Features

May 24, 2022 0

Japanese Breakfast and Mitski: Two Asian American Musicians Expanding the Conversation on Representation in Popular American Culture

What is ‘indie rock’? Is it truly free from the restraints of corporate record label mandates, or is it simply the audio equivalent of a finely assembled glossy fashion spread in a magazine? Commerce usually likes to think it can manage the tastes and inclinations of the record-buying public, but in recent years some artists have challenged and expanded the pre-conceived notions of genre conventions that have been long populated (and dictated) by white people. Japanese Breakfast and Mitski are […]

May 24, 2022 0

Massachusetts Senate Passed the Work and Family Mobility Act for Lack Federal Status

by Max Wei

Not everyone in Massachusetts has the right to drive. For some residents without federal immigration status, the inability to obtain a legal Driver’s license can totally prevent them from working and providing for their families. There are many jobs throughout Massachusetts where public transportation essentially does not exist and therefore they cannot get to them. And still there are other jobs where the employer actually requires a driver’s license and even a car. Also, consider the plight of newly arrived […]

May 24, 2022 0

Women’s Rights are Threatened; Immigrant Women Especially Vulnerable

by Jeff Millman

Abortion rights in the United States are under threat. At the beginning of this month a draft of a majority opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito leaked to Politico. The draft suggests that the Supreme Court will overturn the decisions it made in Roe vs. Wade nearly fifty years ago and in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey thirty years ago. In 1973, the Supreme Court decided that criminal abortion statutes, which excepted from criminality only those procedures that would […]

May 24, 2022 0

From Dick’s Desk at the AACA LITC
(Asian American Civic Association Low Income Taxpayer Clinic)

by Richard Soo Hoo

Dear Dick Massachusetts is one of the 46 states in the US that has legalized marijuana. So, I decided to petition my City of Cambridge to open a medical marijuana dispensary. Medical marijuana can effectively treat pain, headache, muscle spasms, eye disease, and many other medical problems. I received a good deal of support locally and from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in forming my cannabis business. That is, until I heard that the federal government still has not legalized marijuana. […]

May 24, 2022 0

Free Tax Advice and Representation for Non-English Speaking People

by Wenchen Wang

Low-Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITC) assist low-income individuals who have a tax dispute with the IRS and the Mass Dept of Revenue and provide education and outreach to individuals who speak English as a second language (ESL). According to the 2021 LITC Program Report from Taxpayer Advocacy Services, LITC represented 19,413 Taxpayers, brought 2,398 taxpayers into filing compliance, provided consultation or advice to 17,792 Taxpayers, and brought 2,990 taxpayers into collection compliance. The Asian American Civic Association (AACA) has launched the […]

May 24, 2022 0

Chinese Laundry: Personal Stories of Pride and Perseverance

by Chelsea Wang

For first-wave Chinese immigrants in the mid-1800’s, laundries were a primary source of income and a significant part of Chinese-American labor history. Along with construction of the railroads, the laundry business was a mainstay of the Chinese immigrant economy. The Chinese needed to survive in an English-speaking world in which they did not have access to most employment opportunities. The laundries remain a point of shared connection between many Chinese American families today. Thomas Chin’s family worked in their hand […]

May 24, 2022 0

A Song Everlasting: Ha Jin and the Absolute Cost of Creative Freedom

by Christopher John Stephens

The status of a creative writer in their own culture is always tenuous, always in flux. Are they best as servants to the status quo, or are they only understood within the context of what they manage to overturn? Think of American authors like James Patterson or Tom Clancy, whose bestsellers over the course of their many decades follow standard formulas of handsome rugged heroes and clearly defined bad guys. Their creativity exists in their ability to define and perfect […]

May 24, 2022 0

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Asian Cultural Appropriation

by Sampan Staff

Comic book fans are an insistent subgroup of art aficionados. Some might go so far as to say they are belligerent. They covet elements of their heroes; Superman’s cape, Captain America’s shield, Spiderman’s mask, as if they are talisman objects of veneration. They hang objects on their walls, wear costumes during Halloween, don the same outfits at Comic Conventions, and blur the lines between a preoccupation and religious observation. Where faith has always depended on a creation myth to explain […]

May 6, 2022 0

Society’s Other Covid-19 Symptom, Bigotry, Takes a Toll

by Max Wei

Low-income Asian American families have faced disproportionate hardships since the Covid-19 pandemic began, as I reported here in the last issue of Sampan. “Many people are surprised to learn that Asian Americans have the highest poverty rate of any racial-ethnic group in Boston — it’s about 29%, ” Carolyn Wong, a researcher at the Institute of Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, told me. Wong is the co-writer of a recently published report on the struggles faced by Asians in the Boston area from the pandemic. “The lowest paid workers […]

May 6, 2022 0

With Immigration Rule’s Fate in Limbo, So Is Fate of Many Asylum Seekers

by Moninisha Yadav

In recent decades, the United States has added approximately 1 million immigrants every year. This has happened in accordance with a number of provisions of immigration law, primarily through the sponsorship of family members who are U.S. citizens. However, when COVID-19 escalated in March of 2020, the number of immigration admissions, which had already been slowing greatly during the Trump administration, came to a virtual stop. As part of its approach to reduce immigration, the Trump administration sought to bypass […]

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