Week 2

Anna De Villa
A03

Before college, I had never even met a Hmong person, or known what Hmong culture was. Kaozong’s Mouvangsou’s paper “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans” brought to light for me a new world. The struggles they experienced as a group in the United States were brand new to me. When their role in the Vietnam War was mentioned, I saw how lacking my education was; I also only knew about the war to the extent that Kaozong did: the United States went to war in the sixties, and people protested. I completely agree with the observation that the United states education system rewrites or completely erases the influences of other culture to its history. I recall times during high school when the teacher would go over a topic that I had learned in the Philippines and barely mention our part. It made me realize how little America thought of other cultures.

I was particularly interested in the responses the sample families gave when asked about how they perceived Hmong girls and boys, namely that the girls were expected to work hard, challenge themselves, and work toward a degree. The boys, on the other hand, were perceived as lazy or uninspired, which allowed them to act that way instead of applying themselves in the same way the girls did. The miseducation and the perpetuation that “this is the way things are” negatively affects youth not only in the Hmong communities but also the perception of Asians in general. I also found the line about learning English obscures the ability to identify with one’s own identity intriguing. I have never noticed it before, but I realize now that the longer I spend not using my native language or being around others of the same culture, the less I remember or the longer it takes for me to translate. It makes me wonder, is this because it is harder to evenly identify one’s self with more than one culture, or is it a product of the education system in the United States?

This image depicts the states that have Hmong communities.

References:

Map: The 17 Most Hmong Populated States in 2010. Retrieved from http://www.hmongtalks.com/what-will-be-the-u-s-hmong-population-in-year-2030/

Mouvangsou, K. N. (2016). Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans. (DOctoral Dissertation, University of California, Davis).