Hmong American Culture

Response Paper 3

Like it or not, in the world we live in, race, gender, and sexuality are some of the most important characteristics of a person. From both a personal and outside perspective, these immutable attributes are often at the forefront of every person's identity. Just one piece of information regarding race, gender, or sexuality about someone is all that is needed for people to already have negative or positive thoughts about that person. It is true too, that any individual can have the same negative or positives thoughts about himself or herself based on these characteristics due to societal influences. These are known as generalizations and are typically created from media misrepresentations and are subsequently perpetuated by

By doing anything other rather referring to a single individual's thoughts we aren’t doing the matter justice. The Hmong community is becoming increasingly dynamic with age; more and more Hmong American's are redefining their thoughts on race, gender and sexuality. There are many examples of this change in the Hmong community contradicting these generalizations in the texts from class. In the interviews in the article, There are not GLBT Hmong People, there are some examples are Hmong Americans escaping common gender and sexuality stereotypes. Many different stories are told of Hmong youth coming out to their parents as having a non-traditional sexuality. These stories not only show that Hmong people cannot be categorized as having a uniform traditional view on sexuality, but also that any idea of a generational gap is exaggerated. One interviewee had his father explicitly tell him that “he shouldn’t listen to nobody”, and “I will accept you no matter what or how you

These characteristics are particularly important topics for Asian and, specifically, Hmong Americans because they are wrongly racialized. Hmong Americans often fall victim to ignorance and are attributed the stereotypes of all Asians while still having some of their own. Ideas of a primitive cultures and large generational gaps are commonly introduced as a way of thinking about Hmong American’s race, sexuality, and gender. However, as it has been shown in the texts, There are not GLBT Hmong People, The Bride Price, and Becoming Asian and Deviant, all Hmong do not think alike. There is no “Hmong way” of thinking about race, sexuality, and gender. No culture’s ideas should be generalized because all individuals are