week 2

Alan Sani 

Section A03

Week 2

In this week’s readings The Miseducation of Hmong Americans by Kaozong Mouavingsou and Transformative Disjunctures in the Academy by Linda Trinh Vo both authors discuss the miseducation and marginalization of their communities within American society and the American Education system. Kaozong Mouavingso discusses her research of the Hmong American community based on her own experiences and data from conducted research on six Hmong American families. I am able to relate to many of the struggles that Kaozong faced with miseducation of her culture and ethnicity. As an Indonesian American I have faced many instances where people had no knowledge whatsoever of my background and also dealt with many misconceptions of my ethnic background. Kaozong mentions that is was always hard for her to explain to students who she was without much historical context available. However, her situation seemed even more difficult than my own because she also had to explain that the Hmong people did not have a written language or a country of their own.  My experiences with these struggles also lead to many confusions with my own identity, I never felt that the American K-12 system never offered me a space to embrace my culture and its values. Because our history barley acknowledges Americans from backgrounds like my own, I found that students in my area like me were more successful if they assimilated. Similar to the feelings of marginalization for that many of the Hmong male students face in schools because they are not recognized or represented well enough, I also feel that I am marginalized as a minority group within the minority group of Asian Americans. The struggle for Hmong men to value education and succeed is an issue that can easily be ignored because of how miniscule their population is compared to many other ethnic groups. This is the same feeling that I have. In Linda Trinh Vo’s article, she shares her struggle to bring recognition of the importance of Asian American Studies at the university level. The educational environment and ethnic prejudice that Vo faces throughout her story are disappointing and unfair. But her battle for these subjects to me were very admirable and important. If it weren’t for such empowered women of color like her in the history of our education I would not have the privilege to take this class that I am taking now. This article helped me realize the importance of ethnic studies class to me in the process of understanding my identity.

Question: How can thes minorty groups within the Asian American community escape being marginalized? COuld we set up programs? 

- These Asian American struggles in education have reminded me of this popular stereotype. Memes like these group many asian American cultures together without recognizing their differences.