Well, for the second straight day, SM got awesome access to the convention. As a proud honorary Alaskan delegate, I had the privilege of standing on the podium with the other swing states and seeing the candidates up close. And I’ll have Abhi know that there are South Asians everywhere – even in Alaska! I discovered that this means that one could barely hear anyone speak due to the commotion occurring all around them (in this instance, making it quite like the ‘blogger lounge’), but hey, it was the podium of the DNC, so even all this commotion was quite exciting. Andrea Mitchell, Max Baucus, and even one impressive young South Asian (see Tumblr soon) were seen in action. To be honest, I can’t tell you much about the keynote, seeing as the whole crowd was buzzing in anticipation of the main act…

On the anniversary of women receiving to vote, Hillary’s speech was framed as both a celebration of her historic candidacy as well as a call for party unity. It certainly achieved the goal of celebrating the candidacy, as Hillary urged the crowd to celebrate their achievements, and used that as a standpoint to urge unity, describing how John McCain’s policies would be the direct opposite of all that she has fought for in her life. Whether she made an effective case for Obama can only be truly be gauged by Hillary supporters – all I know is that her lead to her most memorable line, describing all the parallels between Bush and McCain before commenting that “It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities, because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart,” was quite cutting and powerful.

Her candidacy and discussion about it raises some interesting questions in the South Asian community. In some aspects, we could say our community is ahead of the curve, as female leaders have already been elected in many of our countries of origin. On the other hand, there sometimes (though not often) exists a chauvinist attitude in South Asian communities that can result in great tragedy. Where do you feel South Asian American communities are when it comes to womens’ rights? Are we already very progressive, or do we have a ways to go? Do political successes or failures have a correlation to the daily rights of women in community, family, and society in South Asian communities? These are the questions that are (or should be) discussed these days in general when reflecting on the Clinton campaign, and are interesting and constructive to look at in the context of our community. Continue reading →

Thanks to the kindness of a few very nice people, I was able to go to the convention for the Kennedy and Obama night, and I would be remiss if I did not give at least a short comment on both. Caroline Kennedy’s tribute as well as the video ably paid justice to a man who has done a great deal to benefit all Americans, especially in many cases immigrants. The issues of immigration reform and immigrant rights, healthcare, discrimination, poverty, and an intelligent foreign policy were all discussed in great detail at the many Asian American events today, and Ted Kennedy has certainly done a great deal of work on all of these issues in his extensive time in the Senate. When he said he wanted to “close the book on the old politics of race and gender, group against group..,” I thought he would certainly be encouraged by the bonds forged by the many different ethnicities in the AAPI caucus, which showed itself today to be formidable and only growing stronger and more cohesive in the near future.

Michelle Obama’s speech probably brought the most enthusiastic response from the crowd, and it had a lot of messages that had the potential to resonate with the South Asian community. Craig Robinson introduced her as a devoted and caring mother and the Obama and Robinson extended family as one that has a strong emphasis on bonds and family values, a theme of extended connection that is common and cherished in South Asian communities. She discussed how her parents taught her that “America should be a place where you can make it if you try,” the idea of the American dream that certainly is powerful for all immigrants. Her major theme was that her and Barack see the “world as it is and the world as it should be,” and only accept the “world as it should be.” Whether you will vote for him or not, the fact that, as Michelle said, “a son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House” has to be encouraging to any proud immigrant parents or children of immigrants. Continue reading →

This afternoon I had the pleasure of seeing everyone I saw at the AAPI Caucus, and a few more, at the AAA-Fund “Power Hour” and the IALI Reception. In case you are wondering what these lovely acronyms mean, AAA is the Asian-American Action Fund and IALI is the Indian American Leadership Initiative, both 501(c)3’s that support Asian-American (in IALI’s case, Indian-American) Democratic candidates, as well as a few candidates that are special supporters of these communities.

The AAA Fund event brought together a great collection of Asian-American leaders and activists, led by the omnipresent and eternally cool Congressman Mike Honda. Honda remarked how he was the first recipient of AAA funds, and how this meeting was far larger (double the size) then it was four years ago. He gave a great introduction to our very own Ashwin Madhia, who gave his campaign pitch, got a standing ovation from our group, and also mentioned (a few times) that his campaign is in the homestretch and needs another million dollars to run strong through the fall. We also heard from numerous other leaders, including California folk hero comptroller John Chiang and whiz kid Sid Salvi. We heard about the AAA’s ambitious AAPI Vote Project, which has substantial resources and a well-documented plan.

At the IALI reception, many more Indians appeared on the scene (obviously), though many of the same faces were still present. Madhia and Honda made appearances, and media from seemingly every Indian TV station imaginable was covering the event. The big news at this event were the appearances by majority whip Steny Hoyer and former vice-presidential contender (and current Virginia governor) Tim Kaine. Their appearance highlighted the rapid ascendancy of Indian-Americans in politics, and most importantly, Tim Kaine noted that he had 3 Indian-Americans in his 10 person cabinet this past year, and they all did an exceptional job, showing that South Asians are rising politically not due solely to wealth, but due to qualifications and will. Continue reading →

Hello from Denver everyone – this is my first official post from the convention, although if you’ve been astute and checking out our very nice Tumblr page, you’ll have realized that its actually my third! One would think nothing would happen on a Sunday at the DNC – but then one would have missed the epic DNC “interfaith gathering” that took place this afternoon at the Colorado Convention Center. At this gathering, we had Catholic Priests, Jewish Rabbis, Pentecostal Ministers, Muslim Imams, Buddhist College Students, and Catholic Anti-Death Penalty Activists. Many of them spoke very well and inspiringly, and interestingly enough, they didn’t stick to the party line – Helen Prejean, an anti-death penalty activist, was to the left of Obama on the issue, while Bishop Charles E. Blake was to the right of him on abortion. One thing they could all agree on, however, was that the Democratic Party’s “Big Tent” was a good place for them to express their opinions and could offer a strong hope for future considerate policy. To read more about it, you can watch the whole video here, but I took a special interest in the speakers that would interest the Sepia readers.

There were three main parts of this interfaith gathering that had the most “South Asian relevance.” One was Kathryn Ida, the Buddhist college student who read a passage and that I briefly profiled here. Another was Ingrid Mattson, the president of the Islamic Society of North America, who I’ll get to in a moment. And last was a notable absence – the absence of any Hindu leaders at this interfaith gathering! Hindus make up a similar percentage of the American population to Muslims and Buddhists, and also identify overwhelmingly Democrat as a religious group. Alas, it was probably an oversight, but quite an unusual one for a Convention that has a sizable number of South Asian related events (see the next three days of posts). I’d like to add to the irony of the moment by wishing all the Vaishnavs out there a very happy Janmashtami =)

The Muslim-American community was recognized in full-force, with local imams assisting in opening and closing prayers, and Ingrid Mattson, the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), as a keynote speaker. There had been some controversy over her organization , and I really don’t know enough about ISNA or the speaker to judge, but her speech was strong and anything but controversial. The theme of her speech was “Our Sacred Responsibility to Our World” and she covered a variety of subjects including:

• The importance of learning more about and engaging people of different nations to better understand them (she gave the example of an instance in which Syrian women had the opportunity to travel and meet Christian and Jewish women, and the opportunities this gave for cultural understanding)

• On the same theme, promoting a policy of allowing more foreign students to travel to the United States as the best way to spread the American message of freedom

• She mentioned that despite the discrimination Muslims occasionally face in the U.S., “this is still the best place in the world to practice our faith”

• She addressed the need to “confront evil…but do so with humility” and that it “saddens me tht this evil is done in the name of my religion”

• The need to fight terrorism without causing indiscriminate civilian harm

Her speech was well-received by the entire crowd, and afterwards SM had the chance to ask her a few questions (answers might be paraphrased due to speed of interview): Continue reading →