January 24, 2025 | Vol. 54, Issue 2

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

Immigration

Doctor’s Prescription for Injustice: Speak Up

While at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health a couple years ago, Dr. Yipeng Ge faced a dilemma – and the decision he would make would profoundly influence the following years of his life.Already outspoken on the genocide of indigenous people and racism in North America, Dr. Ge discovered the Palestine Program during graduate studies at Harvard. Also taking courses in the Kennedy School and Harvard Law, he then soon found out about Palestine Trek, or PalTrek. In […]

Muslim Lawyer Event to Tackle Big Issues of Faith, Bias and Law

Civil rights attorney Mariam Aydah knows what it’s like to be singled out for being a Muslim while practicing — and studying ­— law. A few incidents stand out in particular. Once, while handling a case, she was mistaken for a client, even after co-counsel introduced her as one of the client’s lawyers. Another time, while in college, a professor who often associated Muslims with terrorists offhandedly rejected a paper she wrote that presented Islam in a positive light. And […]

State Doles Out Funds for Security Amid Hate Fears

A Chinese bible group, Boston-area Islamic society, Sikh group and several Jewish organizations were among the dozens of nonprofits given a total of $5 million in funds earlier this month by the state to boost security amid increased fears of hate crimes. The grants are supposed to support more than 100 nonprofit organizations identified as being “at high risk of hate crimes or terror attacks” so that they can enhance their security, according to a statement from the administration of […]

Expert: Lead, Other RisksLurking in Drinking Water

As concerning amounts of contaminants are found in drinking water systems – whether it be “forever chemicals” or lead from corroding pipes – the Environmental Protection Agency has imposed the first national, legally enforceable drinking water standard in the nation. This would reduce levels of contaminants but come at a cost of replacing and upgrading pipes. PFAS – or polyfluoroalkyl forever chemicals – are estimated to contaminate dozens of public drinking water systems in 86 Massachusetts communities since, posing risks […]

Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi Persisted – And Helped End Mass Incarceration of Japanese Americans

Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi didn’t set out to be a civil rights hero. And she didn’t promote herself as one. But she played a key role in ending the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans – many of them U.S. citizens – during World War II. “Mitsuye was an ordinary person who was caught up in an extraordinary circumstance,” explains writer Frank Abe, who was part of a team who first told the personal story of Endo Tsutsumi in print, in the […]

STEM, Healthcare Associate Degrees Can Be Ticket Out of Poverty, But Study Finds Vast Disparities in Success

While Massachusetts is home to the world’s most elite universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it’s often community colleges that provide a lifeline to many of the state’s least well-off students. That’s thanks largely to programs that offer associate degrees in healthcare specialties and “STEM” – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – fields. These often two-year degree and certificate programs can help students land high paying jobs in nursing, medical imaging and dental hygienics as well […]

Asian Community Fund Aims to Bridge Gaps for Region’s AAPI Communities

When the Asian Community Fund (ACF) launched in 2020, it set out with a clear mission: to unify and empower the Asian American Pacific Islander community across Massachusetts.Founded during a period of heightened anti-Asian racism and in response to research showing less that 1% of philanthropic giving reaches Asian communities, ACF has become a vital resource for increasing visibility and support for local Asian communities. “We’ve been so invisible to date,” says Executive Director Danielle Kim, highlighting how the AAPI […]

‘Palestine Is the New Vietnam,’ Says MIT Linguistics Professor DeGraff

MIT professor Michel Anne-Frederic DeGraff has a long history as an expert in linguistics. His study in the field has propelled his career in academia at one of the world’s most prestigious institutions. His recent political activism, however, has gotten him in trouble with that very university. DeGraff’s supposed crime? Taking the side of solidarity with Palestine at a time when universities around the nation have increasingly cracked down on pro-Palestinian activism. Originally a student of computer science in the […]

Holistic Approach Needed to Heal: Refugee Trauma Doctor

Dr. Lin Piwowarczyk, co-founder of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, has been working with torture victims and refugees for over 30 years. Specializing in the mental health evaluation and treatment of refugees and survivors of torture, she is currently the principal investigator for an Office of Refugee Resettlement grant addressing the holistic treatment of torture survivors. She spoke to Sampan at length about her life, her work, and what we can all do to protect human […]

Minority, Female Doctors at Teaching Hospitals Face Barriers to Job Advancement, Finds Study

Racial minorities and women face many barriers to getting promoted to advanced positions at teaching hospitals and in other academic medical jobs when compared with their white peers, found a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, “Race and Ethnicity, Gender, and Promotion of Physicians in Academic Medicine,” in fact, reveals persistent inequities in the career advancement of physicians within academic medicine. Disparities were particularly glaring for women and racial and ethnic minority groups. […]

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