Week 3 - Janine Macaraeg

Janine Macaraeg

Section A01

Week 3

I enjoyed reading Kaozong N. Mouavangsou’s “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans” because I could somewhat identify with her experiences. During high school I never thought much of what it was like being Filipino because there were a good number of students who were Filipino as well. That’s why in Mouavangsou’s essay, as I put myself in her place, I am able to empathize and see things from her perspective. Growing up, I had parents similar to the Lor family’s mother who said, “…you have to do it for yourself, not for me, but so that you find a job that you like to do… But you have to have education, that’s the most important thing” (12). Though this mother says “not for me” I always thought of education as a means of helping my parents in the future by obtaining a degree and hopefully a well-paying job. And once I read what this mother and what other parents had to say during these interviews, I thought about my own parents and how I appreciate all the sacrifice they’ve done for me and my younger sister.

I don’t think we ever really know much about other cultures and another country’s history unless we put in the effort to or if we have friends of a different race than our own. Sometimes, we even have misconceptions about other groups of people because of the things we hear or simply due to ignorance. So my question is this: how can the educational system, or even America, better shape the views of Americans of a different race? How can we, ourselves, play a part in this? Like Mouavangsou said, “The system has failed us, we have not failed it” (42). Stereotypes and the like will continue to permeate unless the system finds ways to create a better curriculum for the students as well. She goes on to say that “The way our US educational institutions are currently designed only values one type of knowledge, that is European American culture and values…” (44) and how this undermines Hmong values and knowledge; this can also be applied to other backgrounds of different races. All in all, I appreciate this essay because I did not know anything about the Hmong community. Now, I want to find ways to be more informative about other races and let go of the social stigma. "Imagine" by John Lennon has lyrics that expresses what it would be like if we could all come together as one without looking down upon people who don't look or act like us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUGSYDKUxU

References:

Lennon, John. (1971). Imagine [Recorded by John Lennon]. On Imagine. [YouTube]. United
            Kingdom: Apple Records.

Mouavangsou, K. (2017). Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans.