The chapter of Whose Community
is it Anyways? The Case of Madison Nguyen reveals two opposing sides of the
overseas Vietnamese community and the new generational Vietnamese youths. From
the chapter, feelings of the past in terms of war, displacement, communism, the
fall of Saigon, losing a homeland, and many more factors have caused the
relocation of many Vietnamese communities to move out of their homes into foreign
communities abroad. Through these many connections to Vietnam and within the
older generation of those who remembered, communism was overly resented, hated,
and protested against as seen with the case of Madison Nguyen and the issue
revolving around the naming of a center to Little Saigon. Because her
sentiments were not synonymous with the majority of the anti-communists
Vietnamese communities, many called her a communist and had protested against
her during her election for council. What is more is how within the Vietnamese
community, if one were to dialogue about communism or hang up a picture of Ho
Chi Minh as revealed in the video watched in class, they will be targeted,
branded, and harassed as a traitors. So it is interesting how even being within
a community, one has to be careful of their own actions, especially for the
Vietnamese community presented in the chapter as there are clearly lines of
division among the older generation and the younger generation.
Question: As taken
from the conclusion, “the notion that a single ideology can represent a
community…” (Valverde 144) does belonging within a community or even as one is
pre-destined to fit within a community in regards to his/her own race/ethnicity
block our own voice in the making? When we break the mold, as with the case of Madison Nguyen, what options are available in rebuilding this sense of trust once again? And will there ever be one?
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