(NAME-MCE) Lawmaker defends comment on Asians

[Bill Howe]

Note: I would love to hear reactions from Milorad "Rod" R.
Blagojevich, Zbigniew
Kazimierz Brzeziński, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

Lawmaker defends comment on Asians

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


By R.G. RATCLIFFE

Houston Chronicle, April 9, 2009, 11:58AM



Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, made the remark during House testimony on
Tuesday.



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Keep up with the latest in Washington and Texas 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.





Bill Howe
Asian Pacific American Coalition of CT http://apaact.com/
Personal Website http://www.billhowe.org
Multicultural Dimensions http://www.multiculturaldimensions.org
Travel Blog http://billhowe.org/BillBlog/
Multicultural Education Blog http://billhowe.org/MCE/