Brickbat: What's in a Name?

Laney College, a public community college in California, has placed mathematics professor Matthew Hubbard on leave and is investigating him for sending racist messages to a student of Vietnamese descent, Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen, suggesting she change her name. "Your name in English sounds like F—k Boy," Hubbard wrote. "If I lived in Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a D—k, 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're offended, but you need to understand your name is an offensive sound in my language. I repeat my request"