Intolerance to "otherness"

As described in ch. 14 "Melting Pot," Hmong people left their mother land to the country of freedom in search of freedom from oppression. They were mistreated as if they were unintelligent because they were not used to social culture and technology in America. In certain cities, Americans mistreated them with violence, with no clear reason to do so, except because they didn't like having foreigners around and having their tax money going to refugees instead of U.S. citizens. Earlier in the class, we had some discussions of otherness. We talked about how people are not comfortable with dealing with unknown and with things that are different from what we are used to. We often do not know how to deal with differences, so we put them into the "other" category and clump together people with disability with people who committed crime.

In the case of Hmong people, they had over two thousands years of rich history. They had tradition and their way of sustaining their heritage. Nations with such old history value their culture very much, it is the case for both Chinese and Korean people as well as Hmong people. Despite being called country of freedom and diversity, America is often intolerant toward immigrants, who posses distinct culture. With economic and technologically power, perhaps Americans makes assumptions that everyone is proud to be an American. In the chapter, the author quoted articles from newspapers and magazines, which used phrases like "Stone Age" or "emerging from the mists of time" to refer to Hmong people. Here, the fact that these people possess rich history and culture does not even come into consideration. Western definition of "cultured" person as technology savvy and up-to-date with U.S. affair cannot be applied these immigrants or refugees who grew up in completely different social setting.

When pilgrims from Western Europe seeking refuge came over to America, they too were foreigners. In the eyes of Native Americans, these immigrants probably looked strange and at times barbaric. In one of my English class, we talked about cultural salad bowl versus melting pot. In the early history of migration to America, U.S. was a cultural salad bowl, where different national and ethnic culture was preserved. However, at some point, those who move to this country are silently forced to join the melting pot in order not to be excluded from the society.