Hmong Innovating Politics shakes up Sacramento political establishment
HIP announced federal injunction filings against the Sacramento City Unified School District last week
By Raheem F. Hosseini
raheemh@newsreview.com
Learn more about Hmong Innovating Politics athttp://hipsacramento.tumblr.com. Related stories: Culture shock Sacramento’s gang-prevention efforts may not work on Asian kids. SN&R, 12.15.11. Hmong out to dry Defendants says CIA knew of Laos coup plot and ATF entrapped them. SN&R, 08.02.07. Citizen Hmong Whatever the outcome of General Vang’s case, Hmong Americans have behaved well. SN&R, 08.02.07. Advertisement  |
Sipping ice coffees in the bohemian backyard patio of a south Sacramento cafe, the three friends looked like grad students catching up between cram sessions.
But since forming their surprisingly influential advocacy group last July, the truth is that Hmong Innovating Politics’ Seng Vang, Cha Vang and Jonathan Tran have time to do only one thing: shake up Sacramento’s political establishment.
Credited with helping Steve Ly become the first Laotian-born school-board member in Elk Grove—over an incumbent, no less—HIP last week announced federal court filings against the Sacramento City Unified School District to reverse the closure of seven schools in poorer, heavily ethnic neighborhoods. And on Wednesday, HIP members were scheduled to meet with a Twin Rivers Unified School District board president regarding worrisome layoff notices to several Hmong para-educators.
HIP representatives scored the private audience after attending their first Twin Rivers meeting earlier this month, illustrating just how quickly the group’s profile has risen since January, when members had to explain to quizzical SCUSD officials what HIP stood for.
Today, there’s little doubt.
“When you’re good at what you do, people take notice,” said Democratic Party of Sacramento County president Kerri Asbury, whose group named HIP “organization of the year” at its recent Tower Bridge Awards fundraiser. “They should write a book on how to organize a community.”
In a nonliteral way, they sort of are.
At 10 to 12 active members, the group is small, mobile and leaderless. There is no base of operations. And while traditional Hmong culture adheres to a patriarchal structure, Tran, who is of Chinese descent, said HIP flips gender roles on their head.
“Some of the most powerful members in our group are women,” he said, gesturing to founding members Seng Vang and Cha Vang (no relation), who dreamed up the idea while working together.
Despite its baby-faced membership and relative newness on the community-activism front, HIP is proving as innovative as advertised.
When it came time to consider legal action against the district, members researched both civil-rights law and environmental policy to determine which avenue was most appropriate. Civil rights won the day.
“We trust in each other,” Seng Vang told SN&R. “It’s a new way of thinking: This is how organizations should function.”
The unorthodox organizational structure has befuddled more traditional institutions.
But since forming their surprisingly influential advocacy group last July, the truth is that Hmong Innovating Politics’ Seng Vang, Cha Vang and Jonathan Tran have time to do only one thing: shake up Sacramento’s political establishment.
Credited with helping Steve Ly become the first Laotian-born school-board member in Elk Grove—over an incumbent, no less—HIP last week announced federal court filings against the Sacramento City Unified School District to reverse the closure of seven schools in poorer, heavily ethnic neighborhoods. And on Wednesday, HIP members were scheduled to meet with a Twin Rivers Unified School District board president regarding worrisome layoff notices to several Hmong para-educators.
HIP representatives scored the private audience after attending their first Twin Rivers meeting earlier this month, illustrating just how quickly the group’s profile has risen since January, when members had to explain to quizzical SCUSD officials what HIP stood for.
Today, there’s little doubt.
“When you’re good at what you do, people take notice,” said Democratic Party of Sacramento County president Kerri Asbury, whose group named HIP “organization of the year” at its recent Tower Bridge Awards fundraiser. “They should write a book on how to organize a community.”
In a nonliteral way, they sort of are.
At 10 to 12 active members, the group is small, mobile and leaderless. There is no base of operations. And while traditional Hmong culture adheres to a patriarchal structure, Tran, who is of Chinese descent, said HIP flips gender roles on their head.
“Some of the most powerful members in our group are women,” he said, gesturing to founding members Seng Vang and Cha Vang (no relation), who dreamed up the idea while working together.
Despite its baby-faced membership and relative newness on the community-activism front, HIP is proving as innovative as advertised.
When it came time to consider legal action against the district, members researched both civil-rights law and environmental policy to determine which avenue was most appropriate. Civil rights won the day.
“We trust in each other,” Seng Vang told SN&R. “It’s a new way of thinking: This is how organizations should function.”
The unorthodox organizational structure has befuddled more traditional institutions.