TEXAS REP BETTY BROWN FINDS ASIAN SOLUTION TO EMPLOYMENT ISSUES

April 11 2009

Austin, TX – There’s little doubt that The United States has gone a long way towards racial equality in recent years. Outside the issues of slavery and segregation, it was just 16 years between the racial riots in Los Angeles and the election of a black President and that led many to believe that the country’s racial turmoil had been left long behind. Despite that progress pockets of racism still exist throughout the country, though mostly in the expected and anticipated spots such as the Texas House of Representatives.

Comments from Representative Betty Brown that she believes Asian-Americans should change their names in order to make the voting process easier has sent wave of controversy throughout the state and the country, proving to many that the country has a long way to go before achieving true racial equality. For Brown though the comments have accidently given the 11-year veteran of the house a solution to the sticky problem of continued employment and the effort entailed in avoiding clichés.

“The fact that racism and racial insensitivity still exists in The United States is hardly a surprise but one would expect that in the current environment and experienced and savvy politician would be a little more aware of the words that are coming out of her mouth. One can only assume that the comments
were deliberate but it is rather classless to attack and hurt other people to avoid making the hard decisions for yourself,” said Scrape TV Political analyst Gabriel Kinsey. “Granted, this isn’t prejudicial towards black people so it may very well be that she didn’t see it as racist but more than likely she was just looking for an out and an easy path to retirement.”

Positions in the Texas House of Representatives are generally much sought after but are rarely allocated to outsiders. Brown’s 11 year run is just one example of longstanding and embedded politicians throughout the Texas government. Brown’s
indirect retirement speech though has brought hope to many of not only a new opportunity in government, but of a job opportunity period.

“What she said wasn’t strictly racist but rather borne out of a great deal of ignorance. There is no evidence of dislike of Asian people on Brown’s behalf, just stereotypical down home ignorance of other cultures and basic politeness. She wasn’t out lynching Asians, she just doesn’t want them to be Asian,” said Scrape TV Racism analyst Drake Douglas. “It is of course not practical for all pollsters to learn to speak and the various Asian languages but at the very least they should be taught to read. After all people’s names may be spelled differently but they are still spelled using the Roman alphabet. Instead of forcing people to change their names perhaps the Government should be looking at teaching their employees to read.”

Name changes for immigrants migrating to The United States were quite common in the 18th and 19th century. The practice continued into the 20th century but fell largely out of favour as the century wore on. The earliest forms of the alphabet appeared in approximately 2700 B.C.E. The foundations of the modern Roman alphabet, which English and many other languages use, were developed in approximately 7th century B.C.E. Alphabets are accepted primers for language structure throughout the whole world, including most of Texas.

“The real story here isn’t Brown’s statements it’s that in her own ignorant way she’s actually thinking about
other people and giving them the opportunity to serve in government. Maybe even giving an immigrant the chance to serve,” continued Douglas. “Hopefully nobody who runs for her vacancy is put into the position of having to change their name though. Of course it is a republican seat and their just aren’t a whole lot of Republicans in Texas with funny names.”

It should be noted that Brown specifically mentioned Chinese names. It’s unclear if she deliberately ignored complicated names from other Asian races or if she simply has issues with single syllables such as Wong.  

Mike Michaels, American Correspondent

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