John Gard's People

We Madisonians may fairly be accused of being quixotic but at least we don't have bumper stickers reading "Save a deer, kill a Hmong" and cowardly send nasty letters anonymously. And we can distinguish between the actions of lone man and the temperaments of the rest of the people with the same ethnic background. From the AP:

HAYWARD, Wis. - The fatal shootings of six white deer hunters by a Hmong man in northern Wisconsin last month have fueled racial animosity against the growing immigrant population, according to Hmong community leaders.

Hmong residents have reported receiving threatening letters and being taunted with ethnic slurs. At a community prayer service in Rice Lake, the area where the six slain hunters lived, one woman said she saw a bumper sticker that read: "Save a deer, shoot a Hmong."

"It is like boiling water again. Hopefully, in a few years, the water will probably cool down again," said Cheu Lee, owner of the Hmong Times newspaper in St. Paul, Minn., home of the country's largest Hmong community.

Chai Soua Vang, who lives in St. Paul, faces six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder for allegedly gunning down eight hunters after a trespassing dispute on some of the victims' land. Vang said the men fired on him first and used racial slurs; the two survivors said Vang shot them first.

Many Hmong, who began arriving in the United States from Southeast Asia 25 years ago, said they have experienced prejudice before. But some said feelings have become particularly hardened since the shootings in Wisconsin, home to 46,000 Hmong.

Police recently arrested a white man and cited him for misdemeanor property damage for painting the word "killer" on two trailer homes and a truck owned by Hmong neighbors.

Joe Bee Xiong, executive director of the Eau Claire Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, said his organization received an unsigned letter urging the Hmong to go back "where they belonged."

The Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Association said it has received calls from people making inappropriate comments about the Hmong. Ker Vang, executive director of the Hmong Association of Green Bay, said a Hmong woman there reported being called derogatory names.

The tension has also caused other Asian ethnic groups to take notice.

Tan Phan, a Vietnamese businessman who owns manicure salons in Eau Claire and Janesville, said he warned his wife that people may think she's Hmong and not Vietnamese. "Maybe some people may want to take revenge," he said.

Joe Bee Xiong, who is president of an umbrella group of 17 Hmong associations in Wisconsin, blames the media for exacerbating racial tensions because of the focus on Vang as a Hmong immigrant while ignoring his American citizenship.

"I personally worry that we are divided, and things will be getting worse, from both sides," he said.

Nathan Hecker, a white logger and hunter in Hayward, agreed. He said some people in northern Wisconsin dislike Hmong immigrants, citing the common perception that Hmong hunters "tend to shoot everything that moves and take it home — squirrels, birds, rabbits."

"There can be good and bad people wherever. But some people feel that way. That's not going to help matters," he said.

The feelings come at a time when authorities are trying to resettle an expected influx of nearly 3,200 Hmong refugees in the state. The refugees are among more than 15,000 Hmong leaving Thailand for the U.S. in coming months.

So far, leaders of Catholic Charities for the Dioceses of La Crosse and Green Bay, the agencies in charge of resettlements in northeast and western Wisconsin, have reported no major problems because of the shootings.

"The majority of our people are trying very hard to understand this is not a race thing. This is about hunters. It is a hunting incident," said Kaying Xiong, who leads a task force advising the governor on the resettlement.

"It is not about the Hmong. It is not about immigrants. It is not about refugees."

It's disturbing to see that we're partly a red state after all. Then again, I knew it all along. I loved being at, say, the Oakwood Mall in Eau Claire when the odd black family would stroll through, presumably on their way to a less white area. The looks on some of their faces were priceless. Lots of shock and disbelief but the odd look of derision as well. But perpaps I should be thankful that no one tried to lynch them.