Transcripts

TOU GER XIONG: I would say number one, the racism. The struggle with the race issue here, dealing with not being able to fit in, the assimilation process, that would be the hard thing. The other thing that strikes me the most is also having to let go of some of the cultural things that were important to my cultural identity or to my Hmong side.

Coming here, I know that when I was younger, I had a hard time fitting in just because phenotypically, on the outside, I did not look like the rest of the kids in my classroom. My skin color is different. My hair color is different. My nose and my eyes are shaped differently.

And so there's that inferiority complex where I thought maybe I'm not as good as the white kids. I didn't have the support I need to really-- or the encouragement from my parents because they didn't know English. And they didn't understand the American culture to even support me to how to be a productive or healthy human being in the school setting or outside of the house. So that was hard.

JOHN RABE: You wear glasses. I wear contacts. Maybe this is an analogy that works. At some point, a lot of people who wear glasses-- who don't wear glasses but need glasses get glasses, and they can suddenly see. They suddenly realize there's leaves on the trees or there's blades of grass or something like that-- things are clear.

I can imagine as my own experience in elementary school, that was kind of hazy. I didn't know what the cultural rules were and stuff, and I was born in the United States. Was there a time for you when you suddenly realized, oh, this is what's happening?

TOU GER XIONG: I think there was, right around junior high, high school. At the beginning of my high school, I started hanging out-- I've always been fortunate to have gone to a school where there are lots of students from many different backgrounds. But especially in high school, I started getting more involved. I started an Asian club at our high school.

And we started doing more cultural events that promote a cultural awareness that showed people what we were all about and told people about our history and our culture. So that, for me, was a self-esteem boost. And again, maybe to use your analogy, it was maybe my process of putting on the eyeglasses to say, wow, I have so many things to be proud of, whereas before, I saw myself, like you said, labeled as an immigrant, an alien, a refugee, or my parents don't speak English, we live in public housing, we live on welfare.

JOHN RABE: We're getting close to the November elections.

TOU GER XIONG: OK.

JOHN RABE: Are you a citizen?

TOU GER XIONG: Yeah.

JOHN RABE: OK. How long?

TOU GER XIONG: When I was 18, I went to get naturalized. And then I've been a citizen since 1992.

JOHN RABE: Will you vote?

TOU GER XIONG: Of course, I'm going to vote. Oh, yeah.

JOHN RABE: That's not a given in the United States.

TOU GER XIONG: Yeah.

JOHN RABE: All right. So, have you been following this year's, let's just say, this year's campaigns? And if so, what have you heard that speaks to you as a person born in Laos and came to the United States?

TOU GER XIONG: I would say right now, the Hmong community-- and I know I don't speak for the entire Hmong community just because we're very diverse just within the Hmong community. And recently, there's been divisions politically. There's been a smaller group of Hmong Republicans. And also, there's still the Hmong DFL caucus. And then there's still a large population who are still not citizens, are still not voting members, who do want to play a role in politics but can't. And personally, I'm going to go Clinton-Gore.

I'm going to go with the Clinton-Gore ticket. And I say this because traditionally, just being-- first of all, you have to look at the Hmong community in that we're a minority group in the United States. Many of us are just, again, as an ethnic community, I think, we're still one of the poorest ethnic communities in terms of education, employment, and having the services to meet the needs of the community.

So in that way, traditionally also, to the best of my knowledge, I've observed that the Democratic Party has been most generous in terms of its programs and its policy, aid in communities, like the Hmong community. And I know that in the past, had it not been for some of these programs, I don't think we'd be here where we are today as an ethnic community, as immigrant community in the United States, particularly here in Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and also throughout the country, too. So I'm going to go with the Clinton-Gore ticket just because--

JOHN RABE: That's on a national level.

TOU GER XIONG: That's on a national level.

JOHN RABE: What about on the local level or at the state level, are you hearing anything that addresses what you want to hear?

TOU GER XIONG: Recently, the welfare reform bill that President Clinton signed will have a drastic impact on the Hmong community. Right now, that's a big issue in the community. The other hot-button issue that's affecting the Hmong community right now is also the immigration issue, which I guess is related to the welfare reform just because many of the Hmong, they're resident alien, meaning they're not illegal aliens, but they're here-- they're permanent residents.

But because they're permanent residents, they're not yet citizens. They won't be eligible for some of the programs that they're now enrolled in being AFDC and some health care issues and some AFDC and medical assistance, that sort of thing. So--

JOHN RABE: A lot of people are now rushing to become citizens. So--

TOU GER XIONG: They're rushing to become citizens. And so that's going to impact my-- and this affects both my mom and my dad, too. So if you're asking maybe how does this relate to me, I have many family members and relatives and distant relatives who will be impacted personally by some of these policies.

JOHN RABE: What about US foreign policy in, say, Southeast Asia, do you follow that?

TOU GER XIONG: Not much, but the foreign policies that I do follow are particularly with Southeast Asia. I know that there's been some issues with the United Nations and also with the refugee camps in Thailand, whereas I know recently, the United States had to-- Congress were renegotiating on whether or not to close those camps with the Thai officials and also with the Laotian government and whether to repatriate the Hmong refugees who are now in Thailand because it's been 20 years since the war is over. And now, political tension, I guess, has been reconciled or something. And now, they want to move a lot of the Hmong refugees back.

That personally affects my family and also a lot of the families that-- a lot of Hmong families here just because I think when families separate, when one family moves to another country due to war or whatever, the families are still very close. And they still keep in touch. And they still have a bond there.

And so policies like this effect the Hmong community just because it's forcing our families-- I guess it's directing our families where to go. And it's dictating where we should live and whether or not we can communicate with each other. So it's determining how we interact with-- how we communicate with our relatives.