NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City Councilman John C. Liu is demanding an apology from a Texas state lawmaker.
State Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, suggested on Tuesday that voters of Asian descent should adopt names that are ``easier for Americans to deal with.''
The legislator's spokesman has said she wasn't making a racially motivated comment but was trying to resolve a voter identification problem. Brown said Thursday she's reached out to Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
``I tried to call him this morning to talk to him about it. And if I had offended him to apologize but I haven't received a call back,'' she said.
Brown told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW that she ``misunderstood a little bit about what he was presenting as the problem.''
She also said ``At 1 a.m. after we'd been through 'bout 10 hours, I probably wasn't speaking just as I should.''
When asked by a reporter if she was saying Chinese people should Americanize their names, she responded: ``No, and I didn't choose my words very well evidently from what the transcript, from how the transcript reads.''
The Texas Democratic Party has called on Brown to apologize.
In a letter to Brown sent Thursday, Liu called on her to either apologize or resign.
``It's outrageous and insulting for you to suggest it would 'behoove' us to adopt another name, to give up our birthright and a part of our own identity, in order to exercise our right to vote,'' he said.
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