Yuh-Line Niou Annihilates Troll Telling Her to Make Her Name More ‘American’

Yuh-Line shared a screenshot on Thursday showing an alleged troll account criticizing the New York State Assemblymember for not changing her name to English, even dragging fellow New York State Assemblymember Ron Kim into the mix.

The Twitter user compared Yuh-Line to their Taiwanese friends who all have English names,” and people from China who adopted English names to “assimilate.”

“No one can even read her name. What is the deal?” they complained.

“Before becoming ‘lifelong voice for low-income people, people of color, and immigrants’ how about doing the most basic immigrant task, which is assimilate,” the user continued. “How can you represent a city of immigrants without that 1st. Even Ron Kim is Ron, not Kyung Soo. What planet is she on?”

In her response in a tweet, Yuh-Line said she’s an American and she’s proud of her name.

In a follow-up tweet, Yuh-Line said it took a moment but she loves her name and that throughout her life people have asked her to change it.

“Who gets to decide what is American enough? Who gets to decide what is ‘assimilated’ enough?” she added.

“There shouldn’t be a proof of burden or a condition on our belonging. I represent the district in which our Statue of Liberty Statue of liberty stands. And hey, I’m American, I have an American name,” Yuh-Line said in the last part of her thread.

Yuh-Line, who was endorsed by Elizabeth Warren and recently by Bernie Sanders, is running for re-election as a member of the New York State Assembly.

Feature Image via @yuhline_niou