In War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work, Cathy J. Schlund-Vials discusses the effects of war and how it still influences the people and their community years following it. Prominent musician praCh pays homage to the past through his music, highlighting the struggles and experiences of the Cambodian Americans. In his lyrics, he draws attention to the bloody aftermath of Khmer Rouge, a mass Cambodian genocide that went unnoticed. The people of this community are then able to connect with one another through his music, the trauma of their shared past still painful yet finally getting more exposure with this creative outlet of expression.
And in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Just Forgetting, he delves into the important concept of memory. Good or bad, our memories often stay with us. Perhaps because they are bad, we have a more difficult time letting them go. This suffering has the potential to plague our lives, and trauma that hasn’t been fully dealt with, has the unfortunate tendency to come back over and over. Pain demands to be felt, and without proper addression, it could only get worse. The narratives of the minority communities often go unacknowledged under the oppression of the more dominant culture, stories and voices that go unheard-- their memories in turn are silenced, forgotten.
Question: how do we encourage an open discussion about the unspoken tragedies of the war?
Image Source: https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/interview-spinnin-memory-khmer-american-rapper-teaches-traumatic-history
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