Yesterday I spent some time talking to a local children’s mental health leader about an issue we both care alot about. And I wondered today if those of you here at the pond could give me some advice about an issue that blends sexism, racism, and civil liberties – although not in a way we usually hear about.
In order to set up the question, I’ll have to start with a little background. For the last 25 years, St. Paul has been one of the main destinations for a group of refugees from Laos known as Hmong. Prior to coming to the US, they had inhabited the mountain territories of Laos and practiced a “slash and burn” kind of agriculture in order to survive there.
The road to adjustment for the Hmong in our community has been long and hard. But there are some signs of success for many in the second and third generation. But one of the concerns that has mostly gone unnoticed by the general public is that a large number of girls are experiencing early pregnancies, chronically running away from home, dropping out of school and getting involved in various avenues of the sex trade.
In my professional life, I spent almost a year talking and listening to some of the emerging young Hmong women leaders in this community and learned from them that the depth of misogyny in their culture is truly alarming. An example of that came from a group of a dozen 20-30-something Hmong women who told me that the root of some of these problems with Hmong girls was sexual assault. When I asked them to explain how serious this problem is in their community, they said that it had happened to all of them. Seems its a sort or “right of passage” for 11-12 year old girls to be assaulted by an older man. I also learned that Hmong girls are never taught any resistance skills, but are merely told to do what others (especially their elders) tell them to do. There is no concept in the culture of the kinds of things we’ve learned to teach our kids about not trusting strangers. All of this discounting, trauma and vulnerability make these girls easy prey for sexual predators and the sex trade.
What I learned yesterday is that a group of representatives from law enforcement and our court system are organizing to try to “help” these Hmong girls who have come to their attention because of their involvement in the sex trade. And how are they doing that? They are sending cops out to pick up the girls and take them to a program at a hospital where they receive a gynecological exam, are interviewed for their complete sexual history and are put on birth control (a shot of depo provera). This information on sexual history is then sent back to the police and court system to prosecute their “pimps.” Supposedly these girls have given their permission for this, but if they don’t cooperate, they are charged in court (runaway, prostitution, etc).
I hate what’s happening to these girls in their families and communities and I also hate what our law enforcement systems are doing to them. But there is no one speaking up for them. The powerful in the Hmong community are all men who use both their power and charges of “racism” to silence anyone who tries to address the root causes of this problem. And our law enforcement folks are just barreling in with heavy handed tactics without bothering to listen and learn about those root causes. But ultimately I feel that it will have to be the Hmong women in this community who take this on. I hope that is not just my lack of courage speaking, but I’m not sure a white woman can be the spokesperson for an issue like this. I know that I can reach out to individual Hmong girls affected by all of this, but I’m not sure I have the ability to challenge the system that creates the problem. The person I talked to yesterday has a position of some authority in this community and plans to try to challenge the law enforcement tactics. I’m not sure it will change anything, but at least our opinion on this will be heard.
So, what do you ponders think? Am I taking the prudent course of action – or am I being a coward? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
This is certainly not an area where I have any expertise but it seems to me that your reluctance to take a leadership role makes sense. It seems to me that you won’t be able to “win” — as an outsider whatever you say is going to be both examined by the Hmong in the minutest detail for patronizing attitudes and missteps in cultural understanding and seen as non-authoritative by the non-Hmong.
OTOH, you could be a great resource for them since you have years of dealing with public agencies and undoubtedly know a tremendous amount about how to negotiate and navigate through bureaucracy.
If you were a coward, you’d be pretending the problem doesn”t exist, not out there learning all you can about it, and wanting to lend your help! Prudence is what I see you exercising here.
The rest of my thoughts went right toward the question of how can you..and how can existing women advocacy groups here, assist, empower support these young Hmong women leaders? It’s pretty clear the men on all side of this are not the ones who wil lcome up with any effective way of helping these young girls, and could easily make their lives a lot worse than they are.
It will be the women, primarily the women leaders of that culture, who are going to have to do the long hard work this will take. I’d be aksing tbhem what they need..how we can help them..etc.
my opinion, for what it’s worth….
I think the most important thing you can do is work with individuals in the Hmong community. I believe that it will be mostly up to the Hmong to change their own ways from within.
The other most important thing to do is what you are doing now: tell all your fellow citizens about the problem, too. It is up to the broader community to fix what the broader community is doing wrong. If they don’t know that something is wrong it won’t be fixed.
In other words, help the Hmong personally and directly, but don’t speak ‘for them’ or at them. Speak about them to your American friends and work for them in your wider community (i.e. you can be an advocate for the Hmong on the police issues, because your broader community is doing something wrong), but let them speak for themselves and to one another. You could organize, but not speak during, Hmong events. Also, you could help some of them become more effective speakers by sponsoring some public speaking workshops for them, thereby enabling them to speak more effectively for themselves.
Again, my humble opinions, just some suggestions, maybe an appropriate way to ‘split the baby’ somewhat.
Also, I’m interested in your opinion of exactly what the police should or should not be doing. I’m disturbed about most details of their approach, but I wonder what you see as their most appropriate means of response. I think you would need to give the police some specifics about how to change their approach. I don’t think it will be possible to tell them to ignore the problem or to just look the other way, nor do I think they should. They should certainly go after the pimps, for example. And an offer of a free medical exam, not coerced, seems appropriate. The police need some thoughtful and appropriate suggestions from someone who sees and understands the problems. Perhaps the police could refer the victims to a ‘crisis program’ that would treat them more appropriately. Perhaps you could help start such a program specifically for them with the involvement of concerned members of their own community.
My thanks to Andi, Scribe and Blueneck for your wise words. I struggle so much with this because the realities of what are happening make me want to SCREAM, but there is a voice inside that keeps telling me to take a more prudent approach. I usually listen to that voice inside, but I just needed to put the conflict out there and make sure it was wisdom and not fear.
In terms of your question Blueneck about what law enforcement could do – I think you might have put the most plausible answer out there yourself. The person I talked to on Friday suggested that what is needed is a short-term crisis shelter for these girls that provided them with some culturally specific counseling and medical treatment. We could do that, but it will take some funding, which is in short supply in our community right now. But perhpas we can find some partners who’ll work with us on that.
Thank you for your concern and involvement and thank you for asking for help when you think you might need it. I don’t proclaim, nor do the others who have responded, to know the answers. But I believe it is always a good idea to seek outside opinions on difficult issues. I commend you for your thoughtfulness and attentiveness.