Why oh why do Republican Texas lawmakers make it so embarrassing to live in Texas? Here is yet another example of the idiocies they display in the state legislature. A big thank you to Tamale Chica for suggesting the article.Chron.com reports:
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.
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?”
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 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?”
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.”
1. Uh, Asians are Americans too.
ReplyDelete2. Not all Asians are Chinese so learning Chinese won't help you pronounce everyone's name (but it might improve your intelligence quotient)
3.Sometimes people who aren't Asian have polysyllabic names which might be "difficult to pronounce."
4.It's not fair for Texas to stack the deck with stupid politicians - ignorance should be spread around.
Great comments!
ReplyDeleteWhen someone plays the ignorance card (oops, maybe they aren't pretending after all), it is rather appalling to think that they have no concept that this nation was rebuilt (I say rebuilt since it was someone else's nation before) by people of all color, and Chinese and Mexicans did a lot of work at very little pay to build our railroads, and that Japanese Americans built up the lush farmlands in California before being forced off their lands, which fed much of our nation.
With so many Asian immigrants from Vietnam, and Korea, they tend to have rather short, one syllable names, so what does that say about the inability towards being able to pronounce those names?
I have have a friend of Czechoslovakian descent and ten years later, my uncle still can't pronounce his last name, and it's a lot easier than one of my other friends of Polish descent who has more z's and y's than you can imagine. And then of course some Spanish last names get pretty long, well, beyond one syllable if one is syllablistically impaired.
Some lawmakers in Latin American wanted to forbid the wearing of hats by Indians, others wanted to forbid the Feathers on Head adornments or whatever those Indian Panaches, Plumes or Crests are called.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that an Indian may feel naked without his feathers or his or her hat.
Since I study crime and murder I know that hired gunmen feel extremely depressed if deprived of the automatic pistol by police or their mafia brethren. You may laugh but this is true. Without their automatic gun that shoots 200 bullets per minute they feel constant fear and are scared, defenseless as babies.
If hats, plumes, feathers, flamboyant, ponchos, etc ... are so important.
Imagine "What is in a name ?"
I guess Shakespeare said something about that, but I forgot where.
Milenials.com
Vicente Duque
Rxcists abound within all the ethnocentric communities. Many people have simplified their names. Polish names particularly seem unfathomable when it comes to their pronunciation: Swenderinski,Stuczynski, Szczecin,Bydgoszcz.
ReplyDelete