What the Hell Were You Thinking? - Texas State Rep. Betty Brown

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
During a discussion on voter registration legislation in the State House of Texas, Representative Betty Brown made the following statement:
"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?”
I swear I'm not making that up. This woman actually got elected to public office? Really? Damn, Texans. Your representative seems a bit...oblivious.


H/T to Hot Blogger Kimby.

23 comments:

John the Scientist said...

Fuck me are you out to give me an aneurism today?

Chinese last names are one syllable. One fucking syllable.
No one's asking her to get the tone right. Consonant and vowel maybe a final consonant, not 15 consonants in a row like the damn Polaks (:D).

The founder of our country was Washington. His aide was named Lafayette. My wife's last name was Wang. Yeah, Asian names are really hard to pronounce.

And yanno, my kids' first names are 2 character (meaning 2 syllable) Chinese names. Their English names are their middle names. And they are eligible for the DAR, and both Sons of Confederate Veterans and Sons of Union Veterans. I wonder what the good representative would make of that?

If Ms. Brown can't make a passable representation of a one syllable name, she, well, the only thing she's fit for is public office, I guess. :p

John the Scientist said...

Oh, yes, here's a bit of Chinese for Ms. Brown:

土包子

"tu bao dz"

"bao dz" means "pork bun"

"tu" means "earth" or "mud"

A "mud bun" is an ignorant peasant with dung on their boots trying to fit into civilized society and failing, in other words, a Chinese redneck (but it's a bit more pejorative than "redneck").

Janiece said...

John, I'm really not.

For this one, I think we can blame KIMBY.

John the Scientist said...

Well, I saw it here first... :p

kimby said...

Sorry John...But I really did think of our Hot Chick when i read this....the word TARD came to mind instantly.

Random Michelle K said...

Christ on a fucking broom what the holy hell is wrong with that woman?

Shit like that is why I have no idea if I have more relatives in the US than those in my grandfather's immediate family.

What the hell would she do if she came across my last name, or my grandmother's maiden name? (Let's just say that throughout school I knew when my name came up in attendance, because I'd get "Michelle... K... err..."

Eric said...

Y'all might want to look at this informal survey. John might especially appreciate the third interviewee.

MWT said...

And for her next trick: Let's make all those Hispanics only have three names!

Jim Wright said...

Well, while we're at it, I have a terrible time with the goddamned pollacks - that's why I call them all "Ski." Maybe Brown could fix that too?

Also, you know what I don't like? People whose last names are colors, like Black, or White, or, uh, Brown. It's just to confusing.

Here's what I suggest, all people in America have American names, like say these.

Personally, I'm partial to Cree, but Athabascan is cool sounding too.

What?

Random Michelle K said...

I'll have you know Jim that my Polish great-grandmother's maiden name was Bogdan.

Not a ski in sight.

neurondoc said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
neurondoc said...

Let me try again.

I'll have you know Jim that my Polish great-grandmother's maiden name was Bogdan.

Not a ski in sight.
Probably changed from Bgdanowiczski.

What?

Nathan said...

What she doesn't realize is that most of those Chinese people she's talking about are Jewish and already changed their names from Chanowitzky and the like.

What more does she want from those poor people?

Janiece said...

Nathan, she wants them to be named "Brown," "White," or "Smith."

Some dude stuck in the Midwest said...

See this is exactly where German and Greek people should get offended.

Has anyone seen Mr.s Huesenhauser and Popoulakilis?

John the Scientist said...

Hah, Nathan, did you know the Overseas Chinese of the Pac Rim call themselves the "Jews of Asia"?

They were kicked out of their homeland by despots, they live in colonies and prefer intermarriage, they tend to be well-educated and savvy businessmen, are accused of parsimony by the people around them, and often live with the threat of violent outbursts against them.

Janiece said...

John, not to stir you with a stick again, but the Filipinos who look askance at the Chinese in their country have some legitimate complaints.

Just sayin'.

John the Scientist said...

Intramarriage. They prefer intramarriage. Five days in a row of 4:30 wakeups and midnight bedtimes are getting to me. o.O

John the Scientist said...

I'm not saying there are no legitimate complaints. And not to stir you with a stick, (though I do owe you a few good stirs :p), but the Chinese stereotype of poor Philippino work and hygiene habits (and the assumption that the Philippinos would be as rich as the Chinese if they were more "civilized") is also not totally unfounded. :p

Janiece said...

...the Chinese stereotype of poor Philippino work and hygiene habits (and the assumption that the Philippinos would be as rich as the Chinese if they were more "civilized") is also not totally unfounded.Hm. I can only go by my own experience, but when I lived there, the Filipinos I knew were some of the hardest working people I've ever seen. They did have the standard Spanish influenced "mañana" perspective, though. I assume that is directly at odds with the Chinese cultural viewpoint, which probably causes some of the tension. As for the assertion of the Chinese being more "civilized," I will say "bah." A culture that routinely participates in infanticide is in no position to cast that particular stone.

Having said that, however, I have no intention of getting into a discussion about which cultural viewpoint is "better." Clearly the Filipino culture is more vulnerable to exploitation by more industrious cultures, but I think we'll save the colonialism discussion for another day.

John the Scientist said...

Heh, I need to do a blog post on that. The core of the issue is that in the military you see one stratum of their culture, the Chinese there see quite another. The most industrious attach themselves to US bases in poor countries. The question is: which stratum drives their society? I tend to bias a bit more to the Chinese viewpoint becuase I think the Philippines show at least 5 of Ralph Peters' Seven Signs.

Contrast this with a very industrious culture such as Japan. I come away with a very positive impression of them, whereas the people who deal with the US military are often not their best and brightest, and often have a chip on their shoulder. So I as a civilian in the heart of Tokyo get a friendly reminder to put my trash in the proper bins, whereas you drop off your trash in the base receptacles, realize you made a mistake, and in the 5 minutes it takes you to get back to the dumpster, some busybody has already written you up. This tends to make the average serviceman's (at least of the ones I talked to) view of the Japanese a notch lower than the average civilian over there.

Once again the question is, which stratum of society is larger and more representative of the driving forces of the culture? I tend to think the civilian's view of Japan is more representative, but YMMV.

Random Michelle K said...

See this is exactly where German and Greek people should get offended.Well, as seemingly the token person of Eastern European heritage, I did get offended. :)

WendyB_09 said...

Actually, I think my grandparent's name may have been shortened when they came through Ellis Island, seems they couldn't translate something in the Polish alphabet.

WendyB_09