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Hmong Community Conversations About Racism

Facing Race Idea Challenge

Hmong Community Conversations About Racism

Hmong people account for one of the newest groups of Minnesotans. Having been in the U.S. for more than 30 years now, the Hmong have experienced successes, changes and setbacks -- not much different from what other immigrant groups experienced during their first few decades in this country. A recent racist parody song that aired on KDWB brought together Hmong and non-Hmong communities who worked to hold the radio station accountable for the song, "30 Hmongs in a House," which aired March 22, 2011. As a result of this community led and driven organizing campaign, KDWB issued apologies on the air and in a Hmong newspaper, broadcast public service announcements and an interview with a Hmong veteran, African American ally and a young Hmong woman, and invited the community to submit names of a qualified Hmong individual to serve on the Clear Channel local advisory board. While this shows the power of what the community can do in alliance to directly challenge racism, the most profound impact has been to educate individuals about prejudice and structural racism, and to discuss internalized racial oppression. While CAAR worked to address the KDWB incident this year, we took note of the need to increase the capacity of our immigrant communities to lead and support anti-racism initiatives. Our immigrant communities must have space and time to explore and have important conversations about what it means to be a person of color, white privilege and internalized racism. For our united communities to be able to dismantle racism, we must first begin by helping each other heal and understand. The Hmong community has never had this dedicated space and time. In this proposal, CAAR will work across generations and genders in the Hmong community to provide capacity building. This will serve as a foundation for the Hmong community to begin addressing structural racism. It will also provide a model that can be replicated by other immigrant communities facing the same struggle.

Contributor

Boa Lee
2011-06-03 10:06
0 Comments

This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Facing Race Idea Challenge competition.

About You

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About You

First Name

Boa

Last Name

Lee

City

Saint Paul

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Your Idea

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Title or name of your idea

Hmong Community Conversations About Racism

Describe your idea

Hmong people account for one of the newest groups of Minnesotans. Having been in the U.S. for more than 30 years now, the Hmong have experienced successes, changes and setbacks -- not much different from what other immigrant groups experienced during their first few decades in this country. A recent racist parody song that aired on KDWB brought together Hmong and non-Hmong communities who worked to hold the radio station accountable for the song, "30 Hmongs in a House," which aired March 22, 2011. As a result of this community led and driven organizing campaign, KDWB issued apologies on the air and in a Hmong newspaper, broadcast public service announcements and an interview with a Hmong veteran, African American ally and a young Hmong woman, and invited the community to submit names of a qualified Hmong individual to serve on the Clear Channel local advisory board. While this shows the power of what the community can do in alliance to directly challenge racism, the most profound impact has been to educate individuals about prejudice and structural racism, and to discuss internalized racial oppression. While CAAR worked to address the KDWB incident this year, we took note of the need to increase the capacity of our immigrant communities to lead and support anti-racism initiatives. Our immigrant communities must have space and time to explore and have important conversations about what it means to be a person of color, white privilege and internalized racism. For our united communities to be able to dismantle racism, we must first begin by helping each other heal and understand. The Hmong community has never had this dedicated space and time. In this proposal, CAAR will work across generations and genders in the Hmong community to provide capacity building. This will serve as a foundation for the Hmong community to begin addressing structural racism. It will also provide a model that can be replicated by other immigrant communities facing the same struggle.

Innovation

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How does your idea help reduce racism in an innovative way? An innovation may be a completely new approach, an expansion of a proven one or a new twist on existing solutions

Few anti racism or racial equity trainings are uniquely geared towards immigrant groups, esp. groups like the Hmong who are at a unique point in their history. The Hmong in Minnesota number over 70,000. The largest concentration is here in the Twin Cities. Our approach is innovative because it marks the first large scale effort to address internalized racism and oppression in the Hmong community and it does so across age, gender, class, education and language. We believe this model will benefit other recent Minnesota immigrant groups who will likely face (or currently are facing) the same struggle.

We will research and borrow currently effective models of conversation circles and tailor it to the Hmong community. We will begin this project by interviewing Hmong leaders and community members about the issue (one on one) about what should be done, their experiences and other ideas. The information collected from these interviews will inform our curriculum and community conversations project. Following that, several larger community conversations (approx. 4-5 gatherings with 10-200 people each) will occur over several months. From these conversations, we will continue to work with a core group of Hmong individuals to develop suggested talking points and action plans to address the problem of internal oppression and racism, including tailoring anti racism and anti internal racism training for the Hmong community. All of this work will be well documented and shared at the end with other groups.

Impact

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Tell us how racism is affecting your community. Community may be defined broadly

During the KDWB campaign, a small minority of those most vocally and adamantly opposed CAAR's work were young Hmong Americans. Internalized racism and oppression negatively impacts communities that are already being exploited and dominated. It leads to greater conflict among and between people of the same ethnicity and culture and makes the work to dismantle racism even more difficult. CAAR's vision of a future and society free of racism seeks for our communities to be united. That unity must also exist among the impacted racial communities we work with and in. As the Hmong have progressed, recognition and knowledge of the Hmong history and culture is becoming lost and so too has the story of the struggles the Hmong faced and still face today. It is time to discuss and stem the kind of self destructive behavior and actions that divide and undermine our Hmong and immigrant communities.

How does your idea bring people together to address racism in your community?

This year-long work will bring together Hmong leaders, community members, parents, students, wealthy and poor, and elders and youth. It will mark the first time that these groups work together to address racism and internalized oppression.

Past CAAR meetings and events have attracted between 12 to over 200 people at one time. We will host 4-5 community gatherings on this subject, as well as work with a core group of Hmong leaders and community members -- ensuring the impacted community is the one leading this work.

Sustainability

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How will you use $2,500 to fully implement your idea?

The $2,500 grant will supplement CAAR's small budget to allow us to host community discussions/round-tables, panels and events around the topic of racism and internalized oppression in the Hmong community. It will be used to pay for materials, meeting space, refreshments, speakers, and the creation of a unique curriculum for Hmong and immigrant communities. As a grassroots, volunteer driven ad hoc group, CAAR has no overhead expenses so the grant will be entirely dedicated to this work.

What do you hope others might learn from your idea?

We know that there are many other immigrant groups that are experiencing the same kind of internalized racism and oppression that the Hmong are. We will work with the community to have these conversations and create the work plan and curriculum because we believe the community impacted knows best how to address these issues. By documenting our work and sharing it with others, we hope that it will help other groups address the internalized racism occurring in their community.

100 weeks ago Hmong Community Conversations About Racism has been chosen as a finalist in Facing Race Idea Challenge.
103 weeks ago Boa Lee updated this Competition Entry.
103 weeks ago Boa Lee updated this Competition Entry.
103 weeks ago Boa Lee updated this Competition Entry.
103 weeks ago Boa Lee submitted this idea.

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