Gaff o’ the Week

Republican Betty Brown from Terrell, Texas took a play straight out of The Onion playbook this week, calling for Asian-American citizens to change their names so they are “easier for Americans to deal with.” When Texas Democratic Party officials got word of this statement, they demanded an apology. However, Brown spokesman said her comments were meant to help with the voting process, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.

Brown was speaking to Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans when she found a foot in her mouth.

Brown: “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: “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?”

Ko: “WTF?!”

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