Asian-Americans: not Americans.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6365320.html

Betty Page, a white Texas Congressional Representative, has asked that Asian-Americans change or simplify their names according to standards that make it "easier to deal with". If this isn't an example of white supremacist culture and white privilege, I don't know what is.

“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 Ramey Ko, a member of an organization for Chinese-Americans: “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?”

Not Anglo...er, American enough.

First off, Chinese-Americans who are voting suddenly aren't "Americans". This is key to the topic. Americans are the ones with "simple", more Anglo names. Ethnocentrism at it's best.

Then think about the privilege Page has in the discussion.Chinese is "rather difficult", but English isn't difficult? Do you wonder has she ever tried to learn another language when she utters those words? What would her reaction be if she had to change her name in Vietnam or China to Huang or Wang? It is this type of privilege, an ability to not empathize or pay attention to the situations or realities of non-whites, that exemplifies white privilege. She can say this type of thing and get away with it: Asians, your names are not simple enough for US (Anglos) to pronounce. Please, change YOUR ways for US. Nope, forget that Asians may be just as proud of their names and heritage as any European-American. This is Eurocentric America. Get on board, already! Sheesh.

And also note the Euro-supremacist overtones: You and YOUR citizens. Are Asian-Americans not citizens she represents? I guess Ramey Ko, the Chinese-American that confronted her, represents them separately. And this is said by someone in power.

Victimization without being victims.

The final blow dealt here is towards the end of the article where a spokesperon for Republicans claims Democrats and Ko are "using race". Here, they are alluding to the all-powerful "race card". If the race card were such a strong card, it wouldn't be so easy for whites to knock down and end the discussion with. Instead, it is my theory that whites use the "race card" argument whenever they want to divert the topic and project back to the other end in an attempt to discredit the argument without addressing the topic.

Whites never seem to ever pull the race card it seems, even when they claim names are too hard for "them" to deal with and they should adopt "simpler" names for Ko and HIS citizens (yeah, no grouping of people and separating them from Americans there, eh?). Whites can complain and get their way out of the discussion because it's "too hard for them to pronounce and deal with them weird names from Asia".

And supposedly it's minorities, not whites, who play the victims in society today. Funny.

We're living in a "colorblind" society.
Segregation and slavery are over!
Everyone has equal treatment!
Discrimination from the dominant power is only imagined by minorities! They should try harder!

Right.