Week 3- Thuong Nguyen, A01

I found the publication "Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Misseducation of Hmong Americans" by Kaozong N. Mouavangsou quite eye-opening. When I read the first couple of pages of her paper, I wondered how can six families depict the Hmong population and their beliefs and views on education as a whole. But as she talked through her analysis of these families, I came to realize that many of the ideas captured during the interview applied not only to Hmong families, but to many other Asian American families as well. Growing up in my family, there was never the question of whether or not my siblings and I would attend college-that was implied. There was an unspoken belief in our family that going to college was the only way to better our lives. This is a similar belief within many immigrant families.  What the paper further brought to my attention was the lack of history pertaining to certain Asian cultures such as the Hmong and Mien.  I use to think that history was just list of facts used to explain the events that happened. I can now see that it is more complex than that. The same story in history can be told through varying perspectives. Simple things like adding or removing certain details may change the meaning of the story. In this case, Hmong perspective on the Vietnam war was completely excluded. I also think that since student's views on their culture may be skewed because of this. Since they do not learn much about their culture or history in school, their perspective on their own culture may be shaped solely from their peer's negative comments or opinions. This may be especially true if these students are minorities in the cities they live in.

Question:  Could the inclusion of a greater variety of cultures into the United States history curriculum reduce racism?

References:

Mouavangsou, K. N. (2016). Hmong does not Mean Free: the Misseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 07, 2017.

N.A. 2000 Census [Digital image]. (2012, July 10). Retrieved October 07, 2017, from https://keepinitrealevanston.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/trowbridge2_1-0-fig10_010