In the journal Hmong Does
Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans, the writer illustrates
the life of Hmong in the USA and what difficulties they face as one of the
minorities. Looking from the perspective of a Hmong women, the journal offers
intriguing facts about the culture of Hmong and how it relates to the USA education
system. The journal also enlightens me with the typical Asian stereotype within
the Hmong culture: education is number one priority. Unlike the western
culture, Asian parents put more emphasis on their children education which I
can relate to myself. Even though I am not an Asian American, discussing these
issues remind me of the same issues back home in Indonesia. In my country,
people rarely discuss about gender roles in the society, patriarchy is common
and most of the times women are housewives and men are the breadwinners. It was
not until I traveled to the states, I realized that the world is flawed in so
many ways and people are treated unequally around the world. However, as I
scrutinized over the living ways of Americans and people from my country, I
noticed that information/knowledge do empower people. Americans men and women
apprehend their rights as a citizen and therefore wanted to be treated equally,
on the other hand people from my country do not even acknowledge the gender
issues as problems in the society since it is deeply rooted in our culture. For
over 19 years of my live, I always believe that men must be the head of family
and the family sole source of income, and perhaps I would still so if I never
travel outside of my country. In one moment, I was doubtful to my culture. Now
however, I believe that culture could evolve around the people and it should
become better over time with the progress in education.
Reference:
Mouavangsou, K. N. 2016. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The
Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
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