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Community group raises awareness and money for families back home after military coup in Myanmar

North Texans from the former Burma have found solidarity in protests and fundraisers.

The spice-rubbed pork is still steaming when vendors chop the fragrant roast. They arrange platters of melt-in-your-mouth meat, fried vermicelli noodles and sour-sweet sauce as toddlers run by, negotiating sips of faluda, a milky dessert made pink with rose syrup.

They are reminded of summer in their native country of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

At the Dallas Chin Baptist Church on a recent Saturday, about 150 community members gather for a taste of home, as well as to raise money to support their families and friends still in Myanmar.

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With at least the eight major ethnic groups present — a slice of the 135 distinct ethnic groups recognized by Myanmar’s government — the cafeteria fills with the rumble of different languages, but the same spirit of community.

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That community has been tested by political conflict, ethnic cleansing and, most recently, a military coup.

DFW Myanmar Ethnic Community formed this February, when the military ousted the elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has the second-largest population from Myanmar living in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center. The community organization has grown quickly — from about 15 original members to over 60 currently active members.

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Between this fundraiser and one in April, the group has raised over $30,000. All funds are donated to the civil disobedience movement in Myanmar, supporting those displaced while fleeing the military and those whose family members were killed during protests against the coup. The fundraisers also support COVID-19 relief.

“This is a win-win situation: Eat good food and your money goes to those in need,” Kelley Chen said. She had prepared cartons of spicy fermented carrots, daikon, leeks and mustard leaves — a popular side dish in Myanmar and difficult to find in North Texas.

Chen came to the U.S. on a student visa and has lived in Lewisville for nine years, but her father and brother still live in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar.

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“We’ve been worrying for them every day, because we don’t know anything,” she said. “How they are from the morning to the evening could be totally different.”

Incensed by the coup and inspired by the protests, the community group started with a protest at Dallas City Hall in February, with an estimated turnout of 700 people. It later organized protests in Garland, Fort Worth and Lewisville, all to educate and raise awareness.

The pivot to fundraisers was an act of solidarity with those still in Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country that was a British colony for more than 60 years before gaining independence in 1948.

“As soon as we got this group and we united for the protests, I got a lot of friends and now we know each other much better,” Chen said. “Before, there were only churches and temples, but now there are fundraisers and protests uniting the whole community.”

Members of the Kachin ethnic group pose for a picture during a community fair and fundraiser...
Members of the Kachin ethnic group pose for a picture during a community fair and fundraiser for the Kachin state at DFW Kachin Baptist Church on Sunday, July 25, 2021, in Grand Prairie, Texas.(Elias Valverde II / Staff Photographer)

Unity has been difficult to achieve in part because Myanmar is so fraught with ethnic strife, said Michael Bailey, who manages leadership programs at the George W. Bush Institute. The institute runs the Liberty and Leadership program, which works with young leaders, including those from Myanmar, during democratic transitions.

The nation has a long history of systemic discrimination against and persecution of ethnic minorities, particularly the Rohingya.

“While the country was on an exciting path towards democracy, this is not the first time they’ve had a backslide like this [coup],” he said. “You can never be a fully true democracy unless you address that problem [of ethnic division].”

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Divisions between ethnic minorities and the Bamar people, the ethnic majority, are rooted in legacies of geographic separation and British colonialism. But they are exacerbated by present-day military propaganda and misinformation, said LaiYee Leong, a senior fellow at SMU’s John G. Tower Center for Public Policy and International Affairs.

“To paint a picture of constant state crisis gives the government justification for acting in an authoritarian way … It also justifies the divergence of resources to the military,” said Leong, who studies democratization in Asia. “If [the military] continues to divide the Bamar people from the ethnic minorities, then the opposition cannot unite against [them].”

The ongoing civil war has led to mass displacement and flight. The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that 1.1 million refugees are from Myanmar.

Many members of the community group are asylees or refugees. Judson Lynn, a board member of the Myanmar community group, came to the U.S. from the Chin state in 2010, after his father was granted asylum. He said that living in the U.S. has made him closer with other ethnic groups — a common experience among those who come to the U.S.

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“You have to go out of your own little bubble to get closer to another Burmese person,” Lynn said. “In an unfamiliar space, we find people who come from a similar background.”

Amid stories of police entering homes without warrants and randomly checking phones for evidence of civil disobedience, though, the local community from Myanmar has found solidarity in a shared devastation over the backsliding of democracy.

“This hope that [Myanmar’s people] had is gone again, and they don’t know how long this is going to go on. How long will it take to fix this country again? It’s just too much,” said Khin Gerard, who co-founded the community group and is from Yangon.

For Gerard, the group has offered outlets for her “pain and anger.” She said that witnessing the coup from afar while knowing others are suffering in its fallout has been especially painful.

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“We empathize with each other. We know the importance of being united together to help people over there,” Gerard said. “Going into the protest, voicing out our pain, teaching other people and creating awareness, I felt that somehow I had contributed something.”

The journey to unity has not been simple, said Lynn, 26. However, he thinks that he and other young people from Myanmar are more willing and able to repair relationships.

“The younger generations tend to have an open mind, so they’re willing to accept more of these ideas from the outside,” he said. “I think that would be the main difference between the older generation coming from Burma vs. the younger generation growing up in the United States, where it’s diverse.”

If separations among ethnic groups are not overcome, Lynn said, improving conditions in Myanmar will be much more difficult. Events like fundraisers for DFW Myanmar Ethnic Community have become essential meeting places to create community and change — both in North Texas and in Myanmar.

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“Unity is everything,” he said. “We’re trying to get together to fight for this cause, to fight for our brothers and sisters, moms and dads, aunts and uncles back home.”

Staff writer Hojun Choi contributed to this report.

Learn more at facebook.com/DFWMyanmarEthnicCommunity.