The Most Unknown and Least Wanted; the Cambodian A
Written By alonelyheartboy | Comment?(Submit | Read )

Tues February 21st 2006

The Cambodian youth in America are being neglected just as their country was during the American War in Southeast Asia. Most Americans neglect the fact that Cambodia was in the cross fire while the United States was fighting a war in Vietnam. According to Frontline, roughly 150,000 Cambodian civilians died in American's bombing at the Cambodia-Vietnam border (Gibson 2). In Iraq today, an unofficial figure of civilian death from iraqibodycount.com is only about 30,000. 150,000 civilian's death was not big enough for the American to care. Half a decade later, nearly 2.5 million died in the hands of the Khmer Rouge and still America stays quiet. Ironically though, "some antiwar activists questioned the accuracy of these reports, claiming that they were exaggerations meant to discredit the new Communist regime" (Gibson 3). Cambodian parents and youth wonder if all that has happened did not get American to care, then why would the American government care about a group of uneducated Cambodians in America. Cambodian refugees came to the United States to find a better future for themselves and their children, but now they are wondering why their children are joining gangs instead of going to colleges.
To understand the Cambodian youth in America, one has to understand the background of Cambodia and its violent history. The Central Intelligence Agency world fact book estimated that in Cambodia, over 90% of their citizens are of the ethnicity Khmer (Cambodia.2). Its major religion is Theravada Buddhism and it is home to the Angkor Wat Temple, which could arguably be the eighth wonder of the world (Cambodia.2). Cambodia has a great history but during the mid to late 20th century, it became a very small and weak country. As Cambodia was dragged into the War by the United States, some considered it only as a sideshow in the Vietnam War (Gibson 3). From Sophia Hanifah's article, she stated that about that time, the extremist Khmer Rouge "Red Cambodian" killed millions of Khmer in Cambodia during their reign in the late 1970's (Hanifah 2). They called it the "Year Zero" because the Khmer Rouge thought of it as a new beginning (Hanifah 2). Due to the Khmer Rough, within a ten year period from 1979 to 1989, nearly 150,000 Khmer immigrated into the United States (Gibson 2).
After arriving in the United States, the Cambodian refugee saw that they have new enemies to fight; prejudices, an unfair social economic class system and a new culture. Cambodian Americans are unlike other Asian because "We are the Asian poor, the very poor. Most Cambodian here were farmers with only four years of education; now they live in urban America" (Zia 191). This frustration is also express through Khmer rapper Prach Ly, rapping in Khmer:
The telephone is cut/ There's letters requesting you to go to court/ To reapply for SSI and Welfare/ We use food stamp to buy food/ When we go to the hospital you have to use Medicare
Prach Ly, "Ah-Yie" from Dalama (2001)
The Cambodian refugee that came here did not know English and was foreign to the American culture. During 1990 "40 percents of Cambodian Americans were below the poverty line" compare to only "33.9 percent of Laotian Americans" (Zia 207).
Coming to the United States for the Cambodian refugee ended their nightmares of the Khmer Rouge but what they did not realize yet is that another nightmare was about to begin. The first difficulty that the immigrants will face is the cultural shock. Most of Cambodia, except for Phnom Penh is mostly rural areas. In an article about Cambodian American's poverty and deportation problem, Kim believes nearly all of the Cambodian refugees "were pushed by the US government into [African American] neighborhoods when they got into the U.S" (2). The first things they will notice are the people that live in these neighborhoods, whom mostly are African Americans and Hispanics. Everyone in Cambodia have about the same skin color. This is their first time seeing a really dark person or a really light person. The elders are having a tough time adjusting to these new types of people. The children themselves have an even harder time because they have to go to school with the other children.
For Cambodian Youth, going to school is their gateway into the gang world. In Cambodian's native tongue, Khmer, there is no word for gang, the closet word to is pak, which literally means group or squad. Most of the reasons for Cambodian youth joining gangs are the same as other ethnicities, "camaraderie, catharsis, protection, and structure" (Birk 4). Though a 15-year-old Cambodian youth says "Ï didn't really join a gang, we just created it" (Lim 3). In the book "Asian American Youth", it claims that one does not have to do certain things to be initiated into a Cambodian gangs, as "youth may often become part of the gang the same way a new person is introduced to a circle of friends" (Lee 226). Although this is the trend, some Cambodian gangs do copy the initiation stage of Latino and Black gangs, such as committing a crime or doing a drug deal. Many Cambodian American youth banded together because they were "victimized in school by some of their non-Cambodian classmates. In the case of Long Beach, most . were Latino youth affiliated with gangs" (Lee 224). From the National Alliance of gang Investigators Association website, it states that the Cambodian gangs that were later form "adopted the dress, slang, nicknames, hand signs and names of Black and Hispanic gangs of the West Coast and Midwest" (Kodluboy 5).
A Cambodian American youth gang is just one of the many ethnic gangs in the United States. Just as other street gangs, Cambodian street gangs "emerge primarily in low-income ethnic minority neighborhood" (Rainbow of Gangs p. 6) Once again, the basis for Cambodian youth gangs are not that different from other ethnic gangs except for the cultural differences. In the past Cambodian gangs were form to protect its member from getting harass from other race, now the Cambodian American youth gangs are not only being threatens by Hispanic and African American gangs but "by other Cambodian or Southeast Asian gangs" (Lee 225).
Cambodians American youth does not have any support to go to when they are being harassed by the other races so the only thing they can do is form their own protection system. The few things that the Cambodian youth can do now are to band together and help protect each other. Other reasons that specifically leads Cambodian American youth to gang life is their and their parents' past experience in Cambodia. During a testimony of four Asian Boyz Street gang members who were charge with a series of murders in 1995 a psychiatrist stated that:
Children who lived through the "capricious, cascading panorama of death" that was the Pol Pot regimes [Khmer Rouge] in Cambodia in the 1970s are more likely to become gang members (Larrubia 1).
Due to the recent violent history of Cambodia, Cambodian American youth sees violence as a plausible way to settle conflicts. When Cambodian youth join gangs they feel that they are apart of their Cambodian culture because of the people they are hanging out with and that they are apart of the American culture because they did not need to obey their parents.
Cambodian youth are stuck in between their Cambodian culture and their American culture. During a workshop that targets Cambodian, Vietnamese and Filipinos youth, they came to agree that what most Cambodian parents and American do not understand is that:
Asian Pacific American teens recognize themselves as Americans first. That many find themselves societal misfits because they "don't look American" have led many Asian pacific American teen to band together with "their own kind." Hence, the birth of a "gang" defined by ethnic commonality. (Lim 2)
Cambodian American youth's Cambodian culture is always in conflict with their American culture. In the book "Asian American Youth", the author describes Cambodian youth as wanting to fit in by "acquiring the clothing styles, mannerisms, and values of their neighbors" (231). The Cambodian American youth are confused as to what value system they should adopt because "at school and on television, they are exposed to values and lifestyles that are in direct contrast to the cultural and economic realities within their homes" (Lee 231). The Khmer rapper Prach Ly raps about his frustration in his song "Resurrect", "I rather be back where I was born then here confused and dazed; I love America...but" (Prach Ly, "Resurrec" From Dalama, 2001). The cultural difference and confusion leads up to disagreement with their parents who wants their children to be "Khmer".
Although most Cambodian youth in gangs may consider themselves American, the one cultural characteristic that they still hold is their respect for the elderly, especially their parents. As Soday Lay puts it in the book "Asian American Youth," "Many gang members live peacefully at home with their parents and, as a gesture that can only be construed as respect, often attempt to keep their gang affiliation hidden" (227). Also, all gang members still call the elder one bong (older brother) or pu (uncle) in the gang just as an one in a Cambodian family addresses their elderly. Respect for the elderly is a very important part of the Cambodian culture, but not showing great devotion to one's children is also another part of the culture.
This part of the culture is a huge conflict with the American culture which is where the Cambodian youth are living in. The part of the culture where parent does not show "overt displays of affection between parent and child in the manner witness on American television" causes Cambodian American youth to "develop the perception that their parents do not love them and complain that their parents criticize them too much" (Lee 228). This also means that Cambodian youth are not allowed to have romantic relations with that of the opposite sex until they are ready to married.
Another conflict within Cambodian American household is the communication between Cambodian American youth and their parents. Communication is very limited because the youth's dominant language is English. The Khmer language is second to them because they go to an American school. In the book "Adolescent Boys", it states:
In contrast to the African American and Latino boys, the Asian American boys in our study reported minimal communication with both of their parents. These boys were reluctant to discuss such things as their romantic relationships, sexuality, bad grades, and friendships because they believed their parents would not "approve," "understand," or "care". (Way 117)
Within the culture of the Khmer people, a wall exists between the parents and their children but now that wall has gotten a whole lot bigger. Not only the culture is different but the language barrier is also a problem.
It is problematic for Cambodian American youth to learn English in school and come home and speak Khmer to their parents. Even though their parents want them to succeed in school; it seems as though their parents are the one holding them back from excelling in school because they are force to speak Khmer at home. Stereotypes such as all Asian are smart does not apply to Cambodian American because a lot of them drop out of high school and become gang members. Because of this and other stereotypes, Cambodian students are picked on by African American and Hispanics children. The children do not go to their parents or the teachers to ask for help because within the Cambodian culture there always has been a sense of not trusting the authority figures.
During the Khmer Rouge, most Cambodian started to not trust the authority. This could be due to their experience with the Khmer Rouge regime, so when an act of violence is committed upon them they "retaliated in the only way they knew how- with violence and intimidation of their own"(Lee 224). Also the current prime minister of Cambodia is a former Khmer Rouge soldier himself. Cambodians who fled their homeland do not trust the authority all the way up to the top. All they can do is turns to themselves and their friends for trust and support, hence the creation of a gang.
Tiny Rascal Gang (TRG) is "the largest and well known Cambodian gang in America" (Lee 224). They would add the word "Khmer" before TRG to emphasize their ethnic origin. Clones of the Khmer TRG are created in nearly every Cambodian neighborhood in America. Cambodian gangs such as the Khmer TRG have save many Cambodian American youth from harassment and beating from other races. Although at first joining gangs offered Cambodian American youth protections and a sense of comfort, there are sides to it that are not very positive such as the violence and drugs that they get into. Many Cambodian gangs have evolved from just protecting their members to committing violence and unlawful acts against others gangs and civilians. If these youth are caught, the outcomes for them are not pleasant. The United States have graciously open up their border to let in Cambodian American to help them escape the torture of Pol Pot but that was all they would do for the Cambodian American. Since many Cambodian American youth are turning to gangs and are causing a lot of trouble, the United States are imposing a new law.
Now after the all that the Cambodian American youth have gone through, the US and the Cambodian government have stuck a deal in 2002 to simply "deport" any Cambodians back to Cambodia who is charge with a felony What the United States government does not realized nor care about is that "the problem is that most of them were babies when they arrived in the United States, and have little knowledge of their ?home country' some never even set foot in Cambodia" (Laidlaw 1). This is another sad outcome for many Cambodian American youth that decides to join gangs and gets involve in criminal activities. Instead of being aided by the United States government, the Cambodians are once again just a ?show' the United States puts on just to make it seems that they are a caring country. Cambodian American youth will no longer be the United States' problem. Any Cambodian refugee caught committing a crime will be deported back to their homeland, ironically still ruled by a former Khmer Rouge soldier Hun Sen. This is sad news for most Cambodian youth because a lot of them are apart of a gang that are involve in a lot of illegal activities.
The Cambodian American youth are a group that is lost in their venture in their American Dream, a dream that goes against their own culture. Most Cambodian gang member realized that being apart of a gang will lead them no where but still they are apart of one. Most gang members don't think they would live past eighteen (Birk 4). Even though they realize this, they still join gangs. The reason for this could be that their mental state was affected by the Khmer Rouge regime and their killing of millions of Khmer people.
Another issue that the Cambodian communities keep in denial is that most Cambodians are suffering from depression. As a culture, they do not believe in such things as mental illnesses. A study shows "nearly two-thirds of the adult in the largest Cambodian refugee community in the United States suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and more then half had major depression"(Cambodian. 1). It is rare for any Cambodian family to go see a psychiatrist to resolve their mental illnesses because they do not believe in such things.
The only hope there is for Cambodian American youth is for them to get out of the urban city life. This is a hard path to follow, probably harder then staying in the gang life. The path of education could lead Cambodian American youth to a safer, brighter future for not just themselves but their future children. Most Cambodian youth have chosen to stay in gangs because of the comfort zone they are in even though it is dangerous.
A handful of Cambodian youth have decided to take the education path; the few lucky ones those are fortunate enough to leave the gang life behind. Those few that left that life behind them walks out alone into a Caucasian world where people stereotype them by the way they dress, speak and even their Khmer names. One could argue that it is easier to stay with a gang and feel safe and comfortable then it is to leave it and be part of another world where you are looked down upon. It could be that most Cambodian youth want to stay in the gang because they are more afraid of the world that is outside their urban city streets then they are afraid of the rival gang. One could fight off a rival gang, but how does one fight off a job rejection, a college rejection, and more importantly the rejection of an American culture that is outside of their urban streets.




Works Cited

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