told them. And then after a couple of minutes of his talking, they wrote down the short version!
Mobius
I think the (legal!!) immigrants with difficult names should be addressed with their Social security numbers.
Like: 145-86-4417
Spoken: run-vor-vive--reight-sex--vor-vor-vun-sewin
Ms. Brown was trying to come up with a way to *make it easier for Asians and others* to be allowed to vote, because in many cases the names of Asian immigrants may be spelled differently on different *official documents*, which in some cases has led to their disqualification at the polls. She was trying to HELP them.
See the YouTube video of the hearing at which she made the remark.
http://snurl.com/fuaw0
Personally, my last name on my Asian heritage but my first name is based from Austrian lineage. Both names are spelled wrong by most people I meet for the first time and usually I have to spell it several times for them. So which one should I change. I meet people who's name you wonder about. Have you take look at the icon of Americana, Hollywood elites. Hell, you get to the point that one yutz has a symbol instead of a name. Now until we have everone calling themselves Jane and John Doe, a name is important to ones identity. To deride someone name is to tell them there heritage is less then others. So, would any of those who said not a big issue change your name if someone tell you it's too hard. And, any of you to go up to a Muslim or Hispanic that their name should be changed because it's too hard. Be careful though, you may be labled a racist.
My neighbor from Iran told me they had to shorten their last name to 26 characters because that was the max limit on their Visa forms.
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