Adam Smith, Author at Sampan

Adam Smith

Boston 15 hours ago 0

Opinion: ‘Starts With the Keffiyehs, and Ends With the Pride Flags’

“It starts with the keffiyehs, and ends with the pride flags,” said Dr. Akiva Leibowitz during an interview with Sampan last week. A Brookline resident who has seen firsthand how even his neighbors could attack free speech, the parent was talking about the crackdowns of freedom of expression at every level of society over the past year and a half. Leibowitz, a critical care anesthesiologist, was just weeks earlier vying for a seat in the crowded race for Brookline’s school […]

Immigration 15 hours ago 0

A ‘Model Minority’ … and … Yet, Still a Threat?

If there’s a key takeaway from the newly released STAATUS Index on the nation’s attitudes toward Asian Americans, native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islander Americans, it’s that several longtime misconceptions have gotten worse. Released in time for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the comprehensive report shows Americans’ stereotypes and prejudices toward Asian Americans have persisted, in many cases, alongside ignorance.One glaring example stood out: A staggering 40% of Americans suspect to some degree that Asian Americans are more loyal to their […]

History April 25, 2025 0

Vietnamese Americans Tell Story of Diaspora in Own Words at 50-Year Anniversary Event

This April marks a half-century since refugees began flooding from Vietnam after the end of the war, making their perilous escape from persecution and violence. In recognition of this anniversary, hundreds of Vietnamese Americans and others are slated to gather on April 26 at Boston College High School in Dorchester for “Remembering Black April: 50 Years of Vietnamese Diaspora.” “It’s a pretty momentous year and time to think about the impact of the war’s legacy on families and communities,” said […]

Boston April 25, 2025 0

Docs at Arab Conference at Harvard: We Need Solidarity Not Charity

On a weekend when much of the U.S. media was fixated on the latest tariff spat with China, a small group of doctors in Boston was focused instead on the humanitarian crisis worsening in another part of the world: Gaza. Israeli forces had – just hours before the doctors met in the Harvard medical campus – struck Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, Gaza’s only remaining Christian hospital and, according to press reports, the last fully operating hospital in Gaza City. As the […]

Double Exposure: Photographer Lisa Tang Liu explores what it means to be ‘American’

Photographer Lisa Tang Liu made a career out of taking other people’s portraits. But she was never interested in taking her own photo — not even selfies on her phone. Then Covid hit, and some old, bad feelings from her childhood began to return. Having grown up in a predominantly white suburb in New Jersey as a child, she said, she felt “a sense of shame” for being Chinese. She wanted those around her to embrace that she was as […]

‘We Don’t Want to Repeat History’: State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven Discusses Activist Fred Korematsu, Öztürk, and Trump

The day before the Sampan had a scheduled interview with State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, her district was suddenly under an international spotlight. Thousands of people had come out to rally in the city of Somerville, part of Massachusetts’ 27th Middlesex District, for Rümeysa Öztürk. Öztürk is the Tufts University doctoral student who was detained by the Department of Homeland Security and was set for deportation back to Turkey — apparently, because she co-wrote an Op-Ed in her university newspaper a […]

Education April 11, 2025 0

Northeastern Prof.: Better to Speak Out Now

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 […]

Education March 21, 2025 0

Before Khalil and Countless Others, There Was Fred Dube

“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 […]

Health March 21, 2025 0

Congress Should Tackle Health, Food Costs, Asians Tell Pollsters

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 […]

Snake Mural Lets Viewers Send Wishes, Artist Hold onto Chinese Heritage

A red snake with gold “scales” is winding through the walls of the Pao Arts Center in Chinatown as part of a celebration of the Lunar New Year. “We invited people to come and cut out scales from a gold shimmery paper, and then we prompted them to write or draw their Lunar New Year wish,” said artist Amanda Beard Garcia, who painted the indoor mural over several days in January. “Some people made one wish and a few people […]

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