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August 2009
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I missed this since I've been out most of the week. Here's the AP: AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Democratic Party demanded an apology Wednesday from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell for suggesting Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are "easier for Americans to deal with." Brown made the comments on Tuesday evening as the House Elections Committee discussed voter identification legislation, the Houston Chronicle reported in its online edition. ... Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans, told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and with forms of identification because there may be a difference in their legal transliterated name and a common English name used on their driver's license. [Ed Note: Agreed. My mom is "Jeannie Hu" and "Wang Cheng-yi" and "Jeannie Chengyi Hu" and "Chengyi Wang" and "Hu Wang Cheng-yi" in various documents.] "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 asked, the newspaper reported. She 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?" ... 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. 7 CommentsLeave a comment |
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There's too much politics in Texas to fit into a newscast, so the fun continues here.
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"You and your citizens?" If a voter is coming to the polls, wouldn't he or she be an *American* citizen?
This woman is clueless!!
What a crappy holier-than-thou approach from this Texas lawmaker. Condescending to say the least. People like this deserve to have their judgment called into question... openly and loudly. If she misspoke, own up to it. Make concessions and move on. Hellloooo??? Communications person running her show????
That woman gives rednecks a bad name.
I am a 2nd Generation Filipino American and this offends me deeply. I have a two-letter last name (Uy) that I proudly bear. I've spent my whole life explaining how to pronounce this and my ethnicity. Now this politician suggests that in order for to make it easier to exercise my right as a citizen, I should change my name, compromise my heritage? I don't complain when I come across a French, German, Eastern European, or even some Irish names that are hard to pronounce. Would she tell folks with last names of Goethe, Sinciewicz, Desmarais to change? I doubt it. (I know how to say these last names because I figure the name game goes both ways. I'm not so culturally-illiterate to think most people have the last name as Brown.)
Rep. Brown also doesn't understand that when the Japanese occupied Korea they forced Koreans to either "adopt" Japanese names or Japanify their Korean names.
What Rep. Brown is clueless about - is that there is NO PRONOUNCIATION GUIDELINES for poll workers.
A poll worker is not required to 'read aloud' the name on the ID. The poll log will match the Texas Drivers License or Texas State ID, always. (ok - except for first time voters who haven't registered to vote yet)
The ID will match what's on the poll log , in front of a poll worker, always - there's NO NEED to 'speak the name aloud' at all.
A poll worker just needs to be able to READ, and MATCH LETTERS. That's it - there is no 'spoken requirement' for a poll worker.
She might as well have dropped the 'N' word bomb - this is incendiary faux paux, she must apologize.
In 1849, Spaniards in the Philippines issued the Claveria Edict. It forced all native Filipinos under their control to adopt a name from a Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos. They did this to keep better records of who paid their taxes. I suppose Betty Brown wants to create a Catalog of Betty Brown Approved Names.