The Misconception of Cambodian Americans

By Solomon Say 

​Throughout the many decades that Cambodians have been living on American soil, I feel like we have some sort of stigma that has the general population look at us like we’re on the low end of the Asian-race scale. I mean, how can we not? Throughout the brief history of gang violence in cities such as Lowell, Massachusetts and Long Beach, California, Cambodian involvement in gang culture has been rampant throughout most of the late 80s and 90s. The graduation rate for Cambodians isn’t all that high neither, with about 35 percent of Cambodian Americans dropping out of highschooland another 29 percent of Cambodians living under poverty.These statistics are staggering, making us the highest Asian ethnic group to live under such conditions. Why is this thecase? What is this type of stigma that we have created for our own people? The main cause of this problem is surely unheard of, but many would believe that our plight from the homeland has caused the older generation of Cambodian people to live under such psychological conditions as PTSD. With this type of condition haunting the minds of our most beloved family members, it can surely create a toll on the younger generation as well. However, the younger generation hasn’t even been able to erase this type of stigma that we have been living under for the past decade. Our young ones are busy running around the streets, creating more statistics for the Cambodian people as a whole. Many of times, people may even look at Cambodians as either “dirty” or “violent”. The history of Cambodia did not work for us to have these types of characteristics to our name. Cambodian history is filled with a vast line of a culture that is so rich, Cambodia was once considered the “Pearl of Southeast Asia”. However, it seems that Cambodian Americans of the younger generation are forgetting that aspect. I really don’t understand how a stigma can be implemented to a certain group of people,however I feel that with such a strong sense of ethnic pride, the stigma can be erased. 

​There is a lot that needs to be done in order for the Cambodian culture to instill itself as one of the most prominent Asian races. However, with the corruption that goes on within the country itself, any type of Western influences can potentially be alarming to government officials in Cambodia. Real fixings come from within the heart of an entity, and that particular entity is the country of Cambodia. In my personal opinion, I still believe that Cambodia is still in a healing process from the Khmer Rouge. So much happened within that particular time frame that, to this day the country of Cambodia is still trying to make amends for the people who were apart of it. However, the country of Cambodia is going through vast metropolis changes within its cities. Everything is becoming more modernized and people capturing the essence of its change. However, in the United States of America, people still look at the Cambodian population as a group of people who are lower than most. 

What does it mean to be Cambodian American? This has been a question that has been daunting within my mental for the past 10 years. What I think a Cambodian American is, is a person who was raised by Cambodian values and traditions and lives on American soil. If that’s the case, then I am a Cambodian American. However, I’ve meet some younger people who are Cambodian that have a hard time defining themselves as one. Sometimes, they just plainly define themselves as being Asian. This type of ignorance that exists within people of their own race has me growing tired. There has been times within the past that made me look at the younger generation of Cambodian Americans and I have not been fond of it. However, I feel like it’s up to the current generation and older ones to instill a greater knowledge of what it actually means to be Cambodian. To keep traditional values and be more educated on the current events that happen within the Motherland. Without that particular knowledge, how can Cambodians be apart of this “melting pot” that is the USA?