The museum has apologized, but the explanation, like the tweet itself, is week.
If you hadn’t seen it already, a British museum — The British Museum — tweeted that “Asian Names Could Be Confusing.” They also wanted to make some further clarifications which also were weak excuses. The tweet quickly caught the attention of the Twitterverse and it quickly elicited a response.
Jane, Keeper of Asia: Curators write the labels based on their specialist knowledge and they are edited by our Interpretation department … https://t.co/b1nP0CQ0fS
— British Museum (@britishmuseum) September 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/noahjussi/status/907972766774603776
… We aim to be understandable by 16 year olds. Sometimes Asian names can be confusing, so we have to be careful about using too many.
— British Museum (@britishmuseum) September 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/AGlasgowGirl/status/907905454508007424
"asian names are too confusing so we removed them"= institutional racism at it's finest. why not educate 16 yr olds? don't keep them stupid. https://t.co/wbovDiflZW
— leo kaLyan (@leokalyan) September 13, 2017
Only non-Asian 16 year olds exist? https://t.co/7sQfzMFg9d
— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) September 14, 2017
Yeah I guess you used enough from 1858-1947. Stealing the Kohinoor wasn't too confusing for you though. https://t.co/hVId843FCO
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) September 13, 2017
The museum and has apologized for the backlash it caused. However the tweet and the explanation are weak. Let’s break it down:
- Sixteen-year-olds should be taught to read at a higher level, not have material watered-down for them.
- What’s wrong with multiple names? How many people in history were given multiple names? The point is to educate.
- Part of Asian dynasties and Gods/Goddess’ stories are their various names.
- Wouldn’t Jane have an Asian consultant to discuss Asian history that could have perhaps helped her?
- When you meet someone, don’t you ask someone their name and learn how to pronounce it? Asians learn other people’s names and never say “Oh it’s too hard to pronounce, can I call you something else?” Whereas the reverse is true, Asians are almost always asked to change their names for various industries to make it easier to pronounce.
Nikhil becomes Nik
Sameer becomes Sam
Ramesh becomes Mike
Any Asian name that’s beautiful changes to a random American name. Do we ask people to change their culture or do we try and pronounce their names correctly?
If you ever go to an Asian country no one will say, “What’s your name? Aaron? Oh that’s too hard, let me call you Arjun.”
A country that colonized most of the world could have at least have museums that have the common sense to be aware and sensitive to the culture they are representing. Let’s hope the museum can make a positive change and update their name section.