Not bothering to try to pronounce surnames-AIBU?

[KindergartenKop]

I was recently in a work situation where a colleague had to read out 200 surnames. Every time he got to an ethnic minority name he used the first name or just an initial, I assume because he couldn't be bothered to try to pronounce it eg.
James
Johnson
Jones
Jones
Ali J.
Jumble

About 5% of the 200 were ethnic minority names and he managed to try all the other names.

It made me feel uncomfortable, they were being 'othered'. The 200 people were present and a few looked upset. Aibu? Should I mention this to anyone?

Yes, that was singling people out. If he knew he had to read out a list of words and would be unfamiliar with them, he should have done his homework or declined.

He's worked with them for two years.

That's really poor - he should absolutely have made more of an effort! At graduations etc they give the person reading the names a phonetic list of names so that everyone is treated the same. It's very disrespectful to do otherwise.

That makes it even worse.

Yeah that’s not very professional at all.

Should I mention this to anyone?

Yes if you don't someone else will who is an ethnic minority and he will get in worse trouble.

The surname I use for work is very unusual and is constantly mispronounced. Sometimes I’ll give people some slack but if someone has been working with me for a while I’d expect them to have it spot on. It’s laziness and kind of racist to just skip over it or willingly mispronounce.

I have foreign names and understand it is difficult for people to pronounce them if they encounter it the first few times, but they usually look at me wideeyed and ask if it was ok to use my first name. He is just rude especially after all this time

That’s incredibly offensive. Definitely mention.

Please mention it. I am in a minority but might not feel confident to say something. I wonder what he'd do with my name - neither first or second name are originally British/western but possibly first name harder to pronounce than my surname.

It’s quite nasty. It will definitely make those he singled out feel awful, like they’re different from people with English surnames in a negative way. Very disrespectful - almost like their names aren’t important enough to pronounce

Very strange not to even try to say the name. He might mean well, but it comes across horribly!

Very rude and thoughtless. In the wrong job?

Very poor that who couldn’t be bothered to confirm how to say someone’s name and then to single out horrid. Our’s is non English and I’ve had to confirm with everyone including schools. I don’t why but I’m always impressed at achievers asssembly when the year 6’s pronounce my child’s name right.

I assume because he couldn't be bothered to try to pronounce it

You know him, so if this is why you think he did it then I would say something.

But without knowing why it is difficult. Perhaps he felt it would be less disrespectful to pronounce their names incorrectly.

I get this all the time. Yanbu it's really fucking annoying, especially when people take the piss by saying things like 'blah blah' or laughing about your name and expect you to join in. I just give them a cold stare now.
I understand some names are difficult, a simple 'I'm sorry, could you tell me how to pronounce your name' is all it takes.
Racist pricks.

I used to have this a lot with customers and a lot of appreciation was given for attempting to say their name, even if it was to laugh at us! Tbf though there as with smith Jones etc is a lot of common surnames so shouldn't be too much effort

This reminds me of my school days.

I was at a North London, with about 40% of students from an Asian background.

The headteacher there could never pronounce non-english names properly either, when she had to read them out in presentation assemblies - there used to be a running joke that "to save time in Miss X's assemblies, all pupils of Asian origin shall henceforth be known by their candidate number only"

That's very rude!

We have an Irish surname which people constantly spell wrong and also mispronounce (they add a D where there isn't one, when writing or saying) - the time which annoyed me the most was when it was read out wrong by a school governor (reading from the list in a programmers where it was actually correctly spelt) at an awards evening when our son was collecting a prize.

That’s horrible, I bet people were upset but might not feel able to say something because they’d be seen as causing a fuss.