Listen to this song:
In case you missed it, here are the lyrics:
“30 Hmongs in a House”
No room for a couch
Cause we sleep on the floor
One big group of Vangs
Hmong family of twenty-four
Kids work in St. Paul
Hang out at the mall
Cause I know they dwell so well
Thirty Hmongs in a house
Hmongs get pregnant early
First baby at 16
Seven kids by 23
Over the hill by 30
Like sardines they live
Packed in a two-room house with the kids
But you know they age quite well
They be Hmongs
Source: http://www.avclub.com/twincities/articles/now-you-can-sing-along-to-kdwbs-hmong-parody,53924/
Funny right? I mean, it is a parody poking fun at Hmong people so shouldn’t it be funny? Well, that's what Steve O thought. Unfortunately, or should I say fortunately, the reactions appeared more like "WHAT THE HECK!" It was not funny to many Hmong, supporters of diversity and anti-racists organizations and groups. After this aired, many Hmong leaders and activists took action to challenge the demeaning and stereotyping song by engaging community leaders and organizing a protest against the radio station. In response to these actions against this perpetuation of racism, a couple of large advertisers such as “HealthPartners and AT&T say they didn't see the humor in the parody song ‘Thirty Hmongs in a House,’ and are pulling their ads from the radio station in St. Louis Park” (Minnesota Public Radio). They voiced their concerns stating they do not support such business partners who engages in discrimination or hate behavior.
Sung on KWBD “Dave Ryan in the Morning Show” radio broadcast by “Steve O” LaTart on March 22, 2011, the parody became a controversial and significant part of KWBD radio broadcast. Due to the retraction of advertisers along with some loyal listeners and external pressures, the morning show apologized a few times: once on air and a few times by a facebook post on their page. The apology posted on facebook read:
Our listeners understand that The Dave Ryan in the Morning show is a comedy show meant to entertain, and that much of its content is parody. While we've received positive feedback from many Hmong listeners who let us know that they found the song in question very humorous, we apologize to anyone we may have inadvertently offended, as this was never our intent. (twincities)
Many people did not accept this apology because they believed it holds no sincerity at all and I totally agree with them. Just to point out an obvious reason why many believe so, KDWB does not acknowledge the fact that it affected and damaged many people directly and indirectly. They even boasted about receiving positive feedbacks from many Hmong listeners in attempt to reduce the negativity emanating from their “parody” instead of just straight up apologizing genuinely. It would be similar to an individual beating up another individual and it would be fine because others enjoyed it. What the heck! Doesn’t make any sense at all right?
So then you may wonder what many of us are so angry about. All I will say is whether or not the intentions aimed at creating humor, it definitely also created social consequences that many Hmong will continue to face throughout their lives due to the fact the song portrayed Hmong not as humans but wild, stupid animals/fishes. Steve O can argue that he believes in diversity and did not intend to hurt anyone but it still demonstrates that he possesses a disparaging view towards Hmong. This song only serves to perpetuate and promote these demeaning views into the heads of kids, teenagers, students, adults and etc. and Steve O serves as a perfect example of this with this song. Thus if we let this song go unchallenged it will only continue to negatively impact Hmong people. It doesn’t matter if you think the stereotype is true or if you think Hmong are too sensitive or if you believe it will only affect us if we let it. The point is this issue points a finger at the Hmong people and degrades them without ever trying to understand who they are as Hmong, their history and the institutions imposed by the United States which “inadvertently“ affected many minority by placing them in a subordinate position to white skin people.
Racism is a social construction and Dave Ryan in the Morning Show is the constructer. If we let this construction continue, it will continue to build right over and on top of us. Then when you notice people walking over you, taking away your resources for the construction, pushing you aside to continue making the construction, and disregarding your ideas about the construction, you’ll try to bring the construction down but by then it might not even be possible. Even if you succeed in bringing down the construction, people will always know and remember it was there and it’ll continue to be in the heads of people for a very long time. But if you prevent the construction when it is in the early stages, less will know about it and not remember much about it so the construction will die away sooner. That, I believe, is what many of us are trying to do. Although I do realize that other constructions have been already built, that's why we have people like Steve O, and thus we may just be stopping one in progress, but I hope no such incidents occur again. I'm also glad that KDWB took the invitation to resolve this issue with the local community.
Sources:
· http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/cities/archive/2011/04/healthpartners-and-att-pull-ad-from-kdwb-after-hmong-parody-song.shtml
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