There have certainly been many unfortunately-named people throughout history. Some have changed them like when “Penis Truck Lesbian” professionally became Dick van Dyke, while others like former Chicago Bears great Dick Butkus became the the meanest son-of-a-bitch you ever saw so nobody would dare make fun of him. There is a student at a California university named Phuc Bui, which sounds like you know what and a concerned professor asked her to change it to avoid ridicule. Naturally the professor has been suspended for racial and ethnic insensitivity.
Here’s a fun e-mail exchange between Laney College in Oakland social media professor Matthew Hubbard and student Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen:
“Could you Anglicize your name. Phuc Bui sounds like an insult in English,” wrote Hubbard.
“Your request to “Anglicize” my name feels discriminatory and I will move forward with filing a complaint with the Title IX office if you cannot refer to me by my given birth name,” replied Phuc Bui.
“Your name in English sounds like Fuck Boy. If I lived in Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a Dick, I would change it to avoid embarrassment both on my part and on the part of the people who had to say it. I understand you are offended, but you need to understand your name is an offensive sound in my language,” pleaded professor Hubbard.
So far this sounds like something from a sitcom and in fact something very similar happened on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Title character Kimmy meets a guy from Vietnam named “Dong.” She starts to tell him that his name means something dirty in America, but decided to simply introduce herself instead. Very deadpan, Dong responds that in his country “Kimmy” means “vagina.”
Unfortunately, this sitcom became a drama quickly as Laney college overacted and brought the hammer down on professor Hubbard. Here’s the official statement:
I am writing to let you know that we are aware of the allegations of racist and xenophobic messages from a faculty member at our college with a student about the pronunciation of their name. We take these allegations seriously and immediately placed the faculty member on administrative leave pending an investigation.
Laney College has long stood as both a partner and a leader in the fight for social justice and equity in our communities.
On the surface this incident is obviously disturbing and comes after decades of discussing and working to combat structural racism, xenophobia, and violence in both the Black and Asian Pacific Islander community. While our mission has been bold and unrelenting, we also recognize that our college and its community is a reflection of broader society and we must actively fight ignorance with education. We do not tolerate racism, discrimination or oppression of any kind.
All this professor was trying to do was help this student avoid the embarrassment of being known as “F*ck Boy.” Thanks to making a big deal about this, the student and the college have guaranteed that she will forever be bombarded with this ridiculous and insulting name. If her name was “Suk Gurl” it could have been worse, but not by much.
