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via The Houston Chronicle
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Dear Betty Brown,
I understand that you've come under fire recently regarding your seemingly glib request to the Asian-American community that we all simplify our names. Unlike some of my fellow Asian-Americans, I take you for your word when you say that you weren't being hostile to my ethnic group. After all, this isn't really about race.
You're completely correct with regards to people having different names can muck up voter registration, and make it difficult to keep records straight. I can see why, too--it's about verifying that one person gets exactly one vote, not three or four as we Chicagoans are used to.
The problem, however, is the way you said it. I'll start with one of the your quotes: "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?"
First off, the insult here is subtle. I understand you were talking to a Chinaman here--I'm sorry, a Chinese-American--but surely you must realize that even though they may be the plurality of the Asian-American minority, there are plenty of other groups out there; to suggest that we are all somehow Chinese is a slight that is akin to suggesting that Swedes and Norwegians are the same, that we (I speak as an American) are no different from the French, that Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs are identical, or that the Hutus and Tutsis are one and the same.
Additionally, while you may think Chinese is a difficult language to learn, you might be surprised to discover that English is also phenomenally difficult--so much so that our military (I speak, of course, of the American one) ranks both Chinese and English in the highest category. I assure you, my mother still has trouble with English, and she's lived here almost 30 years, and as a citizen for over a decade.
However, those are just canards, unintended offenses caused from a lack of familiarity with the subject. It's not a sin, if this is the first brush you've had with them, and thus easily forgiven.
Now we get to the more salient part, which is more problematic. Chinese surnames are, comparatively, simple and monosyllabic. More so than the Japanese, who tend to have alternating consonant-vowel patterns, like Takagi, with the occasional curveball like Inouye, and far simpler than the Thais and Indians with names like Srisai, Niratpattanasai, or Chandrasekhar. I'm sorry if you find those names hard to pronounce; I myself have a difficult name, it being Marquis Hwang. I, like many other Asians, eventually simplified it, and made it more "American", I suppose, out of a desire to fit in as well as make the pronunciation easier, not unlike your fellow party member Piyush Jindal, better known as Bobby. (I introduce myself as Marq now. Let's sidestep the fact that the part I shortened is actually of French extraction.)
To say, however, that we should adopt a name that you could more easily deal with is to tell us that our ancestry means little, and that we should cut away one of the few things that quickly, easily links us to our extended families and our culture. I couldn't imagine asking someone whose lineage dates to the Mayflower to change his or her name because I found it confusing. I wouldn't want my mother to give up her surname (Kim--an Andong Kim), which is an aristocratic lineage. Nor would I want a fellow native-born American replace his given name, Aditya, which is a powerful name. They, like I, consider ourselves wholly American. We think in English, we speak in English, we drink Coke, enjoy barbecue, have grits and biscuits and gravy--and yet you ask us to lose even more of our heritage and uniqueness?
And that's the crux of the problem. Your words make it seem that you don't quite think we're American. You refer to us as "you and your citizens", as if we're somehow not really in this with you, as if we're still somehow an Other. That's what hurts. When they finally stopped referring our ethnicities as "Other" in the monochromatic Black or White split, it was nice. It was an admission that in our America, there really was a place for all of us.
So, please understand why we're so upset. We're still a relatively ignored minority, so when someone asks us when we're going home, referring to some distant, exotic overseas land, or when someone asks us if we know some other Asian due to the shape of our eyes, or when someone mindlessly says, "you and your citizens" as if we're somehow un-American...
It gets under our skin.
Yours truly,
A fellow American.
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?”
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 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.
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?”
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 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.
Dear Betty Brown,
I understand that you've come under fire recently regarding your seemingly glib request to the Asian-American community that we all simplify our names. Unlike some of my fellow Asian-Americans, I take you for your word when you say that you weren't being hostile to my ethnic group. After all, this isn't really about race.
You're completely correct with regards to people having different names can muck up voter registration, and make it difficult to keep records straight. I can see why, too--it's about verifying that one person gets exactly one vote, not three or four as we Chicagoans are used to.
The problem, however, is the way you said it. I'll start with one of the your quotes: "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?"
First off, the insult here is subtle. I understand you were talking to a Chinaman here--I'm sorry, a Chinese-American--but surely you must realize that even though they may be the plurality of the Asian-American minority, there are plenty of other groups out there; to suggest that we are all somehow Chinese is a slight that is akin to suggesting that Swedes and Norwegians are the same, that we (I speak as an American) are no different from the French, that Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs are identical, or that the Hutus and Tutsis are one and the same.
Additionally, while you may think Chinese is a difficult language to learn, you might be surprised to discover that English is also phenomenally difficult--so much so that our military (I speak, of course, of the American one) ranks both Chinese and English in the highest category. I assure you, my mother still has trouble with English, and she's lived here almost 30 years, and as a citizen for over a decade.
However, those are just canards, unintended offenses caused from a lack of familiarity with the subject. It's not a sin, if this is the first brush you've had with them, and thus easily forgiven.
Now we get to the more salient part, which is more problematic. Chinese surnames are, comparatively, simple and monosyllabic. More so than the Japanese, who tend to have alternating consonant-vowel patterns, like Takagi, with the occasional curveball like Inouye, and far simpler than the Thais and Indians with names like Srisai, Niratpattanasai, or Chandrasekhar. I'm sorry if you find those names hard to pronounce; I myself have a difficult name, it being Marquis Hwang. I, like many other Asians, eventually simplified it, and made it more "American", I suppose, out of a desire to fit in as well as make the pronunciation easier, not unlike your fellow party member Piyush Jindal, better known as Bobby. (I introduce myself as Marq now. Let's sidestep the fact that the part I shortened is actually of French extraction.)
To say, however, that we should adopt a name that you could more easily deal with is to tell us that our ancestry means little, and that we should cut away one of the few things that quickly, easily links us to our extended families and our culture. I couldn't imagine asking someone whose lineage dates to the Mayflower to change his or her name because I found it confusing. I wouldn't want my mother to give up her surname (Kim--an Andong Kim), which is an aristocratic lineage. Nor would I want a fellow native-born American replace his given name, Aditya, which is a powerful name. They, like I, consider ourselves wholly American. We think in English, we speak in English, we drink Coke, enjoy barbecue, have grits and biscuits and gravy--and yet you ask us to lose even more of our heritage and uniqueness?
And that's the crux of the problem. Your words make it seem that you don't quite think we're American. You refer to us as "you and your citizens", as if we're somehow not really in this with you, as if we're still somehow an Other. That's what hurts. When they finally stopped referring our ethnicities as "Other" in the monochromatic Black or White split, it was nice. It was an admission that in our America, there really was a place for all of us.
So, please understand why we're so upset. We're still a relatively ignored minority, so when someone asks us when we're going home, referring to some distant, exotic overseas land, or when someone asks us if we know some other Asian due to the shape of our eyes, or when someone mindlessly says, "you and your citizens" as if we're somehow un-American...
It gets under our skin.
Yours truly,
A fellow American.
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