March 15, 2024 | Vol. 53, Issue 5

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

Asian Americans

Believing There’s an ‘Average’ Asian American is a Dangerous Assumption

In a collection of his autobiographical writings published in 1907, the American writer Mark Twain cited approvingly a little aperçu that there are three kinds of lies – lies, damned lies, and statistics. Would you cross a river that is four feet deep on average? Hopefully not, since it might be a foot deep in parts and seven feet deep in other parts: four feet deep on average, surely, but not necessarily safe to cross.What if you are diagnosed with […]

Political Leaders, Activists Seek to Strengthen White House Asian American Initiative

As the threat of the Covid-19 has receded, the threat of anti-Asian bias still remains in the U.S. But many activists and politicians are working to finding ways to stand up against the discrimination. And some are pointing to an executive order dating back decades. In 1999, President Bill Clinton signed an executive order, effectively creating The White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANAPI). President Biden has now recently worked to expand upon the initiative. […]

Asian American Elderly: Facing Poverty and Loneliness

People over the age of 50 who live alone are now one of the fastest-growing demographics in the nation. Up from 15 million in 2000, this demographic bloated to nearly 26 million this year. The causes may be connected to the changing perceptions around family and gender which resulted in high divorce and never-married rates in this generation. There were more women in the Baby Boomer generation who entered the workforce than ever before. There was also an emphasis on […]

Opinion: Affirmative Action and Asian American Admissions

Some 45 years ago, I was a young Asian American college student in California, who worked with Chicano and Black students statewide to protest the first major attack on minority admissions. This grew out of a lawsuit by a rejected white applicant to UC Davis named Allan Bakke, who charged that he had suffered “reverse discrimination.”  In 1978, so many Asian American college students realized that an attack on affirmative admissions programs would be a setback for Asian Americans that […]

Betting on an Alternative: How Boston is Helping to Alleviate the Problem of Gambling in the Asian-American Community

Gambling has long been a problem in Asian American communities. A 2019 report by UMass Boston researchers, funded by the state and led by Institute for Asian American Studies researcher Dr. Carolyn Wong, featured interviews with approximately two dozen low-wage workers and retirees from Chinatown’s food and service industries. Recurring themes in their narratives revolved around “isolated lives in linguistically isolated neighborhoods,” a sameness to their jobs, and seemingly no healthier or more easily accessible alternatives for stress relief than […]

R’Bonney Gabriel as the First Asian American Miss USA: Asian Representation in America

In early October, Miss Texas, R’Bonney Gabriel, was crowned Miss USA 2022. She is the first Filipina American as well as first Asian American to win the Miss USA title. Now a 28-year-old model and fashion designer who owns a sustainable fashion label R’Bonney Nova, Gabriel was born in San Antonio, Texas, to a Filipino father and an American mother. Gabriel has always embraced her mixed heritage. She told ABC News, “My dad moved to America from the Philippines on […]

Asian American Women Rising in the Massachusetts House and City Halls

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is a shining example of the unprecedented rise of Asian American women in Massachusetts politics. But she’s one of several women who have recently risen to power in the state. Wu made history in November of last year, when the former Boston City Council president became the first Asian American, woman, and person of color, to be elected mayor of Boston — a city where Asian Americans make up about 10 percent of the city’s residents. […]

Mass. Bill Aims to Improve System to Track Hate Crimes

As the rate of reported hate crimes increases across the country, a bill to require Massachusetts law enforcement agencies and communities to report Hate Crime incidents is currently under study by the state legislature. The Massachusetts Hate Crimes Reporting Act was originally introduced in late March of 2021 to advance and change the current hate crime reporting practices which are informal and unevenly enforced. The proposed bill is currently being put on a study order for further review by the […]

Netflix’s Partner Track: Asian-American Women Fighting for the Top in the Legal World

Innovative. Driven. Persistent. Determined. Powerful. Some of the adjectives used to describe lawyers. They bust into courtrooms and command the audience for their client, negotiate contracts with vigor, become judges and officials, even professors. Asians and Asian Americans have come into the legal profession, but are, unfortunately, underrepresented and often see less opportunities for growth than their white coworkers. “I know if I work harder than anyone else, apply more force, I’ll make partner.” A line delivered by the main […]

What has happened to Asian Enrollment at US Colleges?

College is a strategy for the students to build their future pathways. Yet for the Asian students, their access to college might be different compared with students in other races. This article presents the possible racial bias of colleges when applying, cultural expectation from the Asian students, competition of the colleges, and the impact to the students made by the COVID-19. Does racial bias really exist among the top schools? According to Robert VerBruggen’s report on racial preferences on campus, […]

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