R. G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle, April 9, 2009
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. {snip}
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?”
{snip}
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.
Original article
(Posted on April 10, 2009)
Comments
In other words, she is asking immigrants to assimilate. A reasonable request.
There was a guy in my high school who was from Thailand (I think). He had a surname that was 15 letters and 6 syllables long. His first name was difficult as well.
I can understand a person not wanting to change his name when moving to a new country. But adapting local customs has long been a sign of wanting to join a culture, rather than simply leech off of it or supplant it. When my/our English ancestors first came to these shores 400 years ago they did not adopt local names or customs. Why? Because they had no intention of joining the native culture. They were either going to live side by side or else supplant the natives.
You can say “fair is fair,” but we don’t have to tolerate those who don’t want to become part of us. We have a right to defend our land. And we should defend it.
Big deal. German and Russian immigrants often Anglified their surnames to conform. Typical liberal hyperbole.
When are these idiots going to realize that today’s immigrants have no intention to integrate or assimilate. They are here for the money and will leave if it is gone. But the Asians are more isidious than the Hispanics who will remain to occupy even without jobs. Asians have rarely assimilated, that is why we still have China towns in almost every main coastal city. Vancouver, BC has a huge Chinese population that is not bothering to learn English or take on any North American practices. They refuse to serve non-Chinese speakers in their stores and restaurants. Asians occupy nearly ALL the jobs and management in Silicon Valley on the San Francisco Penensula. They have no intention of hiring anyone who is not Asian.
One more point, why ought we to want or need them to “become part of us?” The point of this site is for encouraging the survival of the White race, not the encouragement of things like integrated neighborhoods, schools and marriages.
Big deal. German and Russian immigrants often Anglified their surnames to conform. Typical liberal hyperbole.
Posted by I at 2:41 AM on April 11
Actually, that is not true. According to the evidences I have found while doing genealogical research for ten years now, changes were done mostly by census takers, church clergy and immigration agents. Most often small changes were made to foreign spellings due to the illiteracy or language bias of the agent, not the need to standardize people’s names.
Of all my Quebecois ancestors, only one small branch actually changed the French spelling to English and they were wrong on the meaning! My Russian ancestors never changed the spelling at all.
“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.”
I think they are writing about first names. I have a close friend whose Chinese name is “Xiabo” His English name is “Bob”
Chinese and Korean last names are short and simple. But some of the Indian, Thai and especially Sri Lankan last names are just too long. It is similiar to some of those long Polish last names that have so few vowels and are difficult to pronounce.
But asking a Pole how to pronounce his last name is OK. Asking a Sri Lankan or Indian to pronounce his last name is horrible racism.
Not only did many non-Anglo whites Anglicized their names to fit in on arrival in the US, but for a foreigner to obtain Japanese citizenship, even today, he or she must take a Japanese name in addition to exhibiting proficiency in the language.
Asians quite definately expect us to behave to local standards when in THEIR countries, as shown by the recent example of an Australian writer who was recently sentenced to several years in a Thai prison for mocking their king. Do they really expect things to be otherwise when they live in the West?
Chinese, Japanese and Korean family names are pretty easy to deal with, because when transliterated into Roman letters, they are typically spelled phonetically. My wife’s maiden name was “Nakano”. Pretty easy, right? The further south one goes, though, the worse matters become. The poster who remarked at the astonishingly long and convoluted family names in Thailand and Sri Lanka in particular was spot-on.
My paternal great-grandparents were from Poland and Belarus. When they came here, they shortened their last names and Anglicized their first names. And they learned English.
Not unreasonable.
Well, with Barack Hussein Obama as our president, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Asians (or frankly any person with a non-Anglo surname) wouldn’t feel compeled to adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.” But it should be pointed out that even the Messiah tryed to conform as a young man in Hawaii by using the name ‘Barry.’
I am Korean, my Korean first name is simple enough for anyone on the planet to say. it is “Won”! :) and my English name is, I mentioned it a few times on AmRen!! does anyone remember? Robert!! The elder at a church gave me this name when I first arrived in Canada.
There are a couple of famous Roberts in famous films and novels… Robert Jordan from For Whom The Bell Tolls, Robert Langdon from Da Vinci Code who is a professor at Harvard, haha :)
Japanese names might be longer than Korean names, but they are still easy for anyone to pronounce correctly.
Actually, young Asians in North America do want to have English names.
I didn’t see tne lawmaker make a comment about white people who have names that are considered difficult to pronounce. Take for example, baseball player Doug Mientkiewicz. If someone were to look at his name, many people would indeed mispronounce it, but people learn. It wouldn’t be right to suggest that he change his name. Why suggest that out of someone who isn’t white?
