Week 2

Rachel Ibrahim
Week 2- 4/9/17
Section A03

     This week’s reading, “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans” is a perfect example of the miseducation and marginalization of minorities in America. Mouavangsou not only directly addresses miseducation in the case of Hmong students in America through her study of different Hmong families, but also creates a case for how and why minority groups are marginalized. Her case study of different Hmong families was such an effective way to provide undisputed evidence for proving that American education has very negative consequences for Hmong students-- especially male. Due to the lessons taught and the cultural expectations learned in American schools, boys were much less likely pursue higher education than girls. On top of directly impacting the mindset of individuals, American schools also fail to properly educate their students about important events including the truth about the Vietnam war and most textbooks rarely, if ever, mention of the Hmong people at all. Mouavangsou also talks about how when there are books about Hmong culture, they can be inaccurate and missing important cultural context as in Anne Fadiman’s book about Hmong history. Due to their lack of representation in American schools and misinformation about their culture and history, it is safe to say that the Hmong people are extremely marginalized and will continue to be so unless major changes are made in the United States education system.
     I think this is an important article because even though it was focused solely on the miseducation of Hmong Americans, it brings up a universal topic that can relate to just about any minority group in America. This reading makes me think about other groups of marginalized and miseducated people and thinking back to my days in elementary, middle and high school, I learned nearly nothing about other cultures besides Western Idealism. Being Japanese American, the internment of the Japanese in World War II was a huge discriminatory act against my heritage yet it was barely mentioned during all my years of schooling. The way education is structured in America, any minority group will continue to be miseducated and marginalized unless we strive to fix this structure to better represent minority groups.



This clip from the popular show, Grey's Anatomy is a demonstration of how marginalized the Hmong community is. It shows that none of the doctors even knew the word, Hmong, let alone how to treat a Hmong patient correctly due to cultural divides.

Question: The article mentioned that Sucheng Chan defined Hmong as meaning free and decided to title the book as such. But why would Chan do that if it is so obvious that Hmong does not at all mean free or free people?

Citations:
Mouavangsou, K. N. (2016). The Mis-Education of the Hmong in America (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Davis).

Rhimes, S. (Writer). (2005, October 23). Grey's Anatomy: Bring the Pain [Television series episode]. American Broadcasting Company. Retrieved April 9, 2017, from https://youtu.be/gLaK6RP9-9g