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f <br />The Unknown Is More Frightening Than The Truth Could Ever Be <br />B Kim Kiec er <br />girlfriend of mine for several years who will remain <br />nameless when referring to some new neighbors of our blurted <br />out that she thought that all Hmo gs were short, stupid,. and <br />all looked alike. Although I didn't defend these new neighbors, <br />I did remark.. "How do you ]snow they're mongs Her reply was <br />that, "A Hmong is a Hmong is a mong and then she changed the <br />subject.. <br />couple of days later as I was rol.lerbiading past the new <br />neighbors' home, I stopped and said, "Hi!" to a young girl playing <br />in her front yard S. with the ice now broken, we started talking <br />about our families, school, and "stuff" like I would with any of <br />my friends. 1 learned that they were not Hmong, but Vietnamese, <br />and that there were many other cultures in Southeast Asia besides <br />Vietnamese. I also l e a ed that her father was a lawyer and her <br />sister was in college. It really made me think about how my friend <br />labeled this. family without ever meeting them, I've always been <br />taught never to assume and that making fun of people because they' r <br />different is wrong. And now was up to me to show nameless <br />fr ien..d the truth. <br />I had now made a new friend, her name was Phong. The next <br />day after school I invited Phong and several other fr ends <br />including the nameless one over to r y house to play. And just <br />as I thought, once they ret Phong the wall of ignorance fell <br />apart, Now my nameless friend realizes that all Southeast Asians <br />are not alike and they certainly aren't stupid, but she won' <br />give in on the "short" part., but I'm still working on it. <br />