Professor who told student to 'anglicize' her name placed on leave
Gwen Aviles
June 19, 2020, 5:08 PM EDT
A California college professor was placed on leave after he allegedly asked a Vietnamese college student to "anglicize" her name because it "sounds like an insult in English."
"This teacher had the ignorance and audacity to tell my sister to anglicized her name is disgusting," wrote a person who identified herself as the student's sister on social media, alongside screenshots of her sibling's correspondence with the instructor on Thursday. "As a professor, he should be trying to learn her name and culture and not try to white wash her name."
Matthew Hubbard, a mathematics instructor at Laney College in Oakland, told the student, Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen, that her name "in English sounds like F-ck boy" and that she needs to "understand" that her name is "an offensive sound in my language," according to the screenshots.
"If I lived in Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a D---, I would change it to avoid embarrassment both on my part and on the part of the people who had to say it," Hubbard wrote. "I understand you are offended, but you need to understand your name is an offensive sound in my language."
Nguyen told Hubbard that his request for her to change her name felt "discriminatory" and that she planned to file a complaint with the Title IX Office if he did not "refer to her" by her "given birth name," according to the screenshots. Title IX protects people from discrimination on the basis of sex in education and other federally funded activities.
The emails were not dated and neither the student's sister, who also posted a video of Hubbard addressing Nguyen as P. Nguyen" on a Zoom call, nor Nguyen, responded to NBC News' messages requesting comment.
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Gwen Aviles
A California college professor was placed on leave after he allegedly asked a Vietnamese college student to "anglicize" her name because it "sounds like an insult in English."
"This teacher had the ignorance and audacity to tell my sister to anglicized her name is disgusting," wrote a person who identified herself as the student's sister on social media, alongside screenshots of her sibling's correspondence with the instructor on Thursday. "As a professor, he should be trying to learn her name and culture and not try to white wash her name."
Matthew Hubbard, a mathematics instructor at Laney College in Oakland, told the student, Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen, that her name "in English sounds like F-ck boy" and that she needs to "understand" that her name is "an offensive sound in my language," according to the screenshots.
"If I lived in Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a D---, I would change it to avoid embarrassment both on my part and on the part of the people who had to say it," Hubbard wrote. "I understand you are offended, but you need to understand your name is an offensive sound in my language."
Nguyen told Hubbard that his request for her to change her name felt "discriminatory" and that she planned to file a complaint with the Title IX Office if he did not "refer to her" by her "given birth name," according to the screenshots. Title IX protects people from discrimination on the basis of sex in education and other federally funded activities.
The emails were not dated and neither the student's sister, who also posted a video of Hubbard addressing Nguyen as P. Nguyen" on a Zoom call, nor Nguyen, responded to NBC News' messages requesting comment.
Professor who told student to 'anglicize' her name placed on leave
"If I lived in Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a D---, I would change it to avoid embarrassment," the instructor allegedly wrote.
