Title
Urging the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders to act and urge the U.S. Census Bureau to reclassify the Hmong Ethnic Group in all U.S. Census Data products as Southeast Asian.
Body
WHEREAS, the U.S. Census Bureau has misclassified the Hmong ethnic group under the East Asian regional group in their Data Products titled the 2020 Census State Redistricting Summary File and the upcoming Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics Proof of Concept; and
WHEREAS, the Hmong diaspora transgresses several states and continents thus resulting in a shared refugee experience with many ethnic groups across Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, who continue to endure the traumas of the Vietnam War in their adjustments to new societies today; and
WHEREAS, the Hmong are set apart from other Southeast Asian refugee groups because of their involvement in the Secret War during the Vietnam War, which was an act of resistance against militarized violence dating back to their ethnic persecution led by the Qing dynasty in China; and
WHEREAS, misclassifying the Hmong as East Asian not only strips them of this unique experience, but also invalidates their sociopolitical identities, as the Hmong are not tied to a geographical location and have no nation-state; and
WHEREAS, the Saint Paul City Council acknowledges that the City of St. Paul is now home to 11.43% of the total 1.68% of the Hmong population in the State of Minnesota; and
WHEREAS, Ward 6 is the home also to the highest density of the Hmong community in Minnesota, whom despite the many barriers preventing them from full social and economic participation, are integral business partners to the state’s immigrant economy, while boasting some of the state’s largest historical ethnic enclaves and most beloved small businesses on the East Side of St. Paul; and
WHEREAS, data from the U.S. Census is crucial to the process of which state and local entities allocate fu...
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