During the first Republican presidential primary last week, Vivek Ramaswamy introduced himself by saying that he was a skinny guy with a funny last name, echoing a line from former President Barack Obama. Although he was referencing and, in some weird way, aligning himself with the former president, it just didnt hit the same way it did when Obama said it for several reasons.

First off, boo, you do not reflect the values of other people of color in this campaign like Obama did. Not even South Asian Americans . So your little joke didnt come across as playful it came across as placating.

Also, I can argue that in a post-George Floyd country, the funny-name-joke no longer captures the cultural moment. As people of color, weve learned and progressed since then. Throughout his campaign, Ramaswamy has repeatedly pointed out his ethnicity and immigrant parents background as a sort of shtick to set him apart from the other Republican candidates, which has felt exploitative.

I wonder if reminding Republicans about how ethnic he is, is a way of playing into some of their fears of being perceived as racist if they voted for a brown person (the safe kind, mind you), they couldnt possibly be racist, right?

But Ramaswamys rhetoric is actually pretty racist and anti-immigrant. He described the movement of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. as an invasion . He characterized people coming in from the Southern border as criminals, much like Donald Trump has on many occasions. Just before the hate-motivated shooting in Jacksonville, Florida , Ramaswamy denied the existence of white supremacy .

But whats more, I feel like Ramaswamy is the type of brown person whos willing to make fun of himself at the expense of other brown people to make himself more relatable to the (overwhelmingly white ) Republican voters, as opposed to trying to get them to a place where they make an effort not to butcher his name. After the Republican debate, even Sean Hannity was confused about why Ramaswamy didnt correct the moderators pronunciations of his name earlier. I appreciate best efforts, Ramaswamy told Hannity in an interview after the debate.

Of course, many Asian Americans and other marginalized groups understand the embarrassing and sometimes degrading experience of having our names mispronounced. Sometimes, its so bad that we go by totally different names to make other peoples lives easier. But we are finally at a point now where we should demand that our names be pronounced correctly even if it makes other people uncomfortable without giving others permission to laugh at or alienate us.

Vivek Ramaswamys behavior might be a little funny, but his name definitely isnt.