Oracle Online

There are four Asian student groups working at Hamline: APAC, the Hmong Student Association, Students of South Asia, and Students for a Free Tibet. Of these groups, the majority of members are of Asian descent. In the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), 15 percent identify themselves as students of color, and of this percentage, 31 percent are Asian. This breaks down to approximately 120 Asian Hamline students.

Minnesota has one of the three largest Hmong populations of any state. New communties are being created at an rapid rate. Yet this has caused some unrest within existing communities. “In the National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum, we have a push and pull between people who really believe in the American dream and people who struggle as the minority,” said Lyfoung. “We struggle with the balance between staying true to our culture and being assimilated and functional to our community. Cultural preservation is an important facet of any diasporatic group. Learning the new culture, whether or not one chooses to participate, is just as important to survive in an educated way. It is neccessary to know what one is up against,” said Farheen Hakeem, panelist at “This is My Story” and former Minneapolis mayoral candidate. “You learn the system of coding, being able to walk into a room and be yourself and still know how to talk to [others] is part of the Asian experience.”

As any insider to a culture may know, there are many stereotypes in place that do not seem to invoke racialism at first glance. “If you are humble or quiet, then people think you don’t have abliltyčyou just communicate differently,” Lyfoung explains. “We see people who seem displaced and helpless, but we don’t realize how rich their lives have been and how much strength of character it took just to get here.”

Another problem with these classifications, especially to Hakeem, is exotification. In speaking of an unfortunate but commonly held view that Asian women come from forced-sex labor camps or are otherwise lust-filled and sex-obessesed, Hakeem said, “so much of your humanity is stripped away from you with those images.” Hakeem, who grew up in Chicago but whose descendents are from South Asian India, holds onto representations of her culture, such as the head scarf she has been wearing since age 17. “It’s not a game or a decoration, it’s me, and you have to have respect for that.”

Asians of refugee or exchange status have a much different experience than that of the Asian-American who is born in the United States. “I am always proud to be a Chinese woman who happens to live and work in the United States,” said Zhen Wang, Hamline University professor of Chinese/Japanese history. “I have never experienced being a Chinese refugee, but when your education and class is involved in racism...it is very sensitive.” When asked how she’s been treated for the four years she has been in the United States, Wang said, “people are very friendly, so many people are interested in Chinese culture and history, which is fascinating.” Overall, it is a positive respose.

Asians need positive role models, and Asian student organizations at Hamline are striving to produce them. Social justice is not only in the hands of students, but of teachers.

In braving the world of an Asian-American alone, Hakeem “realized how much of my childhood was taken away from me.” It is imperative for each of us to remember that “no matter what color you are, if you see racism you can stop it.”