Betty Brown: Asians Should Change Their Names to Make Them 'Easier for Americans to Deal With'

On Tuesday, State Rep. Betty Brown (R) caused a firestorm during House testimony on voter identification legislation when she said that Asian-Americans should change their names because they’re too hard to pronounce:

“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 [Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey] 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?”

Yesterday, Brown continued to resist calls to apologize. Her spokesman said that Democrats “want this to just be about race.”

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I emailed her:

Ms. Brown,

I will keep this short & to the point. I am shocked & baffled by your quote: “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?”

This is not only a fatuous remark, but an insult to all Americans, and a further advancement of the deeply ingrained stereotype of Texans as redneck hicks.

Tonight I am ashamed.

Jase Donaldson
Dallas, TX

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