Shibboleth

On Tuesday, State Rep. Betty Brown (R) caused a firestorm during House testimony on voter identification legislation when she said that Asian-Americans should change their names because they’re too hard to pronounce:

“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 [Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey] 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?”

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/brown-asian-names/

Rumor has it that Rep. Brown has also sponsored a bill in the state legislature which mandates that Bible translators simplify certain OT names. The list included:

Abel-beth-maachah
Apharsathchites
Aristobulus
Artaxerxes
Almon-diblathaim
Berodach-baladan
Beer-lahai-roi
Bizjothjah
Chushan-rishathaim
Chedorlaomer
El-elohe-Israel
Helkath-hazzurim
Hor-hagidgad
Ije-abarim
Jegar-sahadutha
Jehovah-tsidkenu
Maher-shalal-hash-baz
Zamzummims
Zaphnath-paaneah
Zerubbabel