“American justice has become American injustice. Superimposed on you.” Showcased at this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival, “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” is a documentary directed by Steve James that encapsulates a five-year-long legal battle between the state of New York and Abacus Federal Savings Bank. Within the first three minutes of the film,…
Established in 1994, the Association of Hmong Students (AHS) hosted its fourth annual Hmong Awareness Day (HAD) event at UCLA on April 5th, 2017. To second-year AHS Secretary, Paja Thao, “HAD is an opportunity to make people on campus aware of my identity, where I’m from and who I am. It is a very important…
Although the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American community is slowly making its way onto the Grammys’ nominations list, the Grammys are best known for its limited representation of ethnic minorities. At the 2017 Grammys award show, about 25 APIDA artists were nominated for their talents and contributions. However, only seven individuals won. In order to…
In a sea of Southeast Asians on campus, I am a minority. I am underrepresented. I am Laotian. Oftentimes, people misidentify me as Vietnamese. While I do not find that to be an insult, it functions as a reminder that I am not able to relate or identify with a cultural group on campus. Laos…