here I thought I already had my dose of outrage for the day...

[kuangning]

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?”



A: Asian-descent voters are Americans too. What she really means, therefore, is "easier for generic white people to deal with."

B: Her lack of faith in the reading skills and problem-solving skills of generic white people is noted.

C: What we really need is clearly a return to the days when Immigration officials renamed people when they entered the country! Yes!

D: Life is going to change fairly dramatically when her generation is displaced in positions of power, and I can't wait to see it happen.

Comments

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Don't forget E, the idea that you need to learn a language in order to be able to pronounce a name. (I wonder how close the connection needs to be to make that necessary, anyway? Should I learn Latin in order to pronounce my name, since it derives from it?)

[kuangning]

Point. I was too busy cringing over the "you and your citizens" statement (I mean, I wasn't aware we let non-American-citizens vote, so whose citizens does she mean?) to look at the linguistics bit.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Well, it's clearly important to her, since she seems to base citizenship on the language one's name derives from if they're Ko's citizens and not the United States'. That's probably really convenient for the birthers, of course. ;P

(Now I want retroactive Roman citizenship, dammit. Think she'd back the bid?)

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

I read this earlier today and an still to grrrr to put into words what I think of this woman. Not without lots of swearing and foaming at the mouth.

[kuangning]

Indeed.

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

This. Yes. Gibbering in inarticulate rage now.

[kaolinfire.livejournal.com]

Ayup, Texas. Glad to be gone from there. I wouldn't say it's entirely a generational thing, there. It's pervasive.

=/

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I heard about that on this morning's news, and my head is still wagging in disbelief that she actually shaped her mouth to say that. Many Americans do not check their privilege and are damn lazy when it comes to other languages. If she can waggle her tongue to make such a statement, she can waggle her tongue to learn how to properly pronounce names from other cultures. The nerve!