Week 3 - Jamie McCaa

Jamie McCaa
ASA 002 Section A03
Week 3

I found Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans interesting for a number of reasons – both personal and academic. The piece focuses on how even members of a community who are invested in teaching others about their culture can still be affected by ‘miseducation’ and misrepresentation of their cultures – causing stereotypes to thrive and misconceptions to survive across generations.

The portion of the article pertaining to internal and public spaces of division was particularly intriguing, and made me think about how structures put in place like this by institutions can cause huge consequences to minorities’ own perception of themselves. In my own personal experience, there was a program called G.A.T.E (Gifted and Talented Education) at my elementary school; however, unlike some of the participants and the author of this study, I grew up in an area with very few Asian people. Not being part of ‘G.A.T.E’ as an Asian student generally caused other Asians to tell that student that they weren’t ‘really Asian’ – I think this is evident of how, as Kaozong N. Mouavangsou states, “the very system that is meant to support…can also systematically separate”, as Asians who were not a part of 'G.A.T.E' were institutionally alienated from their peers (15)

In addition, Mouavangsou factors in the topic of gender to these internal and public spaces of division; noting that there are stereotypes that claim “academic success equates to emasculation” (16). In order to be considered successful, according to these divisions, Hmong boys must separate themselves from the “other Hmong boys”, implying a sense of somehow inherent “cultural failure” to succeed that is present in the “other Hmong boys”  (16).

Overall, I found this article to be very thought-provoking, but also frustrating to read. It’s difficult to fathom how large institutions can make sweeping generalizations about an entire group of people based on cultural factors without context – for example, the Hmong “not having a written language” or practicing remedies that mainstream Americans found to be “strange”. The utter lack of cultural awareness about the Hmong directly leads to the miseducation about them and their history – giving Hmong Americans a need to avoid internalizing these negative perceptions, and in turn “remember that it is within the educational institutions that these feelings and associations of the Hmong  culture as limiting and patriarchal are manifested” (Mouavangsou 35).

Question: How can we keep young Hmong (or any Asian American) students from allowing public spaces of division to culturally or personally divide them, even if the system is still physically in place?

References:

Mouavangsou, K. N. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved on October 8, 2017.
(n.d.). Education Attainment for Asian American Sub-Groups, 2008-2010 [digital image]. Retrieved on October 8, 2017. Retrieved from  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackwhiteandgray/2013/06/hmong-indian-whats-the-difference/?repeat=w3tc