Ed. Note: The below article is a translation of Sina Hong Kong’s article about Betty Brown. Special thanks to Jason Cox, political commentator based in Pingtung County, Taiwan and blogger behind That’s Impossible! Politics from Taiwan, who translated the article for us.
Texas Legislator’s Racist Words Draw Fire From Bay Area Immigrant Community Leaders
2009-04-11 05:50:00
Texas state representative Betty Brown’s suggestion that Asian Americans change the spelling of their names has resulted in a firestorm of criticism for community leaders in the Bay Area and has been used to remind people that Asian Americans still face a great deal of discrimination. This Tuesday, during a public hearing regarding voter identification in Texas, speaking to a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans about the difficulties created by romanization, Brown said: “Well, rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese, I understand it’s a rather difficult language. Do you think that it would behove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” This statement has drawn criticism from the entire ethnic Chinese American community. California state Senator Leland Yee (余胤良) said that he has always hoped that America could be more tolerant and accepting of different ethnicitie and cultures. America has already elected a president of African decent, but Brown’s statement reminds us that Asian-American citizens are still foreigners in their own country.
Yee said that Brown’s suggestion that ethnic Chinese Americans accommodate her by changing their names, asking them to forget their won culture and language, is tantamount to rejecting their status as Americans. Yee said: “Asking us to give up being ‘Chinese’ in order to become American is quite hurtful.” Yee said that Senator Brown does not understand the Asian American community is the same as other Americans, and that nobody should be asked to change their names to please another ethnicity. Leeland notes that Brown all those ethnic Chinese citizens for whom English is a second language that because their name was a romanized transliteration of their Chinese names, they were therefore second class citizens. Yee said that this incident caused him to work harder at state and national levels to fight for the rights of ethnic Chinese Americans, and that he hopes after Brown sees articles related to this topic she will understand she has hurt Asian American citizens and will learn how to become tolerant, as it is these various cultures that make America such a beautiful nation.
Vincent Pan (潘偉旋), Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, attacked Brown’s statement, saying “this is the most racist thing I’ve ever heard.” He said Brown only demonstrated her own ignorance and lack of understanding of what it means to be American. Pan said that being an American has nothing to do with your name, pointing out President Obama does not have an English name. Pan said America stresses the common values of citizens, such as equality and freedom. Pan pointed out that although San Francisco has not had this sort of incident in the past, California still has prejudice and racism, and adults know how to handle that; but more than a few Asian American children get teased because of their names, so society must continue to address this problem.
David Lee (李志威) of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee said, “President Obama’s name is Arabic. Why doesn’t Brown tell him to go change his name to an English name?” Lee pointed out that some believe that Chinese romanization is difficult to understand, just as some ethenic Chinese citizens find English difficult; so during San Francisco elections many candidates opt to have their name written on the ballot in a Chinese transliteration to make voting easier for the ethnic Chinese community. Lee notes that Texas is by no means further behind on human rights than California, and that Brown’s comment were met with immediate criticism from all quarters. Lee notes Brown is a public servant paid from the public coffers, and so she ought to work for all citizens instead of asking citizens to accommodate her.
Further, Leland Yee also pointed out that in contrast to Brown, California’s senate was raising a bill to make clearer rules on translating candidate names on ballots into Chinese and other languages.
Frank Lee (李少敏), president of the Organization for Justice and Equality in the Bay Area, pointed out that public representatives ought to be more sensitive on ethnic issues. Lee stated that he is watching developments and if Brown makes another such mistake, action will be required.
Ray Chen 陳卓天, Former chair of the Silicon Valley branch of the Organization of Chinese Americans, said that Asian names are linked to the identity of younger Asian Americans and that voting is a basic right of Americans everywhere. Finally, George Wu (吳中鈞), executive director of the OCA pointed out that he will be happy to have a meeting with Brown to explain and discuss how best to deal with Asian American names.
