Stories Of Being A Karen-American
There are over 187,000 refugees from the country of Myanmar, also known as Burma. Though most refugees prefer the name of “Burma”, this publication uses the term “Myanmar” in order to distinguish between the various ethnic groups of the country. The “Bamar”, who speak Burmese, are the dominant ethnicity, while the other 134 ethnic groups speak another language. This post describes what it’s like to be Karen, one of the larger ethnic minorities, in both Myanmar and in the US as a refugee.
Like many ethnic minorities in Myanmar, Myra Dahgaypaw grew up in fear of the “Bamar”, the largest ethnic group in the country. She is Karen (kah-rin), an ethnic minority from the Southern part of the country, well over 70,000 have come to the US as refugees, including Dahgaypaw.
For ethnic minorities, commonly referred to as “ethnics” in Myanmar, persecution from those of Bamar descent was to be expected. The Bamar have dominated the country formerly known as Burma since achieving independence from Great Britain in 1951. This includes the military dictatorship which ruled the country for over 50 years, and continues to have an enormous influence in the government.
As a child, Dahgaypaw’s only contact with the Bamar was when they burned down her village. This happened more than once. So when a Bamar soldier fled to her uncle’s house to hide from his superiors, she expected someone inherently barbaric, no different than the other men who spoke Burmese.
“My sister and I stayed up all night to see when he would turn into a monster, I guess we thought big teeth would come out,” recalls Dahgaypaw, who continues to advocate for a more inclusive democracy in Myanmar.
As she witnessed acts of resistance from Bamar civilians against the same military which attacked her people, she began to understand the complexities of ethnic lines. Today, most of her colleagues in the fight for democracy are Bamar, and are equally disgusted by the actions of the Bamar. But even amongst friends, she hears language that rings of coded bigotry and privilege.
“It’s easier for [Bamar] to not think about ethnicity,” says Dahgaypaw, “even an educated friend of mine pulled out the word ‘rebel’. I hate this word. Use the word ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘resistance group’ if you have to say something,”
The Karen, and almost every other ethnic minority, have been involved in armed resistance against the Bamar military for decades. Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has prioritized harmony amongst the eight main ethnic groups of the country, including the Karen, but has failed to make any progress.
As a result, ethnicity and how it manifest in national politics remains a sensitive subject. Whether one believes in ethnic discrimination in Myanmar is often dependent on their ethnic background. Dahgaypaw says that she has never felt personally discriminated upon, it is the political views of some of her Bamar colleagues that reflect a division.
In many ways, the role of “ethnicity” in Myanmar is similar to the role of “race” in the US. There are plenty of Bamar people who understand the plight of Dahgaypaw and other ethnic minorities, but ultimately, those who oppose her, are more often than not, people of Bamar descent.
A symbolic but common litmus test for this ethnic rift can be seen in the title of the country. Those who have felt the brunt of the military’s rule, which includes both Bamar and ethnic minorities like the Karen, prefer to refer to their country “Burma”. While the name change of “Myanmar” was partly instituted to avoid the country being named after the dominant Bamar group, dissidents refuse to acknowledge the decision because it was made by the military. They rather a name with origins in British colonialism than from the military dictatorship.
A more significant example of this ethnic rift often manifest in views of nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of the newly elected government of Myanmar. While there are plenty of Bamar dissidents who hate the praise lavished on Aung San Suu Kyi, her supporters, are almost always Bamar.
Since Myanmar began its transition to something close to democracy to 2011, political activism has declined sharply amongst the diaspora. Dahgaypaw is fighting this complacency, to her, the shift of power to Aung San Suu Kyi was no more than a symbolic gesture. As president of the US Campaign For Burma, a DC based organization, she has dedicated herself to illuminating the atrocities against ethnic minorities and the lack of action from the famous Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The world thinks the country is saved because of our new amazing leader, but nothing has changed, [Aung San Suu Kyi] does the same thing that the military did”, says Dahgaypaw.
This peace process is difficult to explain to an US audience. To most Americans, the Southeast nation is obscure, those with an in depth knowledge of the country’s demographics remains rare. At this point, Dahgaypaw is accustomed to being lumped in the category of “Burmese”, the English word for Bamar. It is complicated enough to say where Myanmar is on a map, let alone breakdown the various ethnicities of the country.
There are over 70,000 Karen refugees in the US, is by far the most of any other ethnic group including the Bamar. Yet even with larger numbers, thousands of miles away, Karen voices are often overshadowed by the narratives of the Bamar.
National Identity as a Karen-American
Older refugees, who tend to have limited English skills and literacy even in their own Karen language, leaving the youth generation with the responsibility of explaining these issues of identity.
Eh Nay Thaw is one of these younger Karen refugee. He was seven years old when his family was resettled in outside of Louisville in 1997 — some of the first Karen to be come to Kentucky. He often tells others that he is Burmese as a matter of convenience, he’s never been referred to as a Karen-American.
There are more Karen in Kentucky now compared to when he first arrived, though in college, many of his friends are ethnically Bamar in the US. As the dominant ethnic group, Burmese families tend to be wealthier and are better represented in higher education. His Burmese university classmates share similar visions of democracy, however, he feels a disconnect when the subject of patriotism comes up.
“My [Bamar] friends tend to have strong pride in their country. It is shameful for me to talk about my country most of the time”, says Eh Nay Thaw, “my relatives would have worse things to say”.
Eh Nay Thaw classifies his relationship to Myanmar, Burma for him, as complicated. Like other Karen refugees, Eh Nay Thaw grew up in an encampment in Thailand after fleeing brutal repression from the military dictatorship that deprived his family of economic and educational opportunity.
Even with the freedom to express his ethnic identity in the US, he is unsure if there is a Karen culture to celebrate. The Karen were some of the first ethnic groups to settle in what is now known as Myanmar, but for Eh Nay Thaw, the Karen experience revolves around persecution and conflict, making it difficult to differentiate Karen culture from the Bamar default.
“Karen is almost a lost culture”, says Eh Nay Thaw, “But for the Bamar, it’s George Orwell, it’s the water festival (a Buddhist New Year celebration), this is what you think of”.
Ultimately, Eh Nay Thaw doesn’t see much a difference in how Karen and Bamar people live their lives, and he’s okay with that. In his experience, cultural hegemony is not a unique trait of the Bamar or Americans. Rather he sees it as a natural occurrence that comes with a majority. In the refugee camps where he grew up, there were also Bamar refugees who were escaping political persecution, they went through similar issues of conforming their identity.
“I see this in Louisville as well, there are pure Bamar ethnic who call themselves a Karen person, they assimilate themselves”, says Eh Nay Thaw.
Eh Nay Thaw has made more of an effort to express himself as Karen since he started as an undergraduate at Center University, a liberal arts university in Kentucky which he sees as an effective promoter of multiculturalism. It helps that there are Burmese students who know about the Karen, who understand the differences that are lost within the American conversation on race.
In June, he will return to the Thai border, not far from the refugee camp where he was raised, for an internship with a human rights NGO. He is eager to reconnect with an identity that he rarely spoke about in Kentucky. The hope is to help the Karen from his newfound place as a US citizen.
Politically active ethnic refugees, like Eh Nay Thaw, is something that Myra Dahgaypaw wants to see more of. As the President of US Campaign for Burma, she is focused on getting stories of ethnic persecution more firmly into the discussion of the country.
“We need Karen to stand up for themselves and say what is wrong. The world thinks that everything in Burma is better with Aung San Suu Kyi, but the Karen know this is not true. We can’t leave it up to the Bamar, or the international community”, says Dahgaypaw
Though she is skeptical that the younger generation of the Myanmar diaspora will hold onto their ethnic identity. She started a Facebook page, the Youth Karen Association, to generate connection amongst the large but disperse Karen community. With less than 30 impressions from the last post, the page is now defunct. It is often easier to be Burmese-American rather than Karen-American.
