Asian Wisconzine-Hmong students & community react to UW Law professor

UW Law Student KaShia Moua

     "Given the level of authority a professor holds, his stereotypes about Hmong Americans can be easily misconstrued as fact by non-Hmong students," commented the Wisconsin Asian Bar Association. "There is no appropriate context for a professor to use ethnic minority stereotypes as facts to illustrate an educational point."
      The concerned students hope the UW Law School administration will address the underlying problem. The real issue is the lack of awareness about the Hmong at all levels: student, faculty and administration. More specifically, it is about the law school's duty to ensure a safe learning environment free from ethnic and racial stereotyping. "This incident introduces an opportunity for not only the law school but the entire University of Wisconsin system to engage in necessary and overdue dialogue about Hmong Americans," said KaShia Moua, a third year law student.
      The concerned students also expressed hope that the law school administration and Professor Kaplan will seize the opportunity to improve the school's learning environment by committing to the following requests:
1) Professor Kaplan publicly repeal his statements and acknowledge that such statements have a damaging effect on the learning environment and students' perceptions of the Hmong;
2) The U.W. Law School fund and promote the Hmong Cultural Series in April 2007 as well as future cultural awareness events;
3) The U.W. Law School preserve the Legal Education Opportunities Program;
4) The U.W. Law School implement a Critical Race Theory & Law Program; and
5) The U.W. Law School commit to diversity within the student body, faculty and administration.

Hmong students and community protest UW Law professor's negative remarks in lecture
(Part 1) The issue

Professor Leonard Kaplan made derogatory statements regarding Hmong Americans in his Legal Process class. "Kaplan was discussing legal formalism and the relationship between culture and law. In his lecture he stated that 'Hmong men have no other skills than to kill.' Kaplan questioned the class, 'What do you think happened after ten years? The Hmong men started dying and Hmong women started to do better.' Kaplan also stated that second generation Hmong Americans become gang members and engage in criminal activity."
A law student said that they met with Kaplan on February 20th to address his statements and to request that he publicly repeal them. During that meeting, Kaplan reportedly did not deny making the statements. Kaplan was sorry that the students were hurt but refused to apologize for making such negative statements, and stressed that his comments were true based on his own "research." Kaplan's unwillingness to repeal his remarks and his refusal to take responsibility for his statements contradict his "great respect for the Hmong community," the students said.
"Though we do not assert that racism motivated Professor Kaplan's statements, his remarks were irresponsible considering the tense relations between Hmong Americans and the greater community in Wisconsin," said Kanha Vuong, a second year law student who attended Kaplan's class when the remarks were made.

On March 1, even before the appointed time of 6:30 p.m., Room 2260 of the University of Wisconsin School of Law was already full-packed with UW students, faculty, and members of the Madison community who wanted to participate in a public forum initiated by seven Hmong students led by KaShia Moua. Emotions were high because the topic of the discussion was the negative statements about the Hmong made by UW-Law Professor Leonard Kaplan in his class on February 15.
According to a press release earlier issued by Moua's group,

Peng Her applauded the law students whom he called the "Magnificent Seven" for speaking up.

Shwaw Vang and Atty. Yer Vang spoke strongly in defense of the Hmong community and against the 'hateful' remarks of Professor Kaplan in a lecture.

Part 2: Forum talks