Week 3 - Chelsea Reyes A02

The paper done by Mouavangsou aimed to show others that the United States educational system and what it teaches about Hmong people should be reevaluated to better represent the Hmong community. The paper provides various sections to it where the author provides background about themselves and then it delves into the study and research that was done with different Hmong families and their children. What I found interesting was when the author began to talk about Hmong in US history. Rather, the lack of Hmong in the US history. As I read this, I started to think back to when I took US history in high school. I could remember clearly learning about the Chinese, Japanese, and a little about Koreans, but that was it. I think history in different countries is taught in different ways. The way US history is taught here, the US is made to seem like the big brother to all other countries who comes in and helps when needed. Our curriculum of history doesn't really talk about the bad things the US has done to other countries or groups of people and is quite one-sided. Also the fact that Hmong people sometimes are generally called Miao or Meo takes away their individuality amongst the Asian American community. Hmong people have their own unique history and have fought to be called Hmong proudly.

How are courses decided in the UC system? In the reading, the author mentioned that they had taught a Hmong American history class here in Davis but how can we push for more history (or classes in general) about other ethnicities?

References:

Mouavangsou, K. N. 2016. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 2, 2017.

Stoker, Lindsey. (2013, March 17). [Digital image]. Retrieved October 3, 2017, from lotusandlace.blogspot.com/2013/03/meeting-hmong.html.