What is America at its best?We put this question to our team — to find out what version of America meets the potential of what we want America to be. Some of us answered, some didn’t. Some wondered if doing so could — in this America we’re living in right now — draw punishment from the powers that be.Some looked at history and others the future and others, songs. Here’s what we said: In my American history class, we learn […]
As international students nationwide are facing deportation threats and canceled visas for their political activism, and universities are under pressure to prevent campus protests and end some diversity initiatives, some professors are taking a stand against the crackdowns and political influences. Among those speaking out is Alexandra To, an assistant professor at Northeastern University, who cowrote an Op-Ed this week in the university paper, The Huntington News, along with professors Kylie Ariel Bemis, Rahul Bhargava, Richard Daynard, Rachel Rosenbloom, and […]
Nita Slay, a musician and rapper from Lynn, said she finds pride in the lyrics of “Cambodian Ties,” a song by Foule Monk in which she also sings. In the song, Slay sings: “Cambodian ties / Cambodian in my skin / Breathing in this life / Rejuvenated skin / Cambodian gold / Cambodian sins / Breathing in this life to find the peace within.” “It gives me another lane that I can use that no else can,” said Slay, who […]
The peanut allergy is one of the most common food allergies in the world, and yet there is still much that we don’t understand about it. This puzzle is precisely what researcher Jing-Ke Weng, a professor of chemistry and bioengineering at Northeastern University, is aiming to solve. In an interview with the Sampan, Weng revealed more about his research on peanut allergies—what pushed him to pursue this particular subject, the work he’s hoping to achieve, and his research’s potential implications […]
Activist legend Nobuko Miyamoto came to Boston for the ArtsEmerson screening of the documentary about her – “Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement” – and the timing could not have been more appropriate. Amid the anniversary of Executive Order 9066 – which led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II – and just before immigration authorities began coming after pro-Palestinian protesters, Nobuko Miyamoto graced the stage and enraptured the audience by performing a set of four of […]
“The fear and silencing on college campuses today is not arbitrary or new,” wrote Abena Ampofoa Asare, an associate professor of Modern African Affairs at Stony Brook University, in an essay titled, “The Silencing of Fred Dube,” published last year in the Boston Review. This might be a surprise for those who are just now realizing the relationship between censorship and speaking out for Palestine, after seeing the news of immigration officials detaining Columbia University Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. Others […]
The growing costs of healthcare, grocery bills and housing are top concerns for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults – and they want Congress to address all three.That was a key takeaway from a new AAPI Data/AP-NORC Poll of Congressional priorities for Asian and Pacific Islander adults. According to the survey published earlier this month, the price of health care was the top issue for nearly 8 out of 10 people who identify as AAPI. Food inflation came […]
The second administration of U.S. Pres. Donald Trump has begun cracking down on immigration, abruptly shortening temporary protective status for Haitians and others fleeing violence, and is now trying to deport a well-known Palestinian rights activist at Columbia University – with threats to cancel visas of many more. How is this news shaping the views of students and graduates around the world who have helped fund America’s colleges and universities in Boston and beyond through tuition? Our Sampan reporter based […]
In the apparent race toward making xenophobia official U.S. policy, a small group of Republican lawmakers is cheering a bill that would bar Chinese international students from the U.S. Congressman Riley M. Moore of West Virginia, who in a press release calls his bill “groundbreaking,” promises the proposal would stop the issuance of student visas to Chinese nationals. The bill’s name is juvenile sounding – “The Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act” and its primary […]
I was 8 years old when I came to the U.S. with my family from Haiti. When I was 16 years old, my parents bought a house on the South Shore. Weeks later, my siblings and I found fliers left on our lawn from the KKK, which was recruiting people to join a planned rally. When we arrived at school, some of our classmates brought in the same fliers, which were left on their lawns, too. The summer of my […]
