Unpronouncible names

If you have trouble remembering and pronouncing the five-syllable last name of the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or if you find the very idea of speaking such a long name to be an imposition (to make it easier, I and a friend refer to him as “Johnnie”), try the six-syllable last name of the UCLA student who refused to show ID late at night in the university library, then refused to exit the library when told to do so, then physically defied the campus police, then was repeatedly stunned by a taser as he continued to defy the police, and is now claiming he was targetted because of racial and ethnic bias. His name is Mostafa Tabatabainejad. Reading the news reports, with the repeated mention of “Mr. Tabatabainejad this,” and “Mr. Tabatabainejad that,” is to be reminded of how mass indiscriminate immigration changes the very sounds and textures of our society.

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Telling me that I am a “god***ned moronic son of a b***h” and “absolutely 100% on the evil side right now,” an overwrought reader says that I am wrong on the taser incident and that the issue of names and cultural assimilation has nothing to do with the possible question of police brutality. I did not address the question of whether the police had acted correctly or not. I got my information exclusively from, and I linked to, Michelle Malkin’s thorough coverage of the incident. And Malkin herself says, in the opening paragraph of her blog entry:

Did the officers overreact? (Let me be clear: If those officers broke any laws, they should be prosecuted. But the whole story needs to be told.)

Malkin’s point was that, whatever the propriety of the campus police’s actions against the student, the instant charge of racial/ethnic bias is a predictable—indeed, virtually automatic—event in today’s society whenever a minority has a run-in with police.

My point had to do not with the incident or with the racial politics of the incident, but with the student’s unusual name and its cultural significance. I only summarized the incident by way of introduction.

- end of initial entry -

Gintas writes:

There is no doubt that that name is too complicated for America. I suggest he go down to the black projects and let them come up with a good Americanization.

“Taba Taba _I_ need a _Job_?!” might be how the mocking starts.

With a little imagination you can see some funny variants on my name…

My sister told me about a time they hired an Indian at her company, and his name sounded just like “sh*t.” I am not making this up as I go. They made him change the name by which he went.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 17, 2006 04:51 PM | Send