Sunday, October 8, 2017

Week 3 - Elijah Ramirez

Elijah Ramirez
ASA 002 A01
Week 3


Kaozong Mouavangsou’s “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: Miseducation of Hmong Americans” goes in-depth about the under-representation and misunderstanding of Hmong Americans in the states. While reading this publication, I have come to realize that Hmong Americans and Filipino Americans have the same problems living in the US. Hmong parents that immigrated teach their children that education is the key to success and happiness; while Hmong immigrants did not achieve what they wanted to achieve in their country, they wanted their children to have a better life, believing that education in America will solve everything. My parents immigrated from the Philippines to have a better life in the States than the one they had back in their homeland. They taught me that a college degree is the key to a great life, thinking that if I earned a steady, high income I would be happy. Coming from a country where poverty is prominent, immigrants believe that money will solve all their problems because those were the problems they had in their homeland.

Furthermore, the under-representation of Hmong in American history is similar to the under-representation of Filipinos in American history. While the history of groups of Caucasian, Africans, and Native Americans are talked about in detail in a high school history class, Asian Americans are grouped into one category and only talked about for several days at most. Our high school curriculum ignores and fails to bring the struggles our people had while immigrating to America to light.


Why are Asian Americans so underrepresented in American education? Is there a valid reason, or is the situation one that started in the beginning and continued to grow with time?




References:
1.   Mouavangsou, K. N. (2016). Hmong does not Mean Free: the Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 07, 2017.
2.   [Digital Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2017, from https://objects-us-west-1.dream.io/racefiles/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/BAATF.jpg

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