Let's All Change Our Names to Betty Brown

I just read an article about a North Texas legislator who suggested Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”

“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?” Betty Brown said.

Brown adds: “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?”

Apparently, Ms. Betty Brown thinks it's too difficult to say Asian names, especially those of Chinese, Korean and Japanese background and her hands are tied to create a system that's not going to screw up her voting identification program. We all run into situations where names are difficult to pronounce but the thought of blatantly disrespecting other cultures, to ask that they disown the name they were given at birth takes us backwards as Americans. As an Asian American, it saddens me that ignorance like this continue to exist. Ms. Brown desperately needs media training in multicultural communications.

Link to the article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6365320.html


~Muriel