Aparna_Komarla_Week3_A04

Aparna Komarla 

SID: 913896026
ASA002 A04 

This post is in response to the article titled “Hmong  Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans” by Kaozong N. Mouavangsou.

It is interesting to learn about the misinformation and absence of information about the Hmong community in the books the US public education system uses in its curriculum. It is shocking to learn that according to Blia Vue’s analysis of the California school district, only two of the three textbooks “brought up the possibility that the United States might have been involved in another country’s civil war in Vietnam”.

I am also interested by the author’s framework of dividing the impact of the US education system on the Hmong community as “public division” and “internal division”. The author argues that academic success equates to emasculation based on the experiences various Hmong youth had in school. I am curious to know if other students, specifically white youth were faced with a similar stereotype that equated being “nerdy” or focused on one’s education to being less masculine. The conclusion from the sample of 6 families, which asserts that this stereotype is the work of the US education system to divide the Hmong community among other communities of color seems incomplete to me, and I would like to know more about it.

This is a spoken word piece about the experience of being Hmong American:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6XxuyYI6ho
“Sunnyside High School (Fresno, CA) students describe the struggle of growing up as Hmong Americans and the complications of trying to stay true to thier cultures while conforming to life in America.”

References:
Mouavangsou, K. N. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved January 20, 2019
McQuone Katie. 2017, March 20. Spoken Word "Being a Hmong American". Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6XxuyYI6ho