Week 6 Blog

Nadya Saptono A01

From this week’s reading, “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of and by Hmong Americans” by Kaozong N. Mouavangsou. I was pretty interested with by this reading since I am not very familiar with the Hmong culture and community. This reading is a bit different than the ones that we have been seeing. It is much more technical and follows a research methodology. 

Throughout the essay, we saw how the author grapples trying to make sense of her own culture. Where the very understanding and belief that she has been holding on to for so long, she described as “the source of manipulated and distorted views about my own culture”. She noted the huge disparity between females and their male’s counterparts in the Hmong culture. She narrowed it down to the US education system, and that it failed in preparing them. Shows that the mainstream is not always right and we should do our part and continuously make the effort to learn about other cultures. She also cited an example of how the book published “Hmong means free” has created a lot of confusion and misleading information. This shows how powerful literature can be and even if we have good intentions, we have to make sure that we pick and craft our words wisely. 

Question: How do we make sure underrepresented groups are heard and not forgotten? 

References: 

Powers, Joy. (2016 06 15). WUWM 89.7. “Hmong Still struggles for Acceptance in 

Wisconsin Communities”. https://www.wuwm.com/post/hmong-still-struggle-acceptance-wisconsin-communities#stream/0

Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2019). Fight the tower: Asian American women 

scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers 

University Press.