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Hmong Elders Are Stockpiling Rice Because They Know What Hunger Feels Like
Younger generations haven’t seen firsthand the horrors of malnourishment
When news of the coronavirus reached the Hmong-American community in early February, many elders counseled younger generations to prepare. How do you brace for a coming pandemic? You buy rice. Lots and lots of rice. When there is nothing else, if you have rice, your children will not starve. Many of the younger folk laughed. The less seasoned and more affluent Hmong, like in many other communities, are walking away from a diet centered around rice because of the dangers of diabetes and obesity. They joke about how thin and beautiful they were all going to be if rice disappeared from the markets.
Still, grandmothers and grandfathers went to the stores and bought whatever rice they could afford. Never mind the mockery and the dirty looks, which came in droves. All over social media, from late February into early March, younger people chastised their elders for stockpiling rice, made memes and commiserated about how embarrassed they were on account of their hoarding forebears. A beloved aunt of mine who couldn’t drive implored her children to plan for the virus by going out and buying rice. When her children refused, she cried to my mother, “I only care about their children—all…
