June 18, 2020
Professor Matthew Hubbard of Laney College in Oakland, California apparently dislikes certain Vietnamese names, according to Instagram user @diemquyynh
During an email exchange with one of his students, named Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen, Prof. Hubbard wrote “Could you Anglicize your name. Phuc Bui sounds like an insult in English.”
To which Phuc Bui responded “Your request for me 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.”
Prof. Hubbard replied “Your name in English sounds like F*ck Boy. If I lived in Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a D*ck, 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. I repeat my request.”
Is Prof. Hubbard right or wrong? Perhaps Phuc Bui should change her name to Phuc Dat? According to Newsweek, Prof. Hubbard has been placed on “leave.”
Feature Image via Peralta Federation of Teachers & diemquyynh