Texas state representative says Asian-descent voters should 'simplify their names'

[Ought Six]

Lawmaker defends comment on Asians


Call for voters to simplify their names not
racially motivated, Terrell Republican says

By R.G. RATCLIFFE
The Houston Chronicle
April 9, 2009

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.
_____

r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com

[flourbug]

If it was good enough on Ellis Island...

[dyrt]

Billy Bob Chen

[jason]

My dad is from Kansas, my mother from Singapore.

I was born in Cairo.

The Egyptian hospital didn't know how to write my mother's real name, so they wrote "Anna Boobie Boobic". Suffice to say it isn't close in any way to her real name.

My dad still pokes fun at her about it.

[Fiddlerdave]

you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with

Gee, I kind of thought these people were Americans too. I guess not.

Its so much more important that the citizens accomodate lazy-ass governments than the government should serve the citizens.

OTOH, A friend here has a single common bird name as her one word name, no first and last, nothing could be easier to spell and remember. She gets constant grief from government types over THAT.

Billy Bob Chen

[shalym]

Eh--my first name is hyphenated, and I have no middle name. I've had to make accommodations my whole life because a LOT of systems can't handle that. Standardized tests (at least in the 70s and 80s) REQUIRED that "Middle Initial" block to be filled in. My bank can't handle the hyphen, so just pushes the first and second parts together as one name. I've had tellers look at me with suspicion because the name on the account doesn't match the name on my license.

Also, the Shari part of my name is spelled in an unconventional way, and most people only know me by that, anyway.

There's a reason why my kids are named Mary and Jimmy...

Shari(-Lyn)

[Ought Six]

On military roles, you will see a lot of people with 'NMI' listed instead of their middle initial. 'NMI' means 'no middle initial'.