North Texas Republican asks Asian-Americans to change their names
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksIBVDZGwtg

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...exas-lawmaker/

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.

"It really goes to show you that no matter how much progress is made when it comes to race, ignorance still exists in America," said Brad Baldia, executive vice president of the National Association of Asian American Professionals. "It's a slap in the face and it goes to show that there needs to be more education of our government in terms of diversity in America."

Baldia said the comments were particularly "insensitive" as Asian-Americans are becoming increasingly involved in the political process.

>snip<

Their names are like 3 letters long... maybe we should find some poll workers who are literate? The person referenced in this article's last name was "ko" for crying out loud.

And your point is what exactly?

Why should you or anyone be worried about what someone's name is and who are we that we have the right to tell someone to Americanize their name?

That article would be a good example of taxpayer money going to waste.

That idea is just as bad as Sheila Jackson Lee's idea to ethnicize the names of hurricanes.

I don't think PhiGam meant that they should change their names. I think he meant that because their names are so short (i.e. Ko) what is the point in trying to make it more "Americanized" when someone should be able to say/read that name.

Man, she needs to come to the Burgh and try to deal with some of the Polish etc names around here. Aren't a lot of the Asian name translations pretty standard at this point?

Betty Brown Name Generator:
http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen/12054/

My new name: Roy "Chicken and Dumplings" Brown

Yes I definitely have more trouble with European names than Asian. That's ridiculous! The only Asian names I've ever had trouble with are the ones that start "Ng"... how do you pronounce that?

LaVerna "WalMart" Brown for me. :p Are they always Brown?

Thank you, I'm glad you were able to comprehend what I was saying.

f you actually READ (gasp) my post you would see that I said that the problem is that the poll workers are dumb, not the names. I don't know what was so hard for you to understand about that but its the second time you've unjustifiably freaked out over one of my posts today. At no point in my post did I agree with this idiot. I also fail to see how her saying this is costing the country any money... we don't pay her by the word or anything.

I'm pretty sure it's "Ing" and Nguyen is "Wynn." Other than that asian names are pretty easy, I think Japanese names sound really cool. Mitsubishi, Nagasaki, Matsuzaka, etc.

Yeah, I didn't realize that "Nguyen" was "Wynn" for years. I went to school with a lot of Asians (and my step-mom is Vietnamese), so I thought this was f-ing ridiculous. (Not implying that others not in my area would think that lady was sane.) Who asks an entire culture to change their names? That's like when 19th C immigrants felt they had to change their names to assimilate...except in this case, an official asked them to do it. So backwards!!!

ETA: Kudos to the guy speaking for being so eloquent and stating his case clearly without going "WTF are you serious?!" Cause yeah, that's what I would have done.

THUS...MY QUESTION....


AND....YOUR...POINT....IS...WHAT...EXACTLY.


I wasn't addressing 'you' personally!!!!

2nd time today huh?

Keeping count? I think you will survive the experience. It's gonna be ok...need a hug?

Seriously, DS - his point is simple: this woman is an idiot, and the poll workers (if they even exist, which I openly question) are likely idiots too.

You clearly misread it - that's OK to admit, dude.

That is why I asked him for clarification

That's what I get for responding to shyte after midnite....




Bottom line the idea for such a bill is a total waste.

Poll workers are not paid enough to know how to pronounce someone's name.

Hell, most people can't even pronounce NOR spell my last name correctly, as long as they can match my ID up to my voting records should be sufficient.

I would be insulted as all hell if someone asked me to change my last name so THEY could understand it.

I think my married name is one of the hardest names for people to pronounce since it's made up to try and fit a more "American" ideal. My father-in-law came over from Greece and changed his name from a Tz letter combination to a Dj letter combination thinking that people would be able to pronounce it better. Epic Fail! He should have just kept the original spelling...now it just looks made up!

My maiden name is actually no better. Fried. It's pronounced Freed not fried. Maybe people could figure that out if they'd left the "e" at the end like it was originally. Friede would probably make people think twice.

Yeah, the whole thing is pretty ridiculous. It's surprising the woman even felt it was OK to introduce the concept in public - even racists know that they're not supposed to be about that in public.

Coincidentally her and Sheila Lee both rep Texas....LOL

But then how many people would try to pronounce it as "Friday"?

I don't think people should have to change their names, but it also seems like they could consistently use one legal spelling on all state documents. Did I misunderstand what the difference between their "legal transliterated names and the English name shown on their driver's licenses" meant?

I have another question...

Why is the bill only profiling Asians?

Actually it was still happening in the 20th century when immigrants were come over. Officials at Ellis Island forced them to. It wasn't a matter of "Do you want to change it?" My family didn't have to change their names which surprises me, but my mother did change hers to the American version of her original name. A friend of mine, who's family also came from Italy, were forced to change their last name. The original was Romano... for some reason they thought that was too Italian so they changed it to something that still sounded Italian. That's how a lot of families had different last names from each other.

Obviously America (in general) is more accepting of different cultures moreso now than they were back then so yes a comment about Asians changing their names is ridiculous.

Damn not another dumb ass Texan!!:eek:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what these poll workers have to do, but isn't it just a matter of typing the name verbatim as it is on the voter registration card?

But I do agree that everyone should be required to use the same name on all documentation, if you're going to assimilate, go all the way...

I'd take it! Trust me, I've heard worse. One of the secretaries in my Gen Surgery program would type my name "Fired" on our weekly list of cases. I started to get a complex! I've answered to Fried Chicken my entire life so Friday would be a welcome change. Of course, I used to tell people I was going to marry someone named Rice so I could be Dr. Fried-Rice!

This is what I was thinking, too. I run into this all the time, but not just with Asians...with Indians and Middle Easterners, too. Their born name may be Mohammad or Yuki, but they go by Mike or Suzy in this country because they think it's easier for Americans to understand. But I guess I'm wondering how someone could get any legal documents used for IDing at the polling place by using a made-up name. How is that even possible?

Or is this an issue where their Chinese name cannot possibly even be translated into English? After all, different languages have different letters in their alphabet, so I suppose it's possible that some names might not have a literal translation.

Or is it an issue of the first and last names being switched in order, as is the case in Chinese? Someone named Jack Johnson in this country would be referred to as Johnson Jack in China. Are some Chinese Americans signing their ballots with their last name first, which is perhaps not the way it's stated on their Driver's License?

On the other hand, if this is an issue where closed minded fools are unwilling to acommodate a "funny sounding" name, this woman should be ashamed of herself.

Quick History Lesson:

There were actually few cases at Ellis Island where new immigrants were forced to change their names. In most cases, many immigrants were unable to give the proper spelling of their names (due to lack of education, not stupidity). The officials at Ellis Island had to spell names phonetically or as close as they could to the original name. So, while some "Wallachinsky" families becames "Wallace" (as what happened to the ancestors of the author Irving Wallace), most name changes occured due to misunderstandings, not force.

From what I was told by my grandmother (her parents came to the US through Ellis Island) it wasn't misunderstandings or people not knowing how to properly spell their names, the workers just simply couldn't understand them because they spoke a different language. I don't think it had anything to do with education level unless you were talking about their lack of education in English.

Groan. Really. Oh no. :neutral: I am kinda of mad that he even dignified her questions with a response.

Reminds me of a friend whose Russian ancestors came through Ellis Island. The patriarch could only say "Good. Fine." in English, so when asked for his surname his reply meant the family became "Gorfine".

The early 1900s brought a lot of immigrants to Hawaii from Korea, Japan, China, the Philippines, and Portugal to work on plantations. Sugar was king then.

My friend's great-great-grandfather came over from Portugal. His last name was Miento. Upon arriving at the docks, he must have been greeted by some asshole worker, because this worker listed his last name as "Mento." Mento in local Hawaii slang means crazy (or insane). His last name was Mento for several years until he left the plantation and moved to Honolulu. It was then changed back to Miento.

My new Asian converted name is: Tiffani "Walmart" Brown...

And DS,

Katrina is an ethnic name for a Hurricane... http://www.pledgepark.com/images/smilies/lol.gif

Then we must be related because I'm Tammy "Walmart" Brown. :rolleyes:

:D

I counted... two? Need a midol?

Katrina is Germanic origins isnt it?

Hey, give us credit. Our crazies come from both sides of the aisle . . .

and knows no color....bwuuhahahaha!!!!

That is what happened with my grandparents, Vincenzo and Ignazia. My grandfather stated his name as Vincenzo and could sign his name, but they said "We'll call you Jim". His name is correct on the ship's manifest. They made my grandmother "Nancy" and her first name is also correct on the ship's manifest. Her last name is the really crazy part though. Half the family is Tirrito and half is Tirrita. So, for family reunions, they made it Tirrit@. On the manifest from the ship, it's Eirrita so it took us a long time to find them. My uncle did some research with the Sons & Daughters of Sicily out of Chicago and settled the last name issue one and for all. It is Tiritto. There were no surnames of Tirrita in Sicily. I think it's a stretch to call it a lack of education when it is truly a language barrier. They didn't know how to spell in English when they first came, but they certainly knew how to spell in Italian. They are understandable errors but both of grandparents could write their names so I don't understand why they didn't just have people do that.

Haha that's really funny. My family used to be Olsen, but apparently, my great-great grandfather changed it because he thought that was too common. I still have a super Norwegian last name which is pretty pronounceable, but some people think it's Jewish. (It's got "berg" in it. That means "mountain" in Norwegian.) My family was sharecroppers/tenant farmers and they took the name of the family that owned the land once they moved here.

I know that my family took the name with the land, and not of the husband (since that's how we did it in Norway). If I moved to Norway to live with my family, technically I could take our family name, even though I have my father's Dutch/Frisian name everyone thinks is German. If I remember right there are some people who worked our dairy in the states who are "fictive kin" and took our Americanized name. Iverson isn't our real last name, but that's how it shook out at Ellis Island due to language barriers. Oh and my cousin's husband's family has a made up name so they could get better seats at church, that cracks me up.

So really, back to the thread, I don't understand why this is an issue as there are plenty of people with hyphenated names, more than one middle name, or all kinds of variations, and they aren't targeted as a community. It seems somewhat insensitive to target one community as I know plenty of people of Hispanic/Latino descent who go by various names (middle, mother's, other) due to their naming traditions, and I know that community exists in Texas.