Patrick Choi
Regarding Mouavangsou’s “Hmong does not mean free: the miseducation of and by Hmong Americans”, I found many aspects I could relate to. Learning history in school, I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to learn much about Korean history. Ever since elementary school, I think we’d learn of a lot of things without ever considering it from the perspective of someone who isn’t white. For example, in kindergarten we would learn of Christopher Columbus the same way we’d learn of Lincoln or any popular historical figure. He is a murderer who should not be taught as such a positive figure.
Furthermore, I also have a family who values education as a means to success. Many of the Korean young adults my family interact with are or have graduated from prestigious schools, and my cousins attend USC and UCLA. I’ve always felt a high bar to succeed academically. I could also relate to the “tiger moms” that professor Valverde mentioned, although to a lesser extent. It is a complex problem because on one hand, there have been many parents who have taken this too far and neglected other needs such as mental or emotional support by only focusing on what would look good on a resume in the future. Or these parents may not even be thinking of their kids future and just be using their kid’s academic achievements as clout as a parent. But on the other hand, you can also sympathize with a parent’s effort to give their kids the best chance at success in a world that will discriminate against them. After all, it may have been due their own personal struggles with racism that made them realize their kids have to do better than their white counterparts to achieve the same success.
Question: I’m still not sure why tiger moms did not become a thing with other ethnicitys who also were oppressed. Professor Valverde mentioned it is because of social engineering, but why wouldn’t it be socially engineered with African American or Latino communities and only Asian American communities?
References:
Nealon, Sean. “Hold on, Tiger Mom.” University of California, 22 Sept. 2014, www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/hold-tiger-mom.
Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment