'I am ashamed, embarrassed about Tou Thao's complicit behavior in this murder,' says Gaosong Heu, a Hmong American and Twin Cities resident. 'But more than that, the reaction of my community and almost a defense of him in this case.'
Gaosong Heu talks about reactions in the Hmong community to the killing of George Floyd. Former police officer Tou Thao, a Hmong American, is seen on video of the killing running interference with the crowd and standing watch. His involvement has stirred a racial debate among Asian Americans.Gaosong Heu talks about reactions in the Hmong community to the killing of George Floyd.
The video shows a white police officer and a black male victim — a familiar dynamic in similar videos and killings seen nationwide — but there's a third identifiable person: an Asian American officer seen running interference with the crowd and standing watch. He's now-former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao, a Hmong American — which is how you know this isn't"any" city. It's Minneapolis.
The Frogtown neighborhood in St. Paul, Minn., is the heart of the area's Hmong American population. The Twin Cities has the largest urban Hmong enclave in the world.The Frogtown neighborhood in St. Paul, Minn., is the heart of the area's Hmong American population. The Twin Cities has the largest urban Hmong enclave in the world.
"If I think about it too much, I might start crying," says Gaosong Heu. She and her husband, Marc, run Marc Heu Patisserie Paris in Frogtown, the St. Paul neighborhood that is the heart of the area's Hmong population — and where she grew up.In America, there are only 18 clans of Hmong, an ethnic group from Laos, Vietnam and parts of China that sided with the United States during the Vietnam War.
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