Week 3 - Miguel Flores A02

The model minority has been socially constructed to provide prominent status among Asian Americans. As the theme of last week's lectures unfolded we witness how these are socially engineered and a standing basis for hopeful Asian Americans who want to have successful lives here in the United States. However, the glorification of this pressure to be "in" the model minority standards results to an overwhelming perception of stereotypes about Asian Americans, hence, there is this mentality that Asians are educationally competitive and multi-talented and skilled individuals. Reflective on the pressures invested upon by Tiger Moms who are relentlessly disciplining their kids in every avenue of education and extra-curricular activities, their hopes to shape their children to fit the stereotype of the model minority into the future of their children's lives is becoming the norm for almost all Asian American families. Contrary to the belief of everyone that Asians has huge leverage with it comes to future success, Hmong's, on the other hand, has been debunking that norm as evident in the narratives provided by Hmong authors. These authors wanted to set a narrative that Hmong's are underrepresented and no matter how much they conform to the model minority standard, they struggle to build an identity not only for themselves but also within the Asian American community. 

Discriminated in academic spaces. Hmongs struggle to excel in scholarly institutions as they establish their research on historical narratives about their identities and languages.

It's been established in the Hmong community that women excel in education as compared to males. As the community relies on the education of its female members, they hope that achieving higher education could relieve the pressure of the society's misconceptions about Hmong's inconsistent histories and identities. The Hmongs felt that they are in the opposite sides of the spectrum and they have difficulty weaving themselves in the known Asian American diaspora. Bound by the unique circumstance of not being able to fully materialize their language and cultural history, Hmong authors justify their community's existence by interviewing families and sharing their life histories as Hmongs who values the significance of education. The narrative for higher education provided an exclusive gateway to talk about the issues surrounding the Hmong community's identity as a whole. Their journey to get recognized by others is not only based on its people, but it is also based on the lack of education of others about the Hmong community - this is the reason why they have a difficulty in establishing their identity and taking pride for who they are. In all of these issues, Hmong's takes on a journey and public discourse about their identity, gender, and race in scholarly institutions. They tried to sort out these issues, but the gaps in the history, language, and culture are factors on why Hmongs struggle at recognizing problems in academic spaces. This begs the question on why there is little history about Hmongs? Are there Hmong coalitions that are proactive at highlighting and bringing up Hmong history in scholarly institutions? 

References:

Grollman. E.A. 2013. The Book Tower (Political Cartoon). On Racist and Sexist Discrimination in Academia. Word Press. https://conditionallyaccepted.com/2013/09/02/racism-sexism-academia/

Moua, M. 2018. Navigating Graduate Education as a First-generation, Hmong American Woman: An Autoethnography. Hmong Studies Journal.

Mouavangsou, K. N. 2016. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans