Video: Did Betty Brown ask Asian-Americans to change their names?
posted at 12:18 pm on April 13, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
I’ve seen this floating around the blogosphere for a few days, and on the surface, it seems indefensible. Rep. Betty Brown allegedly told a witness at a Congressional hearing that Asian-Americans should change their names to make it easier for Americans to deal with them. Outrageous, yes? Well, it would be if that was what Brown actually said — but her words got taken out of context from a conversation about transliteration. In fact, she explicitly explained in the question that she didn’t want anyone to change their name (via Michelle):
BROWN: Any suggestion for us for something that would help the Chinese community, uh, that would be easier on them?
WITNESS: One suggestion off the top of my head would be some type of provision addressing the problem with names. That’s actually one of the most frequently noted problems that happened in the 2008 election, which is the problem with a lot of voters having problems because their names didn’t match.
BROWN: Well, rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language –
WITNESS: Right.
BROWN: Do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here, since you’re talking about –
WITNESS: Well, –
BROWN: I mean I’m not talking about changing your name, I’m talking about the transliteration or whatever you refer to it, that you could use with us.
Brown has already apologized, and predictably, the Left says that isn’t enough. Based on this clip, I’d say it was too much. The witness broached the subject of problems in matching names, calling it one of the “most frequently noted problems” in 2008 for Asian-American voters. In the conversation that followed, he explained that the lack of clear standards for transliteration (as well as a lack of consistency on the part of immigrants unfamiliar with Latin script) were at the root of the problem. I’m not sure how asking a question about making it easier for immigrants to vote using less complicated transliteration transforms into a racist question.
At any rate, Brown clearly didn’t demand that Chinese immigrants change their names. She asked whether clearer, consistent, and simpler transliteration standards would solve the problem of Election Day name mismatches. It seems to me from the witness’ answer that it might.
Blowback
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I can’t imagine why she should apologize. Asking someone who wants to live in America to come up with one (and only one) way of spelling his or her name in English is hardly unreasonable. Sigh. I suppose the fact that she’s white and suggested that someone who isn’t ought to do something in order to fit in better here (rather than suggesting that the rest of us just drop what we’re doing and change how we do things so as not to inconvenience our new immigrants) is reason enough. Heck, why not just hang her right now?
morganfrost on April 13, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Can I demand it then? Because I am in a government occupation which services our citizenry. A persons legal name is crucially important to what we do and sometimes it’s impossible to tell which 2 letter combination of vowel and consonant is the first or last name.
Never mind if I’m dealing with a male or female.
CarolynM on April 13, 2009 at 12:24 PM
Man, if only she’d just taken a cheap shot at the Special Olympics instead…
Snowed In on April 13, 2009 at 12:25 PM
The Left = Outrage, Inc.
Greg Toombs on April 13, 2009 at 12:25 PM
There is no problem with american names that asians “adopt.” The problem lies with the literal translation of their names from their native lettering to English.
It’s absurd that the left would attack this woman for inquiring on how it can better be handled.
Vincenzo on April 13, 2009 at 12:25 PM
It’s amazing to me to see how much garbage today revolves around mischaracterization of events. Either people have completely lost good judgment or they just are mean-spirited.
Either way, we have real issues. These types of blog uproars do spell out just how petty-minded too many people are today. That could be part of the problem.
AnninCA on April 13, 2009 at 12:26 PM
TOTUS—POTUS? What’s in a name, when the’re both the same?
Rovin on April 13, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Remember Long Dong Duck in “pretty in Pink”? That was quite racist, but since it was from Hollywood, no one had to apologize. It’s too late to apologize.
bloggless on April 13, 2009 at 12:27 PM
When will Americans (conservatives specifically) stop feeling embarassed about preserving their culture, language, traditions, etc..?
She was right.
DwnSouthJukin on April 13, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Leave it to the Left to demonstrate faux outrage over every perceived slight. Never mind that Christians and conservatives endure far worse from them than anything that the legitimate Right provides. I say “legitimate” because of the lefty provocateurs who are planning to infiltrate the tea parties and the trolls who regularly visit this sight. They pretend to be sympathetic to conservative causes, then try to do something outrageous to make us seem ridiculous and/or perfunctory, aided and abetted by a shameless MSM. We know what they’re up to, but we must be uber vigilant in order not to fall into their trap.
College Prof on April 13, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Barack Hussein Obama – Transliteration = Hugo Il Castro
kirkill on April 13, 2009 at 12:31 PM
I have many naturalized asian American friends with American first names. I asked them what was the deal and they said that the parents gave them an American name at birth or they picked one themselves because they were going to be Americans. They tend to pick names that sound similar to their Asian names.
Blake on April 13, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Now if she asked them to get their eyes ‘fixed’, I could see the complaint — but this is not an insult.
If they want to have fewer problems with their names, they should spell it one, and only one, way.
[sarc]
Pointing out the responsibility of the victim class was definitely racist.
/sarc
Right_of_Attila on April 13, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Applause!
Thresher on April 13, 2009 at 12:33 PM
You’re always going to have a handful of radical freaks complaining about anything they think they can complain about. However, the majority of Asian immigrants agree with Brown.
Blake on April 13, 2009 at 12:34 PM
The answer my friend is blowing in Nguyen…the answer is in blowing in the Nguyen…
right2bright on April 13, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Who cares?
echosyst on April 13, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Will she be labeled the next leader of our party.
Vincenzo on April 13, 2009 at 12:36 PM
ROFL
elgeneralisimo on April 13, 2009 at 12:37 PM
I believe our culture has successfully transitioned from “Sex Sells” to “Outrage Sells”.
sherry on April 13, 2009 at 12:38 PM
Its really hilarious how so many libtards are SALIVATING over their desire for Mexicans to swarm into our country and overpopulate at the expense of our citizens. Will serve them right when they have to learn Spanish.
Speedwagon82 on April 13, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Assimilation requires some sacrifice, as moving to any different culture will.
Why is that the rule in every country in the world except the USA?
MadisonConservative on April 13, 2009 at 12:40 PM
From the clip, it appears the agreement is understood. Learn English, and agree on which transliteration to use.
The Chinese government has a new phonetic system vs. previous English spellings. Transliteration systems do vary. According to the presentation, Asians are confused when a candidate’s name in English is “misspelled” on the ballot. So their American-Asian-American Cultural-Alliance community needs to come to their own agreement and work from that basis. And THAT seems to be what the video shows happening already.
MEANWHILE, MANY AMERICAN CANDIDATES have their “nickname” on the ballot. Asian-Americans can easily do the same to prevent confusion themselves. THAT seems to have been addressed by Betty Brown on the video dialogue as well.
But no one mentioned “Asian script-type” beside the English transliteration of candidates’ names on the clip, did they?
BTW Drive by media gang thugs shoot Brown. Had it been Allahpundit’s thread, there’d be the presumption that Brown deserved it and that she is ruined her forever, scoffing at any report that the accusations be false. Reference Allahpunit on Palin for comparative parallel.
maverick muse on April 13, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Rosie O’Donnell suggests all Chinese change their names to “Ching Chong“, which would simplify everything.
profitsbeard on April 13, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Betty is a 1st class lady. I’ve known her, her husband and family for 15 years, and she’s the most caring and principled person I can recall ever meeting. This twist of her words into something she isn’t saying is standard protocol of the left.
ricer1 on April 13, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Sorry for the O/T, but I’m just wanting to get the word to Ed and/or Allah the quickest way possible, an though I just emailed them the following message, I’m sure they have a lot to filter through… Anyway, I hope we’ll be seeing this video posted at some point today:
RightWinged on April 13, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Unfortunately, this is yet another case of Government (non) Intervention. For years, we used the Wade-Giles method of transliteration for Chinese names. As an example, a lot of people here are named Wong. Then we embraced (mostly) the pinyin system, and the identical name is Huang. When these people get here, a lot of them want to spell their names the same as the family members that came before, but that pesky Chinese passport won’t let them.
There are a lot of other Asian countries with non-Roman “alphabets”, and since there is no Government standards for transliteration with many of these ethnicities, the problems the Chinese have are multiplied, because it’s whatever is on the visa, which can be incorrect.
Whatever an immigration official puts on the form becomes your name, and that’s a problem right there.
unclesmrgol on April 13, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Hmmm, my two grandsons are Asian Americans. Their names are Ashton and Preston. What would you suggest they change them to?
Oldnuke on April 13, 2009 at 12:51 PM
My wife is Chinese and transliteration is definitely a problem. Most Chinese adopt nick names but their legal name for voting would still be the same.
Mojave Mark on April 13, 2009 at 12:54 PM
You must live in So. Cal…maybe the Garden Grove area?
right2bright on April 13, 2009 at 12:55 PM
We should ask Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, that famously famous representative of the Chinese American community within the current president’s administration, what he thinks about all this.
As an authentic Chinese-American and a Democrat, I’m sure he’s opposed to anyone of authentic Chinese heritage changing their family name just to be succesful and acquiese to the outdated and oppressive white European ideal here in America.
ScottMcC on April 13, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Does that mean “outrageous sex” would be a real winner?
MarkTheGreat on April 13, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Once a liberal gets a mistaken notion in their head, it’s almost impossible to dislodge it.
Paul-Cincy on April 13, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Is the problem that people spell their names differently on different occasions or that other people spell their names for them and use different systems? The former would be the fault of the individuals, the latter would be the fault of bureaucrats or people registering voters or what have you. In the first case, even non english speaking immigrants are usually aware that you have only one legal spelling of your name and if you aren’t used to writing it you’d better do it if you want to transact any business, not just voting. In the second case, it’s not due to them at all but to ignorant or insufficiently trained third parties who probably ought not be in the role of transcribing names at all, simply from speech.
MargaretMN on April 13, 2009 at 1:02 PM
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tung
Pootie Ting
What could be more reasonable.
faol on April 13, 2009 at 1:02 PM
For what it’s worth, I had to register a Chinese name when I applied for my working permit/visa here. You can call me 金泽武 (Jin Zewu) if DC is too hard.
I didn’t have to do that when I lived in Japan, though my name was transliterated into katakana on my Alien Registration card. People wishing to become Japanese citizens are required to adopt a Japanese name. Ironically many of those going through the process in Japan are Korean passport holders whose grand parents or great-grand parents were brought to Japan as forced labor during the colonial period.
DarkCurrent on April 13, 2009 at 1:14 PM
She was right but you aren’t.
baldilocks on April 13, 2009 at 1:15 PM
What’s the problem? Many immigrants change their names to common english names. I work with many Indian engineers and they convert their names to english or take on an english name for ease or we so brutalize their names it’s embarassing what the hell is the problem!?
xler8bmw on April 13, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Preserving culture language and traditions has nothing to do with this matter.
baldilocks on April 13, 2009 at 1:16 PM
They do that voluntarily. Some here are suggesting that to not do so makes them less American.
baldilocks on April 13, 2009 at 1:18 PM
She shouldn’t have to apologize. She explained what she meant and that didn’t mean immigrants should take English names.
Pinyin — Romanized Chinese — does a pretty good job of providing a way to communicate Chinese characters to non-Chinese readers and speakers. It has it’s flaws as with Q, Z, et al and I think, but am not sure, that it might have to do with it’s having been developed to communicate Cantonese, not Mandarin, which while using the same characters do not have the same pronunciations of those words. That’s why the gentleman kind of hit the nail on the head with the evolving nature of the spelling as Chinese learn that the sounds of Pinyin don’t quite match what they hear here everyday and work to fit in better by changing the spellings of their names.
Dusty on April 13, 2009 at 1:19 PM
Asians are productive so will probably be conservative. The left hates Asians for that reason alone.
jukin on April 13, 2009 at 1:19 PM
I used to have a guy on my team whose ‘English’ name was “Stone Dong” (Dong being the actual family name). He chose it himself, and he knew what it meant.
DarkCurrent on April 13, 2009 at 1:20 PM
[Snowed In on April 13, 2009 at 12:25 PM]
+10
Dusty on April 13, 2009 at 1:23 PM
My wife is also Chinese. Her name transliterated in Pinyin (the standard in PRC and appearing in her old passport) is “Fang Fang”. She had it legally changed to “Fong Fong” after becoming an American.
DarkCurrent on April 13, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Okay. Okay. I confess. I get some sort of sick pleasure out of mispronouncing Asian names. I do it on purpose, ya’ know. After all, why should Rosie O’Donnell have all the fun?
/sarcasm off
My collie says:
Go ahead. Pile on.
CyberCipher on April 13, 2009 at 1:26 PM
I hear Bobby Jindal is outraged. /sarc
Paul-Cincy on April 13, 2009 at 1:27 PM
OK, I totally agree that she wasn’t inappropriate about changing names; however, why wouldn’t she refer to them as I don’t know “our citizens,” or preferable “American citizens of Chinese ancestry.” This sounds a little bit like what the D’s do…
Upstater85 on April 13, 2009 at 1:31 PM
Do you think you scored points with that? I don’t abide by the rule of putting in disclaimers for every generalization I make — of course not all Asian-Americans (known in conservative circles as “Americans”, by the way) have 2 syllable 3 part names with hyphens that are unrecognizable as male/female, first/last names and of course I’m not judging every single Asian American — jeez…
And as for suggestions, other than the fact that your grandsons names tend to be a tad beta male-ish, I think they are nice names.
CarolynM on April 13, 2009 at 1:31 PM
[xler8bmw on April 13, 2009 at 1:15 PM]
Well, in my case, I told them not to. They have beautiful names and then didn’t need to change who they were for a long, and a short, lifetime because they moved to a country where a relatively small number of ignorant and clueless grade school drop outs want them to because that is the only way they will truly be assimilated and thus be Americans.
Dusty on April 13, 2009 at 1:34 PM
Do you think you scored points with that? I don’t abide by the rule of putting in disclaimers for every generalization I make — of course not all Asian-Americans (known in conservative circles as “Americans”, by the way) have 2
syllableletter 3 part names with hyphens that are unrecognizable as male/female, first/last names and of course I’m not judging every single Asian American — jeez…And as for suggestions, other than the fact that your grandsons names tend to be a tad beta male-ish, I think they are nice names.
CarolynM on April 13, 2009 at 1:31 PM
CarolynM on April 13, 2009 at 1:37 PM
Not less American, but less successful. And one thing I know about Asians is that they don’t strive for failure. That’s why I hate this bi-lingual crap. The left is more than happy creating generations of second class citizens, so they have a never ending supply of gardeners, nannys, busboys, etc. Yech.
Blake on April 13, 2009 at 1:38 PM
Rural west Tennessee/north Mississippi, of all places. Knew a few Vietnamese refugees from back in the day. Most all of them resettled along the Gulf Coast…
elgeneralisimo on April 13, 2009 at 1:41 PM
50+ comments in and nobody picked up on the irony (and easy attack vector) of the Gary Locke thing?
Get organized Republicans! When stupid outrageous outrages like these happen, you’ve got to stop fighting with yourselves over the minutae and start attacking the hypocritical Democrats.
ScottMcC on April 13, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Since when?
One big non sequitur.
baldilocks on April 13, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Dixit.
Christien on April 13, 2009 at 1:45 PM
No, but if I was a new immigrant to this country, that’s exactly what my new American name would be.
ScottMcC on April 13, 2009 at 1:52 PM
This has been making the rounds on liberal blogs here in Texas. In just about every thread, someone tries to explain things like Ed did here and it’s always met with a bunch of “nuh-uhs” from liberals. They see what they want to see, facts don’t matter.
clearbluesky on April 13, 2009 at 1:55 PM
I agree with Blake. One option is to drop most the vowels in their names. Then they can be successful like Coach Krzyzewski of Duke and people can pronounce , um wait …. let me think of another example.
“I’ll be back.”
Dusty on April 13, 2009 at 1:58 PM
another proud memeber of the Juan McShame school for the stupid. These apologistas deserve what they get!
dmann on April 13, 2009 at 2:05 PM
Wow, I am way off…Garden Grove California has a sign…”Little Saigon”.
It is the largest population of Vietnamese outside of VietNam.
right2bright on April 13, 2009 at 2:11 PM
I want all Americans to change their names because they are annoying for German tongues.
How you like that?
In any Asian democracy she’d be sacked, you know that, right? She would have to resign. Because there politicians are expected to think before they talk.
And what the heck are “Asian-Americans”. There’s only Americans in America. This whole PC crap with the ethnic-whatever in front of American is racist.
BTW, what does having to pronounce a Chinese name to do with learning Chinese?
That woman is like every single politician out there: a stupid asshole. Yes, every single politician is like that. All of them. No exceptions.
Penguin on April 13, 2009 at 2:13 PM
I want all Americans to change their names because they are annoying for German tongues.
How you like that?
In any Asian democracy she’d be sacked, you know that, right? She would have to resign. Because there politicians are expected to think before they talk.
And what the heck are “Asian-Americans”. There’s only Americans in America. This whole PC crap with the ethnic-whatever in front of American is racist.
BTW, what does having to pronounce a Chinese name to do with learning Chinese?
That woman is like every single politician out there: a stupid bum. Yes, every single politician is like that. All of them. No exceptions.
Penguin on April 13, 2009 at 2:13 PM
After seeing the comments on youtube of the entire video in context, I have to agree with Michael Savage.
Liberalism IS a mental disorder.
V-rod on April 13, 2009 at 2:37 PM
Ah, poor you! Afraid you may have to pay a decent wage for labor? Tough.
Success for most people is getting the education and job they want and are qualified for. You really think people with the names LaTwanna or what ever stupid black name is en vogue, don’t have problems getting hired? Some may call it racism, others may call it not wanting to giggle during the applicant’s interview. It may be unfair but the world is not going to change just to please some people.
Saddling people with ridiculous names and the inability to communicate in English creates second class citizens. If you are like baldy, you’re fine with it. Me, I want every kid to have a chance.
Blake on April 13, 2009 at 3:26 PM
We’re not talking about immigrants from Mexico adopting Asian name, dumbass. You’re no less PC for getting pissy over a descriptive term.
Blake on April 13, 2009 at 3:28 PM
What are you smoking? Please pass it.
baldilocks on April 13, 2009 at 3:32 PM
Heh.
baldilocks on April 13, 2009 at 3:34 PM
Wellll, I guess you told me and I’m certainly glad you cleared that up…..twice.
Then service it and quit bitching. If you can’t handle your job find another less stressful one. A person’s name is a person’s name no matter where they hail from. It’s just as important to them as yours is to you. Why should you insist (your words) that they change it?
Since you have such demanding important task I assume that you take all necessary steps to insure that you get it right and no stupid clerical mistkes are made.
And as for this completely idiotic remark, I’m going to use small words just for you.
It’s always a pleasure to debate with
intelligentsmart,articulateclear speaking,adversariesfoes. Unfortunately you aren’t one.Oldnuke on April 13, 2009 at 3:57 PM
Oldnuke on April 13, 2009 at 3:57 PM
Don’t you have any sense of humor at all? How about just a sense of proportion?
And as for my remark about the names Ashton and Preston being somewhat less than macho, c’mon, that wasn’t idiotic. That was funny. Something a proud secure grandpa should shrug off with ease.
CarolynM on April 13, 2009 at 4:22 PM
Actually yes to both. Although your post did sort of rub me the wrong way, I was actually laughing when I wrote the reply. The thing that came to mind when I read your post was the scene in The Godfather II where Vito Andolini gets renamed Corleone. My ,admittedly rather heavy handed, point was that it’s probably much more traumatic and stressful for the Asian trying get his name across than it is for you and it’s infinitely more important to them to get it right.
I really didn’t find that funny only odd that someone who is totally unfamiliar with someone would label a name like that. If you’d put a smiley face at the end I’d probably have understood that you were being humorous. As it was it just seemed that you were lashing out a little because of my post. Beta….Heh! if you knew those two you’d probably never have said that…Beta they ain’t. Packers fan cheeseheads from Wisconsin yes but I wouldn’t describe them as Beta. Maybe it’s because their other names are James and Andrew. :)
I almost never reference my Grandsons as Asian American. They are simply Americans. Their Mother is a naturalized citizen born in Burma.
Anyway, glad to see we’re not going to be blood enemies, although that could have been fun too. :-)
Oldnuke on April 13, 2009 at 4:48 PM
My wife is from Japan. We did a couple of things that I think were the right approach. Named our daughters American names that were easy for their Japanese relatives to pronounce and didn’t get them teased in US schools. (No r’s or l’s) Son got my name so he got used to being called Burahdo by the relatives – no biggie.
Other thing we did was dual citizenship for the simple reason that if something happened to me when they were toddlers the wife could go back home with a mimimum amount of paperwork if that was her desire. Given names were the same but last name was my wife’s maiden name. At age 22 they were required to pick their nationality and chose American – its where they have grown up. Fortunately I didn’t depart the scene early and my wife has no desire to go back to live in “the old country”. She loves the freedom that most Japanese don’t have after graduating college and entering the working world. They are pretty much stuck in their position/career and changing is not an easy thing to do.
I’ve known many Asians who take an American nickname but don’t change their legal name – usually it is for the kids and concerns about them fitting in at school.
Bradky on April 13, 2009 at 5:56 PM
So…how does one pronounce Nguyen? (My doctor’s name)
Clue: It’s not transliterated correctly.
jgapinoy on April 13, 2009 at 6:21 PM
it is pronounced almost like “win”.
right2bright on April 13, 2009 at 7:42 PM
No outrage here.
Reaps on April 14, 2009 at 4:32 AM