Shah "Laotian Daughters" 4/25 Journal - Leigh Bagood

In this excerpt from “Laotian Daughters,” Shah describes the political action of teenage Laotian girls in their community to demonstrate the upcoming generation’s role in community activism and in bridging immigrant/refugee politics with ethnic/race-based group politics. She shows the importance of Asian Pacific American youth actively participating in their community to improve their lives. In her conclusion, she also describes this as a way for Asian Pacific American youth to challenge the “model minority” stereotype and perceptions of young people of color as “at risk” for “delinquency, gang involvement, and teenage pregnancy.” I think this is especially important since it is a common stereotype that the API community is quiet and submissive, and unwill to be actively involved in politics. It is crucial to recognize this new generation of children from immigrant families who are taking the initiative to transcend the hindrances of their immigrant parents and shape their own futures. Several of the things that the youth in this excerpt fought for had a lot to do with language. I think in the U.S. we have this stigma around English as a second language, or just not being able to speak English, and we force this English-speaking standard on immigrants as if it’s an easy thing to do. We definitely need to be considerate towards students in this sense since you can’t expect people to learn anything if they’re having trouble understanding the language it’s being taught in in the first place. And as many young people of color from immigrant families grow up in poor communities, it’s important to pay extra attention to those who can’t help their circumstances.

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