My Experience With Racism
Although, I identify myself as a Hmong woman now, it wasn’t until I was accepted into the Masters Program in School Counseling at Fresno State in the Spring of 2015, when I discover and began to appreciate what Hmong meant to me. Prior to graduate school, I knew little to nothing about my culture and the Hmong history. I also faced many challenges that skew me away from maintaining and accepting my cultural identity. Growing up, I lived in a close-knit community where the majority of the families around me were Hmong families. Therefore, I didn’t know or understand what racism, discrimination, and stereotypes was until I was in school and was exposed to other cultural groups, which resulted in my experience of childhood …show more content…
I was tired of having to hear the negativity from others; I started to distance myself from my own heritage because I wanted to be accepted by society. I was seven years old when I last wore my mom’s handmade traditional Hmong clothes (clothing that can express and help identify different subgroups from the colors and the designs on the outfit) to the Fresno Hmong International New Year in 1999. (Craig, 2010). Which brought a lot of hurt and disappointment to my mom because I was refusing to wear the handmade traditional Hmong clothing my mom worked all year to make for me personally. The next year, I started to refuse to speak Hmong. Several years later, I hated myself because of my heritage. At the time, I wanted to feel equal and not be outcast by my peers because of the way I talked, my physical appearances, and or my family’s background. During my high school, I was unwanted by other Hmong students. They called me a disgrace to my heritage because they consider me white washed since I chose to not speak Hmong.
Subsequently, I started feeling worthless because other cultural groups and now my own cultural group were both rejecting me. However, my choice to stop speaking the Hmong language had a greater impact on my relationship with my parents. Since my parents only spoke Hmong, my choice caused …show more content…
Although my parents’ wishes and wants my siblings and I to date and marry only Hmong individuals, their reason is because they want to be able to communicate with our partners without the help of others translating for them. When though my parents were treated well from other cultural groups when they came to the United States, they felt aliened because they were restricted to only being able to speak to other Hmong individuals because my parents didn’t speak or understand the English, Spanish, and etc. language. Therefore, when my two older sisters married my Mexican brother-in-laws, my parents were sad. Not because they were discriminating my brother-in-laws because of the color of their skin or their heritage because of the language barrier. Thus, my parents placed a great emphasize for me to date only Hmong men because I have already establish a language barrier between my parents and I. In my family household, my parents gave my siblings and I different chores base on our gender. My sisters and I were expected to do the cooking, the laundry, and the cleaning in the house, whereas my brothers were expected to take out the trash and do the yard work. As for my parents, both of my parents work in the field. The only difference between my parents is that my dad expects my mom to cook for him. Although, the family message I received from my mom is to be an obedient and pleasing
Although, I identify myself as a Hmong woman now, it wasn’t until I was accepted into the Masters Program in School Counseling at Fresno State in the Spring of 2015, when I discover and began to appreciate what Hmong meant to me. Prior to graduate school, I knew little to nothing about my culture and the Hmong history. I also faced many challenges that skew me away from maintaining and accepting my cultural identity. Growing up, I lived in a close-knit community where the majority of the families around me were Hmong families. Therefore, I didn’t know or understand what racism, discrimination, and stereotypes was until I was in school and was exposed to other cultural groups, which resulted in my experience of childhood …show more content…
I was tired of having to hear the negativity from others; I started to distance myself from my own heritage because I wanted to be accepted by society. I was seven years old when I last wore my mom’s handmade traditional Hmong clothes (clothing that can express and help identify different subgroups from the colors and the designs on the outfit) to the Fresno Hmong International New Year in 1999. (Craig, 2010). Which brought a lot of hurt and disappointment to my mom because I was refusing to wear the handmade traditional Hmong clothing my mom worked all year to make for me personally. The next year, I started to refuse to speak Hmong. Several years later, I hated myself because of my heritage. At the time, I wanted to feel equal and not be outcast by my peers because of the way I talked, my physical appearances, and or my family’s background. During my high school, I was unwanted by other Hmong students. They called me a disgrace to my heritage because they consider me white washed since I chose to not speak Hmong.
Subsequently, I started feeling worthless because other cultural groups and now my own cultural group were both rejecting me. However, my choice to stop speaking the Hmong language had a greater impact on my relationship with my parents. Since my parents only spoke Hmong, my choice caused …show more content…
Although my parents’ wishes and wants my siblings and I to date and marry only Hmong individuals, their reason is because they want to be able to communicate with our partners without the help of others translating for them. When though my parents were treated well from other cultural groups when they came to the United States, they felt aliened because they were restricted to only being able to speak to other Hmong individuals because my parents didn’t speak or understand the English, Spanish, and etc. language. Therefore, when my two older sisters married my Mexican brother-in-laws, my parents were sad. Not because they were discriminating my brother-in-laws because of the color of their skin or their heritage because of the language barrier. Thus, my parents placed a great emphasize for me to date only Hmong men because I have already establish a language barrier between my parents and I. In my family household, my parents gave my siblings and I different chores base on our gender. My sisters and I were expected to do the cooking, the laundry, and the cleaning in the house, whereas my brothers were expected to take out the trash and do the yard work. As for my parents, both of my parents work in the field. The only difference between my parents is that my dad expects my mom to cook for him. Although, the family message I received from my mom is to be an obedient and pleasing