Grotesquely Stupid

Posted on 04/09/2009 at 1:37 pm by Bob Cesca

Back in the mid-’90s, I worked at an FM Top 40 radio station and when I was hired, the program director asked that I use the pseudonym “Cunningham” because my actual last name sounded too ethnic and was difficult to spell.

So you can imagine my Hulk-like testosto-rage when I read this story:

A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.” [...]

“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?” Brown said.

Brown later told Ko: “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?”

Or how about this, Betty. How about we spend a little more time educating people about other languages and cultures rather than willingly enabling their ignorance?

ROOOOOWWWR!

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  • Lexaburn

    Well, if she don’t fit the description of an ignorant bitch, no one does.One foot in the grave.Some of these anachronistic dingbats can’t die soon enough for me, I tell you. They’re as stubborn as alligators, and stuck up like domestic cats.

  • Ann

    Good grief almighty.

  • Aaron

    I think you might be able to make a good argument for this as institutional racism of a stripe we haven’t seen much of since Ellis Island.

  • T-Czar

    This kind of dumb-ass ignorance really annoys me. My wife is from China, and I’m kind of the token white guy living amongst a large suburban Chinaville.I find that the Chinese immigrants often take a Western name to make it easier to interact with Americans. I always tell them I’m fine with using their given (original Chinese) name, I’ll learn how to pronounce or spell it. It shows respect for them as people, in my opinion.I also don’t expect them to necessarily carry on conversations in English when I’m at the dinner table … I’m the minority, it’s up to me to learn their language.These folks come here and work hard for little pay, often doing jobs that Americans simply won’t do … and most of them want to succeed and build a better life for their children. It’s the least we can do to respect them in return.

  • NorCalNative

    Somehow Bob Cunningham’s Awesome Blog! Go! doesn’t have the same zing to it.

  • fe

    ah, yes, because ‘Ko’ is both difficult to spell and pronounce.

  • SillyRatfacedGit

    Within a month every male Vietnamese-American in Texas goes to the DMV and changes their name to Victor Charlie.Shortly after, Death Cab for Cutie releases new song: “Victor Charlie at the DMV.”You do know that psychotropic pharmaceuticals have been found in many Texas municipal drinking water systems.

  • http://peggystone263@msn.com peggygeorge

    If the cast of “Firefly” can learn to swear in Chinese, learning a few names can’t be that hard.

  • http://oneceltsview.blogspot.com/ Wolfe Tone

    What part of your name did the program director find it hard to pronounce, Bob?The “Ces” or the “ca?”I must admit, though, “Ramey Ko” is a real tongue-twister.

  • drewdu

    Here’s some perspective on Rep. Betty Brown: I worked at the Capitol last legislative session when she filed a resolution recognizing Athens, Texas as the home of the hamburger. She also spearheaded the Voter ID bill by horribly misrepresenting voter fraud statistics. Basically, she painted a picture of a million Mexicans hopping the fence to vote for Satan. Oh, and she also wanted to legalize horse slaughterhouses in Texas. But not so we can feast on delectable equus burgers. So we can ship them elsewhere for eating!

  • Curly Lasagna

    I don’t see what all the fuss is about. This is a pretty good idea. Personally, I have trouble with names like Betty Brown and it would be far easier for me to deal with it if, just for identification purposes, the Congresswoman would change her’s to Boopsy Shitforbrains………it still retains some allusion to brownness………..

  • eve

    dumb racist bitchI have an Irish last name. It’s misspelled and mispronounced all the time. Guess I should change it.Bob, should we call you Ritchie now?(ducking)

  • http://tarackian.deviantart.com J M Ashby

    Bob Cunningham sounds like a country club owner or a porno star name. Or both.For a short time I did some contract work about 6 years ago for a chinese writer that was named Bob Chow. When I wanted to look up more about the guy on me own, I couldn’t, because of the 100,000 other Bob Chows in just the British Columbia area.I agree they shouldn’t have or need to change their name. I dont think I’ve ever come across any asian name I thought was hard to pronounce after I was told the correct pronunciation once.

  • Mr. Lancers

    If Asian names are difficult for her brain to comprehend, her head would probably explode if Eastern Europeans began migrating their way to North Texas.

  • http://juju.org Tony

    Newcomers will be assigned easier to pronounce names by the human immigration authorities such as “Sam Francisco”. See: Alien Nation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Nation_(TV_series)

  • Curly Lasagna

    Wasn’t Bob Cunningham Tom Bosley’s name on “Happy Days?”

  • Elena

    Must be something in the water down there in Texas. Personally french surnames make me break out in hives, so I think they should all change their names to Smith.

  • http://cousinavi.wordpress.com cousinavi

    Estes Kefauver and Nancy Pfotenhauer unavailable for comment.

  • ceu

    I have an English last name that people constantly mispronounce…as it turns out, people are stupid.[Curly – it was Howard)

  • Paul

    As a teenager I wanted to change my hard-to-pronounce last name to something that sounded more like a rock star. Friends talked me out of it — to my surprise, they said they liked my distinctive and unusual name.But maybe we should all have separate “rock star” names for voting purposes, to make the process easier and less error-prone.