As the University community continues to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling,
people within the Southeast Asian community voiced their concerns
last night about the University’s refusal to recognize them
as underrepresented minorities.

Students gathered in the Residential College Auditorium in East
Quad at an event sponsored by the Hmong American Student
Association and the United Asian American Organizations.

Keynote speaker Bo Thao, director of Hmong National Development
argued that University racial policies are too broad-brush and
despite the underrepresentation of Southeast Asians within the
University community. Thao said according to the U.S. Census there
are 200,000 Hmong Americans, an ethnic group from Southeast Asia,
in the US. But she said the population is closer to 300,000.

“It is the responsibility of policymakers that all groups
have the same opportunities,” Thao said. “Data and
statistics make it look like Asians are doing very well, but if you
look at subpopulations (such as Southeast Asians), you find that
some of these groups are very poor, even more so than the
communities of color we hear about,” she added.

Thao said the median family income for Asian Americans and
Pacific Americans is $57,874, nearly $8,000 higher than the U.S.
average. But among Hmong Americans the median family income is
$32,224, and the average family size is seven or more people. That
means the average per capita income for Hmong Americans is $6,613,
nearly $15,000 less than the national average.

Students voiced mixed opinions about the event, some saying they
are happy with current racial policies, others calling for
change.

LSA sophomore Laura Davies, a member of Young Americans for
Freedom, said she opposed grouping people by their race of
ethnicity. “We shouldn’t be granting preference to any
race … (House Resolution 333) shows the hypocrisy of
defining who is a minority and who isn’t — it’s
rather arbitrary,” she said, referring to a current bill
under consideration to allocate funding to institutions with a 10
percent Asian American enrollment.

LSA junior Pete Woiwode was skeptical about current University
policies. “The perception of race and being Asian is so
cut-and-dry, so to be confronted with an issue that is so
underrepresented in our public consciousness is really important
and challenging and presents a lot of issues that should be talked
about more,” Woiwode said.

— Additional reporting by Ryan Vlcko, Daily Staff
Reporter