Betty Brown apologizes

An update on the situation with Texas state Rep. Betty Brown, whose comments regarding Asian names during House testimony on voter identification legislation got a lot of people angry. Basically she suggested that Asian Americans might want to adopt names that are "easier for Americans to deal with." This, of course, did not sit well with a lot of people. And dear old Betty heard about it. Here's the official apology from her office:

Statement from State Representative Betty Brown
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Contact: Jordan Berry – 903.288.7581

State Representative Betty Brown apologizes for her remark in the Elections Committee on Tuesday, April 7th. Representative Brown appreciates Ramey Ko's testimony which made the Elections Committee aware of experiences Asian-American's have when acquiring identification. Representative Brown appreciates the diversity of Texas and the enrichment that the Asian-American community has brought to our great state.

She would like for you to be aware that the quote that is being circulated is one sentence out of a conversation she was having with Mr. Ko, who represents the Organization of Chinese Americans, while he was testifying. The conversation was regarding possible difficulties in translating names. Later in the conversation Representative Brown explained what she had meant by her comment. "I'm not talking about changing your name. I'm talking about the transliteration, or whatever you refer to it, that you could use for us."

Representative Brown expresses gratitude to her Asian-American friends for their demonstration of support by her during this misunderstanding.

Ramey Ko, the guy who was giving testimony in front of the committee, who had the exchange with Brown, actually spoke with her on the phone yesterday afternoon. She called him up to personally apologize and try to explain where she was coming from. Here's Ramey take on Brown's apology, posted up on the AAA-Fund Blog:

In my conversation with [Texas Rep. Brown's] Chief of Staff yesterday, she explicitly said that they were releasing the statement through [former Texas Rep.] Martha [Wong] rather than making it publicly because they didn't want it to be in the press anymore.

I'd also note that the apology doesn't address her use twice of language that implies Asian Americans aren't Americans:

"Do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here."

"Can't you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for both you and for people who are pollworkers, if there were some means by which you could adopt a name just for your poll identification purposes that would be easier for the Americans to deal with?"

I think that implication is reflective of a lot more than just misspeaking about names.

And regardless of whether she is talking about explicitly changing Asian names to Westernized ones, she clearly is asking Asian Americans to shoulder the burden and cost of somehow "streamlining" our names in order to vote.

"Alright, I see a need here for young people like you, who are obviously very bright, to come up with something that would work for you, and then let us see if it will work for us."

And finally, it shows a lack of appreciation for the fact that whatever solution she might come up with, millions of Asian American voters today will be affected by the legislation.

I have to agree. Again, I have to say, I don't think Brown was trying to offend. Hell, I think she was actually attempting to be helpful. But the statement definitely reflected a great deal of ignorance, and a complete lack of understanding of what it means to be Asian American -- or even just plain "American." But really, doesn't that always seem to be the case?

Texas Rep. suggests Asian voters get easier names to "deal with"

Some interesting news of political dumbassery coming out of Texas... In Austin, during House testimony on voter identification legislation, state Rep. Betty Brown suggested that Asian Americans might want to adopt names that are "easier for Americans to deal with" when they want to vote so their names will match what is on registration rolls: Lawmaker suggests Asian-descendant voters should adopt names "easier for Americans to deal with."

That's sensitivity. Brown made her statements during testimony from our very own reader Ramey Ko, who was there representing the Organization of Chinese Americans. I'm sorry, Betty, if our strange, exotic Asian names cause such an inconvenience to you and your people. I guess you forgot the fact that us crazy-named folks are your people too... whether you like it or not.

Similar to laws that passed in Indiana, Georgia, and Florida, the voter ID bill under discussion would create more restrictions on the types of identification a voter would need to produce at a polling place -- a government-issued photo ID or two forms of non-photo ID from a designated list. This isn't particularly good news for the poor, elderly, college students, and minority groups.

Here's how it all went down, according to our man Ramey, straight from the Texas State Capitol. As he describes, it's a doozy:

I testified on behalf of OCA, and I used my three minutes of testimony to discuss how such a law would burden the APA community specifically. I talked about how Asian Americans are less likely to have photo ID, how poll worker discretion can create problems for Asian Americans, how burdensome and expensive getting naturalization documents can be for naturalized citizens, and also about how name-matching has been a particular problem for Asian Americans in states such as Florida, because of our use of transliterated names, adopting "Americanized" names for certain purposes, having multiple parts to names, frequent confusion of and misspelling of our names on documentation, etc.

After the testimony, the committee members could ask questions. State Representative Betty Brown asked me several questions, including a few on the name thing. A link to the video of yesterday's hearing is below. The questioning starts at about 3:31:30 (so go back three minutes to see my testimony). Brown makes several offensive statements during the course of the questioning, so take your pick.

http://www.house.state.tx.us/committees/broadcasts.php?session=81&committeeCode=240

Here is the exact text of one of the things Rep. Betty Brown said:

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese - I understand it's a rather difficult language - do you think that it would be to you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?" (there is not a word missing there; that's what she said)

And then Betty Brown puts the onus on the Chinese-American community to not be disenfranchised by the Voter ID bill:

"I see a need here for young people like you, who are obviously very bright, to come up with something that would work for you and then let us see if we can't make it work for us."

In contrast, Dr. Alma Allen responded:

"I'm not a proponent of changing your name, I think names mean something in families…We don't want to damage cultures and ask people to change their names for the purpose of voting."

After that, you can see Rep. Brown kind of realizing the import of what she said, and she tries to do a little mea culpa at the end, saying she didn't really mean that we should change our culture, etc.

Not really that objectionable (except for the assumption that I'd know, I guess), though funny, she also asked if photo IDs were required to vote in China, to which I responded, "I don't think there are elections in China."

Zing! Good one, Ramey. I can see that Rep. Brown wasn't necessarily trying to be offensive... but that didn't stop her from digging a deep, dark hole and filling it with ignorant and disrespectful comments. Li, Wong, Park, Huynh, Chong... we're all here to stay, and we're not changing our names for you. "Deal" with that.

The Texas Democratic Party is demanding she apologize: Lawmaker defends comment on Asians. But Brown ain't having it, saying that Democrats are blowing her comments out of proportion, and making it "just about race." You're damn right it's about race! She made it about race, alienation, and the other. That's racist! (Thanks, Ramey.)