By Sasha Tan '26
Introduction:
When many people think of the hardships faced by Asian American Communities in America, many of the issues that come to mind revolve chiefly around East Asians, as exemplified by the fetishization of Asian women or the academic and rich Asian stereotype. Another equally pressing but unfortunately neglected issue is the school-to-prison deportation pipeline among Southeast Asian, or Brown Asian! communities. However, due to bias and privilege within the Asian community, this is rarely discussed, silencing hundreds of voices. As a Lao American and someone who falls under the Brown Asian title, the suppression of issues affecting my community feels all too familiar.
The Title “Brown Asian”:
This title originated from the Brown Asian Power movement decades ago as a counter-movement to the Asian American title, as many South and Southeast Asians shared feelings of marginalization within the Asian community. It began to uplift and empower the voices of brown Asians within America, giving us the platform and the autonomy to voice years of struggle and racism. However, there has been recent discourse in the Asian community on whether East Asians can call themselves racially Brown. NPR responds to such discourse, asserting that East Asian Americans cannot claim such title. E.J.R David, a professor at the University of Alaska, states, "Brown Asians are still really forgotten and marginalized within the Asian American umbrella, to this day.” This experience usually affects East Asian Americans to a lesser degree. Therefore, to this day, South and Southeast Asians make up the majority of the demographic labeled as racially brown.
The School-to-Prison to Deportation Pipeline:
In short, the school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline is a chain of events experienced by Southeast Asian communities in America, particularly Hmong and Lao communities. It involves multiple factors, such as the ways Southeast Asians are hyper-criminalized, over-policed, and deported at much higher rates because of inaccessible education and poverty.
According to the Southeast Asian American Resource Action Center, 27% of Hmong families live in poverty, compared to the 12% national average. In Philadelphia, a city with higher concentrations of Cambodian people, 41% of Cambodian families live below the poverty line. The data paints a clear picture of systematic oppression. Job opportunities for Southeast Asians are limited because there is a stereotype that Southeast Asians are criminal or incompetent, creating an income barrier and preventing hundreds if not thousands of people from getting the success, the opportunities, and the education they deserve. Additionally, because we live in a highly capitalistic society, where money and profit outweigh well-being and livelihood, the impoverished experience way more hardships than the average middle-class person, including but not limited to scarcity of healthcare, food, water, and shelter. The disproportionate struggles of black and brown people in the work force then leads to living conditions plummeting and wages dropping.
This phenomenon leads to Southeast Asian individuals not having available education, which is why 34% of Lao, Hmong, and Cambodian people do not complete high school, compared to 13% of the general population. The lack of accessible education creates a barrier keeping most Southeast Asians from climbing out of poverty, as most jobs require degrees. The lack of stability and money creates a dilemma in which more people turn to crime, which is why Vietnamese and Lao communities had the second and third highest crime rates in Richmond. Cambodian and Lao youth get arrested 4 –9 times more than the rate statistically expected from their populations. However, there is another reason why the crime rate is this high. Because of the harmful yet widespread notion that Brown people are inherently violent, most Southeast Asian neighborhoods are overpoliced, which causes such high crime rates. Southeast Asians face deportation 3 –5 times more than members of any other immigrant community, as deportation is a common consequence of criminal records. However, if Southeast Asians are arrested at much higher rates, how come the Asian crime rate stays low? Firstly, the crime rate encompasses diverse groups with varying socio–economic statuses. Because of this, the general crime rate is oversimplified. Secondly, Southeast Asians are often not systematically labeled as Asian.
The ABG Trend:
The ABG trend has been an increasingly popular phenomenon across all forms of social media, where usually East Asian people would put on aggressive makeup and fake tattoos paired with thick bushy lash extensions. However, referring to it as merely a trend would be a mistake.
Let’s start by defining what an ABG is. Though the internet has coined it as being Asian Baby Girl, or Asian B*tch Girl, its history drifts beyond hashtags. For decades since Southeast Asians arrived in America, the ABG has been a staple in mainstream culture. The Michigan Daily states, "the term originates from the Southeast Asian diaspora in the late 1990s to the early 2000s to describe Asian women involved in gangs, criminal activities, and drug use." In other words, after more Southeast Asians came to America and started forming gangs to make ends meet, women who participated were known as ABGs. This style was influential in Southeast Asian communities, and soon re-defined Southeast Asian femininity. However, there were various negative stereotypes associated with the ABG. Most included that she was a girl who was loud, abrasive, stayed out to the early morning partying, or was inherently violent. Though recent adaptations of the ABG stereotype have shrunk to potrayals of voluminous false lashes, boba tea, and fake tattoos, past “transformations” have leaned into this Southeast Asian char picture by including excessive bronzer, brown lip liner, and many other features. Additionally, this internet phenomenon has given these women the traits of being loud and ratchet and shaped the modern narrative associating darker-skinned or tan-skinned Southeast Asian women with criminal backgrounds.
Interestingly, such traits sharply contrast the stereotypes often forced onto East Asian women. Because East Asian women are overly infantilized and wrongly characterized as being quiet and submissive, many modern-day East Asian female influencers see being an ABG as inherently rebellious to this harmful stereotype. However, it is crucial to note that even though these feelings come from a noble place, it is bigoted to assume negatively connoted characteristics of Southeast Asian women.
Conclusion:
Though overgeneralization continues to stifle the voices of countless Southeast Asian activists or sociologists, more and more brown Asians are taking action to widen the definition of Asian American. With more visibility to the 48 different cultures that make up the Asian demographic, diversity within the Pan – Asian community continues to grow, society gradually works to dismantle negative stereotypes about Southeast Asian people.
Senior Editor: Caridee Chau '25
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