Mrs. Brown, Suddenly I Wish To Leave Your Island

As if the world needed another racist bitch, Betty Brown, a (surprise!) Republican representative from (surprise surprise!) Texas thinks that Asian-Americans should change their names so that Americans can "deal with" them better.

While speaking at a voter identification hearing, Rep. Brown said, "Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese -- I understand it's a rather difficult language -- do you think it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could more readily deal with here?"

She also said, "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?"

Oh no she didn't.

Although I'm tempted to applaud her for using "behoove" because it always makes me smile, it should be noted that Rep. Brown made her statement to Ramey Ko, representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans. That's Chinese Americans, meaning people who live in and are citizens of America yet happen to be Chinese in heritage. This is apparently not enough for Rep. Brown, because only people with last names like Smith, Jones, Brown, etc. are worthy of living in uh-MARE-kuh and also the great state o' Texas.

Rep. Brown has also so far refused to apologize for her remarks, instead delegating her spokesperson to blame the Democrats. Oh, shit, I forgot to put "surprise!" in parentheses that time. Anyway, instead of owning up to her supremely ignorant and racist point of view, Rep. Brown's spokesperson claims that her statement was only meant to illustrate that Asian-Americans frequently receive incorrect IDs and that the Democrats "want this to just be about race."

Right. That's it. It's just about race. It has nothing to do with yet another Texas Republican trying to eradicate someone's cultural identity. It has nothing to do with attempting to strip someone of their name, ethnicity, and constant struggle to be seen as an American citizen with the right to vote. Lastly, it has absolutely nothing to do with the millions of white Americans whose family names were changed once upon a time upon arriving to America. You may think "Brown" is as American as can be, but you just might be a "Von Braunschfel" without knowing it. Isn't it awesome not knowing where you came from?

So thanks, Rep. Brown. Thanks for continuing to fuck up your political party, your state, and white people by proxy. Because unlike how you evidently view Asians, thankfully, we are not all the same.

(photo courtesy of Junichi)