THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Texas Rep. Betty Brown (R-Terrell)
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 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. 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?”
If I wanted to keep this discussion above piling on Rep. Brown, I’d suggest that it’s not the responsibility of poorly educated White Conservatives to expect those AMERICANS with difficult names to accommodate their ignorance and cultural insensitivity. I’m going to try to do that, because it would be far too easy to drag this down to the level of just another common, garden variety bigoted White Texas Conservative.
Brown seems to operate under the presumption that, being White, she sits at the top of the American food chain. As such, she and those like her bear no responsibility to meet those not like them even part of the way. She and those who think like her may not have an aptitude for grasping the pronunciation of names of foreign derivation, and they’re certainly free to their opinion. That said, not being able to pronounce names they find difficult is hardly grounds for expecting those bearing those names to make it easier for those experiencing difficulties.
Brown couldn’t have been more successful if she’d actually been trying to sound like an ignorant racist. And her defenders are accusing Democrats of turning her comments into a racial issue when all she was trying to do was to resolve an identification problem. Right…and Alex Jones is just a misunderstood prophet.
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.
Right; because opining that those with “difficult” names should be the ones to change to accommodate White ignorance isn’t at all racist.
Brown at least had the decency to apologize for her remarks, so I’ll at least give her credit for that. Still, the idea that Whites have the right to expect others to accommodate them is the root of this problem. Too many Conservatives believe that they don’t bear the burden of resolving their own ignorance, that they are within their rights as part of the majority to expect minorities to assimilate and become more “American.” That they can’t seem to to recognize the racist, insulting nature of this expectation goes a long way toward explaining people like Brown.
“Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers,” said Brown, “if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”
In other words, it’s a Korean-AMERICAN’s fault that a poll worker can’t pronounce their name? And it’s incumbent upon the Korean-AMERICAN to make it easier for someone to exercise their ignorance?
Democrats were quick to call Brown’s remarks “disrespectful,” and they’re spot on. I can’t speak to whether Brown is in fact an unreconstructed racist, but her remarks were certainly of a racist nature. Minorities bear no responsibility to salve the ignorance and cultural insensitivity of Texas’ White majority. These are AMERICAN citizens who have the same rights as any other American. If Brown or any other White Conservative has difficulty pronouncing names, they should do the decent thing- apologize and ask to be educated on the correct pronunciation. Most minorities are well aware of, and accustomed to, the difficulties Whites often have with their names. If treated with respect, most are probably quite willing to assist anyone with the pronunciation of their name.
It’s about treating other AMERICANS as equal partners and respecting their humanity and heritage, which is every bit as important to them as being White is to Betty Brown. It shouldn’t be so difficult to respect those who are every bit as American as any other citizen, even if their name is confusing and their skin color isn’t white.
The takeaway from this is that Continetti is a sick, sad, pathetic excuse for a human being willing to denigrate and degrade anyone and anything that doesn’t dovetail with his ignorant hyperpartisanship. More than anything, I feel pity for someone so pathetic and devoid of humanity.
