A (brief) History of Hmong Americans
New updates, Hmong Americans, and some bonus info
Image is based off this recipe for chana masala (I really liked the handles on this plate and also am looking for chickpea recipes so HMU if you know any)
Hi! Our big news: we're going back to a weekly newsletter! Lol, the "every two weeks" situation didn't last that long... too many things happen each week to not document, especially as major events like the election are unfolding. As per Parkinson's law and whatever random theory of procrastination, it also didn't change our work habits of writing things at the last minute. So, with that, our weekly prompt is
How do you get your news? Do you know who the authors of your news are and where they are from/what stances they take? When was the last time you intentionally read something by an Asian American author/writer? (Is that something that you (want to) do?)
In case anyone wanted to know more, you can find a more detailed intro about ourselves re: our involvement in the Asian American community at the very end of this newsletter :D
See you next week at 5:30PM on Wednesday!
💌 Melinda and Jamie
Quick Announcements
✨Shameless plug: remember the calendar Melinda was working on with Hello Prosper? It's launched! It's a Google calendar that currently has over 100 holidays/significant dates relevant to Asians/Asian Americans - download it for free HERE. It's def a work in progress, so if you have any suggestions/edits or want to help add any holidays/dates, feel free to submit it via this form. We'd love community feedback. Thank y'all :')
📸 If you've been missing us, follow our Instagram for slightly more frequent doses of Asian American news/topics/events
🎵We've been adding new songs to our Spotify collaborative playlist highlighting Asian American artists. You can add songs too!
You may have missed…
‼️ Kamala Harris is chosen as Joe Biden’s running mate! We were working on a piece diving into many things surrounding this decision and the implications, but we realized we have so many feelings and thoughts, so we will be updating with a more fully formed piece next week! ~ stay tuned ~
📵 WeChat ban from August 6th still tentative in the US. Such a ban would make it harder not only for Chinese-Americans to communicate with families overseas but also for American companies and individuals to transact and do business (on both a multinational and a farmer's market scale) in China.
🔢 The 2020 Census. Over a week ago, under Trump’s direction, the Census Bureau announced it would end its count one month early, on September 30. This is quite concerning for marginalized populations and immigrant communities, who are disproportionately left out of the count for a variety of reasons. Right now, about 63% of U.S. households have filled out the Census, making it really stressful to get as many families as possible counted in a remaining couple of weeks. Asian Americans Advancing Justice, alongside the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed a second amended complaint in a lawsuit on behalf of Asian and Latinx voters, saying “the Census Bureau’s recently announced plan to end the counting of non-responsive individuals a month earlier than scheduled will discriminate against immigrants and people of color.“ John C. Yang, President of AAJC says, “AAJC is determined to put a stop to this President’s attempt to politicize the census and use the Census Bureau and data collected for partisan gain.”
👩⚖️The US Justice Department filed suit against Yale for discrimination against Asian-American and white applicants on August 13th. The suit, which charges Yale for violating SCOTUS affirmative action rulings to not use race as a factor in decisions, comes on the tails of a two-year investigation and administration support for a previous similar case where Asian-American students sued Harvard (which alleged that systematic favoring for Black and Latino applicants at the expense of Asian and White applicants amounted to a de-facto quota system - later upheld in the district court but rejected by a federal judge on the grounds that the university met strict constitutional standards for considering race in admissions processes). A larger conversation around this is forthcoming (on this newsletter and in general) related to affirmative action, especially in light of the current climate towards racial justice/diversity/experiences, but for now, we will leave you with the links above for more information and a breakdown of Yale's current student body by race/ethnicity:
🔊 Andrew Yang added as a speaker to Democratic National Convention for Thursday 8/20. After expressing disappointment in the lack of inclusion in the DNC as part of the party's "rising stars" and the overall lack of Asian-American representation among the speakers, Andrew Yang was added to the speaker list. TIL from this that Asian Americans are the "fastest increasing group in America, including in swing states", a trend that could give Democrats a boost in 2020 battlegrounds.
🇱🇧 After a deadly explosion in a Beirut port amid the COVID pandemic and an already-pressing economic crisis, the entire Lebanese cabinet resigns.
🇭🇰 Hong Kong Update: US suspends extradition treaty and special tax treatment with Hong Kong. Protest slogans are removed from textbooks. The major arrest of pro-democracy/free speech media head, Jimmy Lai, under the national security law.
3️⃣ Congressional Tri-caucus holds a forum on anti-Asian bigotry during COVID.
TIL… Hmong Americans
When I read that the Asian police officer present at George Floyd's death is Hmong American, I realized I knew nothing about the Hmong population in the United States. Then, while reading chapter 15 of Erika Lee's book Making of Asian America, I finally got a better understanding of their history and their lives today in the United States. And I have to share it! The below is just a short segment of what I learned, and I highly recommend you all look more into it because I won't be able to cover all the details.
The Hmong (pronounced basically as it's spelled it seems) are an ethnic group from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Southern China. The central event that led to their connection to the U.S. was mind-boggling for me: around 1961, at the advent of the Vietnam War, the CIA started recruiting thousands of Hmong people in Laos as part of a secret army in the fight against communist forces in Laos. The Hmong leader, who wanted to protect Hmong from communist domination, struck a deal with the U.S.—it might've included a belief that the U.S. would provide sanctuary in exchange for this service (Lee 318).
Source: KC Ortiz via AngryAsianMan (see more photos here)
The U.S. trained Hmong guerilla units—which in total consisted of 40,000 soldiers by 1969—to attack North Vietnamese communists entering Laos (Lee 318). The devastation of war in Laos was awful: some estimates said the mortality rate of those enlisted in this army was 25%. Of the 300,000 Hmong in Laos, 50,000 civilians were killed or wounded—that's 16.7%!! From 1964-1973, to "aid" in the fight against the communist leader in Laos, the U.S. dropped "2 million tons of ordnance on Laos during 580,000 bombing missions" (Lee 319). This is unimaginably TERRIFYING. No one (!!) in the U.S. knew about this "Secret War" until 1970. Afterward, with the communist ruler still in power in Laos, Hmong suffered and died from routine poisonous attacks in the attempt to "extirpate...the Hmong minority" by the government (Lee 331).
Sadly, unlike in Vietnam, the U.S. didn't have a large-scale evacuation plan for the displaced Laotians. For example, in May 1975, when 10,000 Hmong people tried to leave with the U.S. planes, only 2,500 were taken (Lee 322). (Note: the topic of Southeast Asian refugees fleeing their war-torn homes warrants a more comprehensive discussion, but for now, I will try to focus on how Hmong Americans.). Under the value of "humanitarianism," the U.S. government's Interagency Task Force started bringing Southeast Asian refugees to the U.S.—in 1975-1976, about 11,000 Laotians entered the U.S.—nearly all Hmong, most of these Laotians had to first flee to Thailand refugee camps before making it to the U.S. (Lee 325).
Many Hmong were placed in poor, urban neighborhoods, including the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota (the Twin Cities). Finding jobs was extremely difficult for these refugees, who didn't know English, didn't have certain skills, and couldn't rely on community help in most cases. The cultural shock was challenging and isolating. The 1990 U.S. Census found that 65% of Hmong Americans were unemployed and more than 60% lived below the poverty line (Lee 336). The children of Hmong parents also faced their own troubles, having noticed the struggle of their parents in this new environment. For them, there seemed to be persistent powerlessness, growth in gang activity, and concerning school drop-out rates, and they did not identify with the "model minority" portrayal of Asian Americans (Lee 337).
As American media portrayed them as "backward people" and incidences of discrimination and hate crimes against them arose (due to anti-immigrant/refugee backlash), the Hmong began finding and supporting each other in great numbers, with many relocating to Minnesota during a secondary migration within the U.S. By 2000, the Twin Cities had the largest concentration of Hmong people in the U.S. (Lee 344). In the 1990s especially, Hmong Americans organized and fought to serve their communities' needs and began achieving representation in government on all levels. The Hmong advocated for the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000, which enabled 45,000 people to become U.S. citizens (Lee 348). Two years later, Mee Moua became the first Hmong American elected to the state legislature (she was later the President of Asian Americans Advancing Justice for 5 years!).
According to the 2010 Census, there are about 260,000 people of Hmong origin in the U.S., making them the ninth-largest population of Asian Americans (Lee 348). Fortunately, from 1990 to 2010, their poverty rate fell from 64% to 25% (which was still almost twice the U.S. average), while their employment rate grew from 24% to 56% (the U.S. overall employment rate was 65% in 2010). But, they continue to face pressing challenges and disparities. For example, their per capita income was ~$11,700, compared to ~$26,200 for the general U.S. population. Around 14.5% of Hmong Americans age 25+ have a bachelor's degrees, compared to 50.2% of non-Hispanic Asians and 31.4% of non-Hispanic whites.
Source: Asian American Fashion Blog
Nonetheless, Hmong Americans today have continued to take leadership in fighting for justice for and within their communities, from taking action against racist acts to challenging gender norms (Lee 351-352). From paj ntaub "story cloths" (above) to the Hmong New Year celebrations in the Twin Cities to the songs of hip-hop artist Tou Saik Lee and his grandmother, Hmong Americans are celebrating their culture and embracing their identity (Lee 354-355).
As a Chinese American, part of the dominant Asian population in the U.S., I realize that the stories and experiences of Hmong Americans are often left out of the mainstream conversation on Asian Americans... What I've written here is only some of the things I just learned about the history of Hmong Americans. I still have so much to learn about all the diverse Asian communities in the U.S., and I'm glad this newsletter is giving me the push to do so :)
Small Feelings
This time... we're featuring some small feelings from Melinda's mom! She wrote a longer reflection a while ago, which I was surprised about. Here's just one part:
"I always think what I say or do are good for my children, which may not be the truth. ...I realize that we [parents] need to have open minds to accept what our children are pursuing in this world/country even if they are not what you agree or support. They are a different generation growing up in a totally different social and political environment. Why do we want them to have the same mindset as we have? We want them to be more liberal, more open, more curious, braver, more innovative and more ambitious. We want them to have the thoughts to change the world even if sometimes it does not seem realistic in the short term."
💡S P O T L I G H T💡
Justin Min
This story is brought to you by 2 days of binge-watching...
A second-gen Korean-American from Cerritos, California, Justin Min is one of the "breakout stars" from Netflix's The Umbrella Academy. An actor and writer, Min graduated from Cornell in 2011, where he studied Government and English and helped sponsor the creation of a Korean studies and language program. Since leaving school, he acted in various film and TV roles, including CSI, Faking It, and Pure Genius before landing the recurring role (and later main role in Season 2) of Ben Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy in 2019. Some upcoming work includes A24's After Yang, a sci-fi drama about a family who tries to save Yang, their robot babysitter.
Between acting roles, he maintains a (very honest) Tumblr account (that we could not find) and talks about growing up in Asian-majority spaces like Cerritos. Previously, he worked in journalism and also acted in a handful of Wong Fu videos.
Chef's Specials
📕a MUST-READ is Erika Lee's book The Making of Asian America- I can't believe that I hadn't gotten an overview of Asian American history until I read this book... of course, it's not 100% comprehensive, but it's quite detailed - you'll learn a ton. Tbh the book kept giving me more topics to cover in future newsletters!
📗Book rec no.2 - How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr. Thanks to AJ (Twitter: @ajthenurse) for recommending this - I'm halfway through the book, and I learn so much in every sentence about the history and current situations of territories in America. FYI the current ones are Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.
🗓 August 14 is an important date to remember the “comfort women”, women and girls who were forced to be sex slaves by the Japanese Army in occupied areas during World War II. Learn more from this film here.
📽️ Daniel Dae Kim And Randall Park Team For Asian American-Led Heist Film At Amazon Studios (Deadline, 2020)
Events
Thursday, August 20 (9am EST): A panel on caste and colorism by Equality Labs and Dalit Network on Facebook Live
Saturday, August 22 (9am PST-6pm PST): Asian Mental Health Project: Survivor Support Summit - on Facebook Live "Join us @ Facebook Live on Saturday - August 22, 2020, as we unpack how to support survivors, advocate for prevention and more." (speaker list here)
Saturday, August 22 (8pm EST): South Asian Queer + Trans Collective: Writing Workshop “The purpose of this group is to create a safe space centering SA and Indo-Caribbean narratives that uplifts their voices and stories.“
Bonus Intros
Melinda: Over the past two years, I think I've felt more confident in being able to verbalize my thoughts and experiences... This past year, I was a part of Spice Collective (semester-long discussion group of Asian femmes at Penn) and the team that organizes Asian Pacific American Heritage Week at Penn. I also worked on a project with various non-profits in Philadelphia aiming to address the mental health needs of high school-aged Asian Americans (I'm still helping two of them with their virtual summer programming - middle schoolers are...interesting). In 2018-2019-ish, I volunteered for SEAMAAC, a non-profit in South Philadelphia that serves immigrant/refugee communities. I helped with its women's health program, specifically for the older Chinese immigrant population, as well as its food truck initiative, SoPhiE! Both were such memorable and informative experiences. :’)
Jamie: I am not nearly as involved in the Asian American space as Melinda is. I am a senior in college from the suburbs of Georgia, where I grew up around a sizable East Asian and Indian population but was primarily surrounded by white classmates. I went to Chinese school as a kid and was quite frankly a terrible student (am trying to re-learn). Historically, while I have been exposed to the topics surrounding identity, race, politics, etc. for a while, I haven't been super comfortable exploring topics around Asian-American identity. The first time I really began talking about this was two years ago when I did a program called APALI (Asian Pacific American Leadership Initiative) through our school, where I made close friends with 10-15 people as we unpacked our experiences with AAPI history, religion, food, dating and family, and much more. Since then, I've tried to continue being more active and aware. My primary association with the Asian-American community (in school at least) is with the couch at the back of our cultural center, where I frequently took naps pre-COVID.
The segment about Melinda's mom is amazing!!