Week 3 - Angela Kang

Angela Kang

ASA 02- A02

Week 3

In the article Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans, the author  mainly focuses on the misinterpretation and understanding of Hmong culture and its history. While reading the article, I was able to understand the author’s frustrations as I never truly knew much about Hmong people and their beliefs while living in America. The history of Hmong people is not really taught within the American school system which restricts people to learn other aspects of American history. During the article the author mentioned she felt as if she was a foreigner in her own country, this was because of the lack of support on Hmong and other asian history unlike white American history. As I kept reading, the gender disparities stood out to me the most as it distinctly separates the expectations and showcases the inequality between them. The main reason for Hmong women to pursue education was to achieve the same equality as men do which portrays how men have higher statues just by being born a male. This portion of the reading saddened me because education should be something both genders want to pursue for their own interest instead of doing it in order to reach equality. One of the mother that were interviewed stated, “ you have to do it for yourself, not for me… build a career that you want to so you don’t go to work being miserable every day of your life… but you have to have education, that's the most important thing”, I was able to relate to this as my dad said the same thing to me (12). Being an asian immigrant himself with little American education, my dad wanted the best for me and my sister in order to achieve bigger and better things. In the end, Hmong culture and history should be more appreciated and learned in American school system as overall they are also a part of American history.

Question: If Hmong women had the same equality as Hmong men, would they still want to pursue an education or live the way Hmong men currently do?

Resources:

Mouavangsou, Kaozong N. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 7, 2017

education.mnhs.org/immigration/sites/education.mnhs.org.immigration/files/imagecache/Full_800x800/hmong88.jpg.