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.
