Comments on: Betty Brown: “Really, Just Change Your Name”

By: 8Asians.com » Popular Posts in the Past 15 Days

8Asians.com » Popular Posts in the Past 15 Days — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:42:14 +0000

[...] Betty Brown: “Really, Just Change Your Name” – “… calling Betty Brown racist for this is ridiculous and a cheap shot. It looks to me like she’s making an honest attempt to try to educate herself on what’s a tricky topic.” – Kai, from the comments [...]

By: Kai Carver

Kai Carver — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:16:38 +0000

Wow, way to misquote her by cutting the context. In the video, in the sentence immediately following she says “I’m not talking about changing your name, I’m talking about the transliteration or whatever you refer to that you could use with us.”

She sounds very ignorant, unlike the guy she’s talking to, Ramey Ko, who’s very well-spoken and informative (I wish the video had more of his testimony). But I think calling Betty Brown racist for this is ridiculous and a cheap shot. It looks to me like she’s making an honest attempt to try to educate herself on what’s a tricky topic. It sounds like she thinks consistent transliteration would be a good way to solve the problem, but obviously it’s more complicated, as Ko then explains.

He’s the one who brings up names as an issue for voter registration. And he’s the one who explains there’s a problem, not just because of varied transliterations, but because naturalized citizens often come to the States with one name and later use an anglicized name, so a discrepancy develops between different forms of ID.

So, far from telling Asians to change their names, you could argue Brown is saying “Why don’t you just keep your Chinese name and stop changing it?” Ko then explains why it’s not that simple.

By: Kai Carver

Kai Carver — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:16:00 +0000

So, far from telling Asians to change their names, you could argue Brown is saying “Why don’t you just keep your Chinese name and stop changing it?” Ko then explains why it’s not that simple.

By: Allen

Allen — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 08:33:30 +0000

Sometimes I wonder about voter suppression methods whether they’re well-intentioned but ignorant or racist and mean-spirited. In Betty Brown’s case, it seems more the former than the latter.

By: Allen

Allen — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 08:33:00 +0000

Sometimes I wonder about voter suppression methods whether they’re well-intentioned but ignorant or racist and mean-spirited. In Betty Brown’s case, it seems more the former than the latter.

By: cynematic

cynematic — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:46:20 +0000

The racist insistence on APAs changing their names is bullshit, but the Voter ID bill Betty Brown is trying to pass in TX (and the Photo ID bill that’ll be on the next ballot initiative in CA) are far WORSE. Asking for voter ID is a time-honored GOP method of voter suppression. Think about it–a simple clerical error or a person predisposed to “misread” your ID could cause you to lose your right to vote.

More here: http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/2009/04/asian-names-should-be-changed-potential-for-voter-suppression-by-any-other-name.html

By: cynematic

cynematic — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:46:00 +0000

More here: http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/2009/04/asian-names-should-be-changed-potential-for-voter-suppression-by-any-other-name.html

By: V

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:38:24 +0000

haha. that’s true about polish names. My 6th grade teacher had us take attendance by spelling his name. We were all assigned letters, S z c z e c h o w s k i (pronounced Mr. Sha-hus-ky) when everybody was there we would spell his name completely twice. He said when he was in the army, he got out of a lot of stuff because the drill sergeant didn’t know how to pronounce his name.