Don’t Lump Them Altogether

As I was driving to work this morning, radio talk show personality Chris Baker was commenting about the fight and stabbing at the Hmong New Year at the River Centre in St. Paul over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Chris Baker wondered aloud on his program “why these people can’t get their crap together?” and “why whenever they have such an event there is trouble?” As I told Mr. Baker in an email, his comments/questions are valid—except they appear to me (as the husband of a Hmong woman), to be from someone from the outside looking in.

My Hmong in-laws are good people. They are not gangsters or outlaws; nor are they personally responsible for those in their community (or culture) who are. My father-in-law may be one of the most moral people I have ever met.

That said, there are certainly people within the Hmong community who have gang affiliations or who may be dishonest. These people, in my opinion, most often prey upon other Hmong people and gain their trust by virtue of being Hmong themselves.

While I do believe that organizations within this particular community have a responsibility to help to educate the people on how to live and follow the rules of their new country, I must draw the line at pointing a finger randomly at a whole group of people and levying the accusation that they (as Mr. Baker said) should “get their crap together!”

I agree that perhaps the problem is most effectively addressed from within the community, but to include my Hmong family with the likes of those who started the fight Saturday night is preposterous. Also preposterous are Mr. Baker’s comments that “they shouldn’t bring that stuff here” (from their former countries, which by-the-way is primarily Laos). When "we" are talking about youth gangs, the Hmong got that bad idea right here in the good old U.S.A.

I have worked with at risk groups for about a decade. Currently I work at an educational institution that specializes in at risk teens. There is a problem with the “glorification” of street, gang and prison culture among our youth. This is a problem throughout our society—but is especially prevalent among groups struggling with economic issues. Immigrants and minorities are more likely to be recruited by gangs—as are “troubled” teens.

In my parting note, I will say that I attended the Hmong New Year at the River Centre a couple of years ago. There is a private security company screening everyone who comes through with hand-held wands. My question would be how did someone get knives through? When I went through this process and observed it, it seemed that the screeners were more interested in collecting everyone’s cigarettes and contraband than they were in screening for weapons. That, however, is just my own opinion.