Friday, April 10th, 2009...9:59 am
And, Now Here’s The Funny Part…
I failed to note an irony in yesterday’s post about the Texas State Representative who said that Asian-Americans should adopt names that are easier for Americans (presumably, people that look like her) to deal with.
The problem, as the original article notes, is that many immigrants from Asian countries have a name that is on birth documents that may or may not be in the Roman alphabet, plus a transliterated or even westernized name that appears on other documents like drivers licenses. In other words, the problems that were being described to the committee were precisely because they had attempted to “Americanize” their names. They had done something an awful lot like what Rep. Betty Brown wanted them to do. And she still complained…
Emphasis mine. Of course.
4 Comments
April 10th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Maybe they should all adopt the name “Bobby Jindal.”
April 10th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island often had an instant name change if the customs person had difficulty pronouncing the name. My grandfather left eastern Europe as Fivizinsky – and arrived at Ellis Island to become Finn. Several years ago, I received a call from a woman interested in getting a Golden Retriever puppy from me. She introduced herself as Deborah Fivizinsky – her forbears arrived in Boston where I guess the custom’s person had a better ear!
April 11th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
It’s all a matter of assimilation, tolerance and acceptance in a land of immigrants. Only the African American descendants did not come here voluntarily.
April 11th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Oops, I meant the ancestors of African Americans above. Sorry.