6/1


Nam’s father reminds me of my own parents in the sense that neither party want to talk about the past. My parents had to live through the Khmer Rouge and they rarely talk about it and because of that I actually don’t know much about the Khmer Rouge. Most of what I know is from doing my own research and google. Throughout the years I learned that a many Khmer refugees have PTSD from the genocide which makes the traumatic event difficult to talk about. I’m sure this includes my parents. My family lives in Redding which is a predominantly white area. There are few people of color. If my parents have a chat with someone for more than a few minutes it often leads to them asking my parents “Where are you from?” followed by “Why did you move here?” which I can tell shifts the mood of my parents. My mom gets goosebumps when she hears the words “killing fields” but when my dad hears those words he is furious. The topic is very triggering. This article shows that many Southeast Asians want to forget about the past and there’s nothing wrong with that since it’s a coping mechanism.

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