Cover Photo: InStyle
On June 4, NPR published an article highlighting the precarious position the Hmong American community in St. Paul, Minn. is in as members of the Asian American community who are perceived to be more privileged than they are solely because they are Asian. The article raised the issue of Hmong Americans being painted by a broad brush, and their specific issues were not being addressed. The source of contention is with mixed reactions to the Hmong American ex-police officer Tou Thao, who, with two other cops were complicit in the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of former officer Derek Chauvin. What I took issue with is the article asserting that the tension between the Black and Asian communities stemmed from the 1992 Rodney King Riots in South Central Los Angeles. The tension that exists between these two communities was exacerbated in the 1990s, but it did not originate then. That was a time where the Black community was expressing their anger for their mistreatment at not just the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department, but in addition to the shop owners who operated in their neighborhoods and respected their dollars, but not the actual people.
To get to the heart of this tension, let’s start from the beginning. Since 1619, Black people have been relegated to the lowest rungs of society in what would become this country. In the construction of the American identity, the enslaved Africans, and later African Americans, were used as an opposing force as a way for white Americans to propel themselves as superior in the hierarchy of the country. Throughout the nineteenth century, America saw diverse peoples beginning to immigrate in large numbers. Legal immigration suddenly became a concern so when the Irish, Chinese and Italians came over, they were perceived to be a threat to the established order at that time. The white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants that were already generations established in the young United States of America viewed these groups to be disruptive (for religious and ethnic reasons) and thus, there were periods of discrimination (some longer than others) these groups faced while trying to gain their footing in this country. One of those ways was to establish themselves as separate from Black people and blackness in general. “Blackness” being the opposite to the construct of “whiteness”. Black people in America already had the reputation as being the opposite of everything that was “American,” so as a way assimilate, these groups had to avoid being too closely associated with Black people, and “blackness”. To relate it back to present and the relationship between the Black and Asian communities, I just want to make clear that 1992 was just a pot boiling over; things were simmering for a while. During this time journalists of color, particularly Black journalists demand that more objective reporting be conducted when covering racism, stemming this rift between these two communities resulting from the L.A. Riots is not only untrue, but is extremely misleading.
There are a myriad of structural and sociological explanations why a group of people entering into America, seeing the group who has been here for generations with all of the country’s “equal opportunities” and not understanding why the group has not been able to elevate themselves in society. It becomes easy to demonize that group as “lazy” and “undeserving”. Black people are one of the only groups who have not been able to achieve a level of success and upward mobility for very long (see: Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 and Rosewood Massacre in 1923) because there are structural obstacles that see that we do not advance and close the gaps between us and everyone else. One can only be considered dominant if someone else is subordinate. We are the opposing force comparable to when determining what not be, and it bleeds over into various areas of American life. That is why I took issue with the NPR article, and other articles incorrectly attributing the tension that exists between the Black and Hmong communities. Black people have been gas-lit enough into thinking that the structural inequities we face are just a result of us not “trying hard enough”. Another step in the right direction of Black and Asian communities creating a more cohesive relationship is full and total transparency. As the head of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders in St. Paul, Minnesota said in the NPR article, there is bound to be tension in a community that sees extremely limited resources. But we should be more concerned with punching up together—to demand that all of our communities are given the adequate resources to accommodate everyone—not each other.
Switching gears, I do recognize that some members of this community show solidarity with the struggles of Black Americans, seeing a kindred struggle for adequate resources and equality. There are notable organizations like the Massachusetts chapter of the Asian American Commission who have released statements in support of the movement for Black Lives. I appreciate these organizations and activists releasing these statements in support of the movement.
