Cheryl Mai, A01, Week 6

Upon reading “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of and by Hmong Americans” by Kaozong N. Mouavangsou, I was taken aback by the negative stereotyping of Hmong males. I grew up in a predominantly East Asian community and have never heard of Hmong people until the later years of high school. To this day, I have never met a single Hmong person most likely because their population in the United States is very small compared to the other Asian ethnicities. A reason why a lot of people in our country are not knowledgeable about the Hmong community because they are not represented in textbooks. Mouavangsou reveals how social engineering comes into play when Hmong students are divided into classes based on their academic abilities. The one student who is put in a higher level class with majority white people would feel alienated from his community. I was also surprised to learn that it was a negative stereotype for Hmong males to succeed in academics. In my culture as a Chinese American, I was told that boys were naturally more intelligent and even if girls work much harder that we would never match up. Even though it is not backed by statistics, I am still conditioned to think this way throughout my college education. The stereotype for Hmong male is seemingly different compared to the other Asian ethnicities. Asians are stereotyped as hard working, but Hmong men are seen as lazy and not willing to take on challenges. There is also misinformation such as labeling Hmong people as "illiterate" when Americans do not understand their form of literacy and education. A perpetuator of racism is thinking the "American way" is more superior. At school, you are taught that you will become more successful if you are more American. People look at Hmong culture and label them as "primitive" because it is different than what they are used to. The American eduction system must do better to correctly inform people and not cause a divide. Do Hmong Americans feel more like a foreigner than other Asian Americans do?

source:https://www.colorlines.com/articles/univ-wisconsin-hmong-american-studies-classes

References

Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline, and Wei Ming Dariotis. Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy. Rutgers University Press, 2020.