When culture implies deficit: placing race at the center of Hmong American education

Abstract

There is a need for a critical race analysis of Hmong American education that places race and racism at the center of analysis, highlights Whiteness as property and recognizes the fluid and situated racialization of Hmong American students. Majoritarian explanations of inequities in Hmong American education often describe Hmong American student and family experiences in terms of ‘culture clash’ or profound cultural difference, thereby obscuring the ways in which Hmong American communities have been racialized as refugees, as Southeast Asians, and as ‘Blackened’ and gendered low income communities of color. Further, these racializing processes significantly impact the ways in which Hmong American students are situated and shaped by Whiteness as property within schools.

Keywords:

• critical race theory
• Hmong American education
• race and culture

Notes

1. I would like to acknowledge that there are both White Hmong (Hmoob Dawb) and Green Mong (Moob Ntsuab) within Hmong American communities. My choice to use ‘Hmong’ to represent Hmong communities within the United States is done for readability, and is not intended to exclude Green Mong communities.

2. All names are pseudonyms.