New Digital Archive to Preserve Southeast Asian American History

posted by Randall

UMass Lowell’s Center for Asian American Studies is launching a new digital archive to document the stories of local Southeast Asian American communities since the 1970’s.

The center received a grant of $239,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities and an additional $28,000 from UMass President’s Office Creative Economy Initiatives Fund for the project.… Read more

Sen. Janet Nguyen’s 15 Minutes of Fame?

posted by Brittney Le

Sen. Janet Nguyen’s forcible removal from the California Senate floor may help her get reelected during the 2018 election, reports The Orange County Register. Nguyen (R-Fountain Valley) is being praised by the Vietnamese American community for speaking up during the Senate floor session on Feb. 23. In a Senate district where Democrats currently have … Read more

International Women’s Day: Asian American Women Struggle to Make up Wage Disparity

posted by Randall

 
As women are being urged today to mark International Woman’s Day by taking part in a one day strike, Asian American women are struggling to make up a 7 to 56 percent wage gap with White men.
 
A fact sheet released this month by the National Asian Pacific American … Read more

California State Senator Removed from Floor for Criticizing Late Supporter of Anti-Vietnam War Movement

posted by Brittney Le

California Sen. Janet Nguyen is being treated as a hero by the GOP after she was removed from the state Senate floor for continuing to criticize the late state Sen. Tom Hayden, reports the  Mercury News. Republican Sen. Nguyen spoke during a portion of the session Thursday … Read more

Vietnamese American Priest Offers to Give Up His American Citizenship

posted by Brittney Le

Vietnamese priest Reverend Chuong Hoai Nguyen recently wrote a letter to President Donald Trump offering his own citizenship to a Syrian refugee. Commonweal Magazine, an independent journal run by Catholics, released the letter this week.

In his letter, Rev. Nguyen shows his support for Syrian refugees, having been a refugee … Read more

Tết Festival Rekindles Vietnamese Roots

posted by Brittney Le

Contestants at the 2017 Miss Vietnam of Southern California Pageant wear traditional dresses

By Brittney Le
AsAmNews Intern

Orange County native and UCLA student Austin Nguyen  doesn’t speak Vietnamese as well as he once did. The American-born Vietnamese American has slowly lost the native language of his parents. He comes to the Tet Festival … Read more

Vietnamese Americans Accuse State of Louisiana of Discrimination

posted by Lisa Dinh

Vietnamese Americans are well known in the nail salon industry. For those who question sanitary standards at these salons, the state cosmetology board inspectors is the government entity responsible for oversight of such criteria.
 
But a group of Vietnamese nail salon owners in Baton Rouge have argued the board … Read more

The Life of Bestselling Author Viet Thanh Nguyen

posted by Lisa Dinh

Viet Thanh Nguyen is a fresh name to watch among literary communities and beyond. The Vietnamese American writer reached national acclaim for his books, winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Sympathizer  and became a finalist for the National Book Award for his latest book Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the … Read more

Incarceration of Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Increasing at Rapid Rate

posted by Randall

When it comes to criminal justice reform, you don’t hear a lot about how that might impact Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

That’s why I was a bit surprised to read these statistics from the National Council on Asian Pacific Americans.

The incarceration rate of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders quadrupled from 2000 – 2010, … Read more

Ten New Fact Sheets Released about Asian Americans

posted by Randall

The Center for American Progress has released ten new fact sheets about the Asian American community.

The sheets were published in cooperation with Karthick Ramakrishnan of AAPI Data.

The fact sheets include data about educational attainment, income and poverty, civic participation, language diversity, immigration and nativity, labor-force participation, and access to health insurance.

The Cambodian … Read more