momo chang

I recently wrote a story for the East Bay Express about refugees from Burma who are now living in Oakland. A report out of San Francisco State University, headed by Professor Russell Jeung and in collaboration with Burma Refugee Family Network, indicates that this population continues to live in extreme poverty, with an unemployment rate [...]

I interviewed Thu Quach, a researcher at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, for Hyphen magazine. Quach has conducted several key studies on nail salon workers, a population that is made of mostly Vietnamese American women in some states such as California. It also happens to be a population that is continuously shifting as people [...]

I recently attended a Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, awards dinner in San Francisco. I, along with journalist Pauline Bartolone, received an award in the investigative (radio/audio non-daily) category for a 30-minute radio documentary we produced on toxic hazards in nail salons for Making Contact. It was my first radio piece, and I [...]

I’m happy to share the news that a story I wrote for Hyphen, later re-printed in the Utne Reader, has been included in the latest edition of Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings, a textbook published by McGraw-Hill. The article, Color Me Nontoxic, is about a Vietnamese American woman, Uyen Nguyen, who started [...]

Here’s to the next generation activists, particularly who organize youth of color or are youth activists themselves. See the three profiles (click on “articles” on the left side and “The Next Generation) I wrote for The American Prospect’s special report, Colorlinded, on race in America. The profiles focus on DREAM Act “Trail of Dreams” walker [...]

A radio segment on the toxic truth behind nail salons is now live. I made the segment, with the help of producer Pauline Bartelone, with Making Contact, a show that is a part of the National Radio Project. My segment focuses on the “greening” of nail salons; that is, more salons attempting to make workplaces [...]

I recently interviewed Taiwanese uber-pop star Jay Chou for Hyphen. Chou plays the role of Kato in Columbia Pictures’ remake of The Green Hornet, directed by Michel Gondry and also starring Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz. I learned that though Chinglish is often derided, sometimes is the the most effective means of communicating, especially, in [...]

Fred Korematsu, civil rights icon for younger generation, has his day

By Momo Chang
Oakland Tribune Correspondent

Posted: 10/01/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT

A little-known Japanese-American man may be the next generation’s civil rights icon after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill last week making Jan. 30 the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution.
This is the first [...]

Here’s a short news story I have in this week’s East Bay Express about a female janitor who’s suing for sex and pregnancy discrimination. She was fired after trying to go back to work after maternity leave.
Here are also a few recent blog posts I’ve written for Hyphen. The first is about the film 9500 [...]

Here’s my cover story in this week’s East Bay Express about new Burmese refugees — the Karenni people — and their struggles after arriving in the U.S. “Still Seeking Refuge: The East Bay’s new Burmese immigrants left their homes in Thai refugee camps only to find themselves in an even tougher spot — inner-city Oakland [...]