Questions of Fairness
Though born in Laos, Mee Moua spent the majority of her life in Minnesota. Despite her Middle America upbringing, she experienced the same racial paradox that so many Asian and Pacific Islander Americans face – that of being upheld as the “model minority” while at the same time being treated as the “perpetual foreigner.”
“I may have thought that maybe by going to a good college, becoming a professional, getting elected to public office would somehow alleviate some of that,” she recalls, “but it didn’t.”
Driven by this personal experience, Mee now leads the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), an organization that influences policy, mobilizes communities, and strengthens programs and organizations to improve the health of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Through her work, she seeks to ensure that APIA communities do not remain caught between two stereotypes. It’s her way of contributing to a world where there is “equity, justice and fairness for everyone” and we all live as “brothers and sisters without racial lines.”
