The United States of America, the melting pot of the world, and yet in retrospect we make little progress in ethnic acceptance. Here in the Midwest, where high populations of Hmong live, there is a subtle segregation. The media are the key for the passage of information between the many different ethnicities that surround us, so the problem begins with the portrayal of the Hmong in the media. A panel discussion that took place on March 11, First Nations/New Nations, highlighted this situation and brought to light many of the problems we must break through to be the melting pot we pride ourselves on being.

First Nations/New Nations, a conference in its third year at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, works to bridge the gap between the Hmong and the rest of the population. The keynote speaker this year was Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt. Merritt is a journalist, historian, human rights advocate, and expert on Southeast Asia. The lecture, titled "Covering the Hmong story: Honest Media Mistakes or What?" worked to broaden understanding of the Hmong involvement in Vietnam and to connect the media and the Hmong community.

Merritt remarked that media are getting better. Progress has been slow, and mistakes made early on have created many misunderstandings left to dirty the water. As early as the secret war in Laos and the Vietnam War, the American media indirectly stereotyped the Hmong. As Merritt introduced the topic, she quoted early media coverage on the Hmong:

"Primitive, stone age, unable to read or write. Unable to think clear enough to see the difference between an airplane or a bee."

Not surprisingly, the population will follow an example laid for them by the media. With such remarks, it would prove a difficult transition for the Hmong immigrating to America as refugees fleeing violent conditions in Laos. Media in 1976 misrepresented these refugees, Merritt said.

"They believe you are drug traffickers, warlords, CIA lackeys, and scum," she said. General Vang Pao, a commander in the Royal Lao Army who led the ground troops fighting on behalf of the United States to hold the Ho Chi Minh Trail, was referred to as a warlord by the media, when it was the United States who appointed him to this task.

Many Hmong were brought to the United States from refugee camps in Thailand where they underwent exigent and dangerous lives. Where the media failed the Hmong was in the lack of explanation for their arrival in America, instead leaving many to consider them as freeloaders.

As Merritt said, there have been improvements in media coverage. The current push is to reverse the misrepresentation, however it achieves only half of this goal. While providing the population with more factual reasons for the Hmong being here, they still fall short of considering the Hmong as part of American society and culture.

The panel discussion which followed Merritt's lecture consisted of representatives of local media. What were seen in efforts for improvement were many contradicting interests. News director for WEAU television in Eau Claire, John Hoffland, made an opening statement encouraging Hmong to call him and tell him their stories. Meanwhile Charles Vue, the Hmong/Southeast Asian Student Service coordinator at UWEC, said that you create division by doing "Hmong stories." These conflicts in interest make forward movement difficult.

News room diversity and need for minorities in management were other hot topics discussed by the panel. Wisconsin Public Radio associate director and regional manager Dean Kallenbach said he would like to have Hmong reporters and would not just want them to report on Hmong issues.

Media coverage of the Hmong, portrayed just as an average American citizen, is the forerunner of needed change. From here, it appears that the era of newspaper, radio, and T.V. showcases on Hmong stories is growing to an end, and the population can expect to see the coverage of the Hmong in local news, only this time without the label.

Words and dreams of change are just words and just dreams until we devise a way in which we can tell a story about a Hmong without making reference to their being Hmong, and without disregarding their culture. Progress is in the making, and past mistakes, although impossible to erase, are being mended by the intense efforts to change. The panel drew to a close with a question probing at the heart of it all. Steven Thao, a journalist and filmmaker from the Twin Cities, asked the panel a valid question:

"Why wasn't a Hmong journalist the keynote speaker tonight?"

Perhaps the answer to that is on the horizon.