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Your points demonstrate how normalized and pervasive the erasure of anything non-English is in anglophone North America. Hence it is an obstacle for someone like Bailão to appeal to (centre-)right voters who previously have only ever voted for white men with Anglo-Saxon names
Whenever I see her signs my mind quickly reads it as Bailout. IDK why.
Sure, that’s why it’s called anglophone North America. If you want to use foreign characters for monikers that’s your business, but don’t except the society to universally accept, understand or value them.
I think you're reading too much into it. Other cultures butcher english in their own context. That's fine. You can try to be a pedant who corrects people for pronouncing croissant the english way vs the french way, but language is defined by its users.
You clearly live in Anglophone North America but most of us live (or try to live)in North America. Just as I try to call people by the pronouns they prefer, I try to use accents as required in people's names. Good manners and all that!
My initial point was about the likelihood of Bailão or Saunders managing to get a centre-right coalition to coalesce behind them. That portion of the electorate unquestionably includes some people who are too racist or too sexist to vote for someone who is not a white man (whether they acknowledge that or whether it is a subconscious thing), and this makes it harder for Bailão or Saunders to win. I'm not claiming that a majority of voters are sexist or racist, just that this aspect is significant enough to influence the outcome by creating a lower ceiling for candidates on the centre-right who are not white men.
That's fine - my point was that I consider @Admiral Beez comments about names with accents rather ill-informed. He appears not to even try to use accents and to this WASP, that's quite disrespectful and poorly informed. He reminds me of the 19th century immigration officers - all over the Empire - who westernised or phoneticised 'foreign names' because that was what they were used to. I think we should try a bit harder!
As a WASP married to a non WASP, I have to agree. His non anglophone name is constantly Anglicized. It’s frustrating and annoying. His name is his name. It isn’t how anyone else chooses to pronounce it (usually Anglicized). And for the record, his family has lived in Canada for generations so he most definitely is as Canadian, or even more so, as anyone who butchers his name. And the same applies to my child who has a non Anglo name, complete with an accent.
I make best effort to pronounce people's names, but it is expecting too much for people to pronounce Italian names like an Italian, Polish names like a Pole, French names like a French, Chinese names like a Chinese. I am from a non-anglo background with a non-anglo name, and lots of people, native english speakers and foreign born mispronounce my name, usually substituting it with names they are more familiar with.
