A Texas legislator has suggested that Asian Americans should consider changing their given names and adopt something simpler "that’s easier for Americans to deal with.” I understand that foreign names can be a mouthful and a bit confusing across language barriers. Have some Asians themselves confused things further by adopting "American" names for daily usage while keeping their "official" names on some documents? In any case who says that a citizen has any obligation to make things "easier" for politicians and bureaucrats? (link: Sanjukta)
AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”
The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes. The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.
Easier for voting?
Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.
“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 said.
Brown later told Ko: “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?” (emphasis mine)
Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie said Republicans are trying to suppress votes with a partisan identification bill and said Brown “is adding insult to injury with her disrespectful comments.”
Brown spokesman Jordan Berry said Brown was not making a racially motivated comment but was trying to resolve an identification problem.
Berry said Democrats are trying to blow Brown’s comments out of proportion because polls show most voters support requiring identification for voting. Berry said the Democrats are using racial rhetoric to inflame partisan feelings against the bill.
“They want this to just be about race,” Berry said.
Brown has since then issued an apology for making the remarks.
Accidental Blogger 
8 responses to “Call Me “Betty Brown””
The irony is that Asian-Americans use “a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with” when they convert names (on the birth certificate) like Liu Ling-mei to Lily Liu for school registration, which makes its way to the driver’s license. At the polls, the poll workers don’t understand that ‘Lilly Liu’ on the driver’s ID and the registered name “Liu Ling-mei” refer to the same person.
Actually, Betty Brown should have suggested “Keep your birth certificate names intact, rather than changing them to make it easier for Americans to deal with.” Then Ling-mei can retain her name, rather than having to Americanize it to Lily.
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I know about the “dual” name habit among some Asian communities – I do refer to that within my post. The Japanese and Indians mostly don’t do it. The Chinese and Koreans often do. It really should be up to the individual what s/he wants to be known as. Betty Brown is just an elderly Texas dame who hasn’t realized that the world around her has changed and that it is somewhat high handed and mildly offensive to suggest that things be made easier for “Americans” to deal with. Sorry Betty, if someone has come to vote with a voter’s registration card, that person IS American. Also, Betty doesn’t seem terribly concerned about unpronouncable names of Eastern and northern European origin, some of which are far harder to say or spell than Wong, Cho, Ko or Lee.
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It’s hard to know whether or not Brown was being disrespectful. More likely, she was being thick-headed. My own name is about as easy as any for an “American” to pronounce, yet it’s often bungled. Steve or Dan or Dane for Dean, Rowland for Rowan.
Why didn’t she recommend the obvious solution, anyway? Long ago, when I would patronize fast food chains, I recall being asked my name after placing an order. Evidently HQ had sent out a memo instructing workers to personalize the transaction. I wasn’t having any of it, so I replied, “Twelve.” Why can’t we adopt a number?
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A personal take on the story at Balkinization.
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I think the longer the name, the better. I would suggest that all immigrants name their kids precisely the way they want to, whether it be Anna Sigridsdottir or Srilakshmivaraha Venkataramana Saikrishna or Vaclawek Zbigniew Szczepanski. Then all the Betty Browns in their classes can sit snivelling when they play the game of ‘How much is my name worth when tallying the sum of the ordinal values of the letters?” (Long as my name is, I still scored only second highest on that one, in my second grade class. The top score was that of a kid named Alexander Worthington or some such.)
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Whenever I have to say my name over the phone to identify myself to a customer service agent of a utilities company or a catalog, I begin spelling it even before I say it. After my first name is duly noted, I say my last name and qualify it with “as in Peter, Paul and Mary.” There is invariably a relieved chortle on the other side of the phone of the “that was easy!” variety. So I fully understand where Ms Brown is coming from. I just don’t believe that things always have to be “easy.” Also, Ms Brown gives herself away with this statement: “do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” As I pointed out, the people in question are not “your citizens.” Being Americans, they are “her” citizens too.
On the other hand, clearly understanding that people only have so much time to get my name correctly in public places, I often just say “Paul” or “Mrs. Paul” to save time and aggravation. Just a few weeks ago, at a sandwich shop which takes the names of customers with their orders, I gave my name as “Paul.” Soon afterwards, three “Pauls” were called out (all men) causing a bit of confusion requiring matching every order with the right “Paul.” When my turn came, the man at the counter, whose first name was also Paul, muttered, “The Pauls are taking over the world, it seems.” Sometimes, calling myself Ruchira helps to simplify things.
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There is a touching opinion piece on the issue at Concurring Opinions. I for one can’t believe she got elected to office. So ridiculous….
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Vaclawek Zbigniew Szczepanski? The Vaclawek Zbigniew Szczepanski? I haven’t seen him since elementary school! We teased him endlessly, mostly because it was such a torment for us to sing the “banana-fanna-fo-fanna” song when his name came up.
You are exactly right, Ruchira, about Brown’s telling slip. But the next time you’re ordering sandwiches, identify yourself as Ringo.
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