Islander7 wrote -
“We have a large Vietnamese community here. They don’t feel sorry for themselves, they don’t whine, they don’t demand the world bow down to them, they excel at all they do.
I respect them. They are good, solid conservative folks. About half the community is Buddhist and the rest are Catholic.
With the history of this segment of our population so fresh, it is a lesson to other longtime minorities to get with the program; assimilate, work within the system to succeed.”
..... I won’t name any names or places, but my cousin was at one time pretty highly placed in Democratic state government in the NE [1980’s]. He related a story to me of a private lunch conversation he had with a local NAACP leader. This fellow articulated some real embarrassment and concern about the fact that refugees from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam - many of whom had [like the Hmong] came from primitive jungle societies and spoke no English at all, had managed as a social group in a single generation to reach economic and professional levels that his people had been unable to achieve over several decades despite every possible assistance and preference being accorded to them by government.
Thre’s a lesson in there.
Refugees from Southeast Asia don’t have a sense of entitlement. Because of its obvious PC ramifications, I won’t mention the Bell Curve.
“...This fellow articulated some real embarrassment and concern about the fact that refugees from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam - many of whom had [like the Hmong] came from primitive jungle societies and spoke no English at all, had managed as a social group in a single generation to reach economic and professional levels that his people had been unable to achieve over several decades despite every possible assistance and preference being accorded to them by government...”
You articulated my point far better than me. Any time there are scholastic achievement awards from any of a dozen local high schools, you can bet there will be a Vietnamese kid among those named.
They have come to dominate the shrimping industry. They are an industrious bunch. This is not to imply their transition was without conflict or struggle. There were many cultural issues that both the locals and the Viets had to adjust to.
They have managed to do what few other groups have: They maintain much of their culture while learning and adopting much of ours.
The thing I’ve found about the New Orleans Vietnamese is they’re real thrifty, apply ingenuity liberally and will do almost anything with no fuss. The FOB Vietnamese down there tend to move into a house that’s run down with their entire family. They’ll then work like a dog making money where ever they can . If they really do well they’ll probably open their own business. Hell, they’ll open several. One guy I met was real young and ran a tax service and bail bonds with his wife working the front desk.
Then they’ll buy some property. That’s where they’ll get their relatives to help clear the land where they’ll build a new and much better house (thanks to a relatives in the construction business). I think around Willowbrook around Kim Dr are rather testaments to their drive. The sure sign of a Vietnamese house is the wrought iron fence out front.
Probably the biggest thing hurting black progress is that the state and popular culture oppose blacks (or anyone else but especially blacks) having stable families. So many black children grow up essentially being wards of the state and this holds them back and cripples future generations. One of the reasons some immigrant groups do well is that they have stable families where people help each other.
“Thre’s a lesson in there.”
One our Medical Technologists came over about the same time as CAO. His family did not speak English. Even though he was not born here he now speaks flawless English, is extremely bright, and very conservative. His father-in-law, also from Vietnam, owns a shipyard, and his brothers own large ocean-going fishing vessels. They really grabbed the American dream and ran with it. It required long hours at sea and the whole family working together but they really made it. The parents still don’t speak English but they made sure all of their kids were well educated. They are very pro-family (large). This group caused a controversy in the eastern section of NO when they arrived and refused government aid. Their independent attitude made the local Blacks very mad since the schools they attende couldn’t participate in several government programs because they didn’t have enough students on free and reduced lunch’s.
The real question is that after the census and redistricting how many liberals can be gerrymandered out of their seats.