June 18, 2013

June 18, DC: AAA-Fund 13th Annual Celebration

Editor’s Note: Share our Facebook post, Like our just-launched Facebook Page, join our Facebook Event and RT our Tweet (about this event).

AAAF logo

LAST CHANCE to get tickets! Register now!

ASIAN AMERICAN ACTION (AAA) FUND
AAA-FUND HOST COMMITTEE
Yeni Wong * Bel Leong-Hong * Irene Bueno * Melissa Unemori Hampe * Mona Mohib
Gautam Dutta * Marybelle Ang * Gloria Caoile * Tom Goldstein * Caroline Fan
Otto Lee * Phil Nash * John Tagami * Monisha Santamaria * Irene Lin
California Assemblymember Rob Bonta * Nasima Hossain * Howard Moon * Richard Chen * Shekar Narasimhan

“Host Committee in Formation”
Invites you to
Our 13th annual celebration honoring

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Breaking Barriers: Honoring Our Democratic Rising Stars

With special Honors for:
Sen. Mazie Hirono
“Trailblazer Award”

CA Attorney General Kamala Harris (Accepting on Her Behalf: US Rep. Ami Bera)
“Trailblazer Award”

U.S. Representatives Ami Bera, Tammy Duckworth,
Tulsi Gabbard, Grace Meng and Mark Takano
“Rising Star award”

And

Asian American Justice Center President Mee Moua
“Leadership Award”

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

McDermott, Will and Emery
500 North Capitol Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001 (Metro & Parking: Union Station)
6:30 to 8:30 pm

Suggested Donations

Individuals: Host: $2,000 – Sponsor: $1,000 – Friend: $500
Guest: $125 ($100 online by 6/10)
Non-Profit/Public Sector: $100 ($75 online by 6/10)
Student/Young Professional: $55 ($40 online by 6/10)

PAC Donations: Diamond: $5,000 – GOLD: $3,500 – SILVER: $2,500

Donations will go to AAA-Fund to support its continuing efforts to unite and activate our community.

For Rsvp and Donations please go to www.aaa-fund.org or Contact: Lida Peterson (lida@cimpa.org; 703.622.1381)

Paid for by the Asian American Action Fund, c/o Warren O’Hearn, 3036 “O” Street NW, Basement Unit, Washington, DC 20007-3114.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee

www.aaa-fund.org

2013 AAA-Fund Blogathon: Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Editor’s Note: Retweet this Blogathon to spread the word of cash prizes for a good cause!

The 2013 AAA-Fund Blogathon is here! Help us push for immigration reform as the bills come out.

The topic is:
How should our immigration policy be reformed?

The prizes are:

  • First Place: $200 cash and an exclusive invitation to become a featured AAA-Fund Blogger for July 2013
  • Second Place: $100 cash
  • Third Place: $50 gift certificate

Our Lead Sponsor is Gillenwater Law Firm, PLLC, focusing on immigration law, founded by our own Editor-in-Chief, Justin Gillenwater.

Write in whichever style you want within reason and responsibility; use these
guidelines
if common sense is unsufficient.

Email your full name & entry text (more than 1 submission allowed) to editor@aaa-fund.org or comment your submission below (also with full name).

We’ll link to the voting post when voting opens (see last Blogathon’s voting).

Deadline is Sunday, June 30 at 4pm (ET).

See our topic, entries & winners for the last Blogathon for the last major reform bill, healthcare. As always, you can write to us at editor@aaa-fund.org or write for us anytime.

Our Fellow to Teddy Kỳ-Nam Miller to Dr. Ami Bera’s Campaign

Editor’s Note: Note our other Fellow Maya Ono’s posts as the AAA-Fund sponsored fellow to Nate Shinagawa’s campaign.

Teddy Kỳ-Nam Miller with Dr. Ami Bera

Our AAA-Fund Mike Honda Fellow, Teddy Kỳ-Nam Miller, directed the Election Protection team for our Endorsed Candidate Ami Bera. Bera ran in a rematch in Fall 2012 against incumbent Congressman Dan Lungren. Dr. Bera’s district has one of the fastest growing Asian and Hispanic populations in California. AAA-Fund Fellowship enabled Teddy to recruit, train, and deploy a 40-member Election Protection Team that successfully fended off Tea Party challengers at the polls as well as during the extended voter tabulation process. On election night, Dr. Bera’s slim lead of just under 200 votes was a direct result of AAA-Fund’s crucial support in keeping polls accessible for communities of Vietnamese, Hmong, Sikh, Hispanic, Filipino, and dozens of other minority groups. Teddy will attend this Tuesday’s fundraiser to help honor Ami and all our groundbreaking APA leaders. Join Teddy in supporting AAA-Fund’s effort to fund more Mike Honda fellows for the future.

June 18, DC: Mayor’s AAPI Teacher Appreciation Reception

The below is from our friends at the DC Mayor’s Office on Asian & Pacific Islander Affairs.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Teacher Appreciation Reception

I invite you to the Asian American and Pacific Islander Teacher Appreciation Reception scheduled for Tuesday June 18, 2013 from 6:30pm – 8:00pm at 700 6th Street, NW Rooftop. This is a part of our “UNSUNG HEROES” series which was initiated last year.

Last year, we have held a reception to honor and recognize AAPI police officers and fire fighters for their contributions and also to encourage AAPI youth to consider law enforcement career opportunities. The purpose of this year’s event is also to celebrate the contributions and honor the outstanding work of AAPI teachers in the District of Columbia.

We hope you can join us to meet our AAPI teachers and recognize the extraordinary efforts they make every day on behalf of their students! We want to help promote the diversity of the teachers in DCPS and highlight the contributions AAPI teachers make in the community. This is also an opportunity to showcase a non-traditional career path in the AAPI community.

To register, contact Neel Saxena directly at neel.saxena7#064;dc.gov. Details at http://aapiteacher.eventbrite.com/. Thank you!

AAA-Fund Endorses Aneesh Chopra for VA Lt. Gov.

Editor’s Note: Aneesh lost 54-45. Aneesh looks forward to working with Sen. Northram in November.

AAAF logo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Gautam Dutta (202) 236-2048

AAA-Fund Endorses Aneesh Chopra for Lieutenant Governor

Asian Pacific American PAC Touts Unprecedented Opportunity to Elect First Asian American to Statewide Office in Virginia History

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Asian American Action Fund today endorsed Aneesh Chopra for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. If elected, Chopra would be the first Asian American elected statewide in Virginia.

AAA-Fund Executive Director Gautam Dutta said, “Virginia has become a battleground state due to an influx of minority communities now making their home there. Aneesh’s background as the secretary of technology to Governor Tim Kaine and as the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer under President Obama makes him an ideal candidate to strengthen Virginia’s middle class through his emphasis on innovation, technology and education. AAA-Fund is pleased to lend our strong support to his historic candidacy.”

 

AAA-Fund is a Democratic PAC with local chapters across the country devoted to strengthening the participation of Asian Pacific Americans in the political process.

 

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The AAA-Fund is a Democratic political action committee whose goal is to increase the voice of Asian Pacific Americans (APA) on every level of local, state and federal government in America. To achieve this goal, we address the chronic under-representation of APAs as campaign volunteers, campaign contributors, and candidates for political office. The AAA-Fund has endorsed candidates across the country. For more information, go to AAA-fund.org and read our award-winning blog at AAA-fund.com.

A dialogue on n+1′s “White Indians” piece

Editor’s note: In reading n+1′s “White Indians,” I had my own thoughts and solicited the opinions of two Indian American friends, who agreed to have our dialogue published as long as they were anonymized. Let’s call them J and T. This is by no means meant to symbolize what all Indian Americans or all Asian Americans think; what follows is real talk about race, hip hop, arts and culture, and politics amongst friends.:

“White Indians” argues that South Asian Americans are a “safe” minority to have on-screen, that “no color is safer than South Asian brown. No minority presence in the US is more reassuring, or less likely to get angry or acknowledge your antiblack racism.”

C: My initial take was that as well written as the article is, I have mixed feelings because the editors (including editor Nikil Saval) don’t talk about the current mainstream or the conflation of South Asian American with the scary terrorist. Conflicted about a lot of it, but the handling of Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley is spot on. Have noticed and cheered rise of desis on tv.

J: Thank you for sending this provocative article. I completely agree with your assessment of it esp. about Muslim-Americans. I too have mixed feelings, particularly about the caustic writing style. It kind of put me in a funk reading it in the morning. It was kind of all over the place and written from a masculine perspective. Why didn’t he mention The Mindy Project? asked K. One error that I’d point out is that Vijay Prashad actually says that the folks who came through the highly skilled labor pool were from middle-class families in India, not wealthy elites. Prof. Pras(h)ad was referenced in a poorly edited documentary “Not a Feather But a Dot.”

T: I actually thought it was very well-written, though after a while it did come off as ranting. That’s the point where I think it lost an overall thesis to the whole piece. However, I do agree with a lot of the points brought up, it’s all stuff I’ve heard in various places since college, just collated.

I agree with his point about Desi actors, but at the same time, I’m conflicted b/c I know a lot of them. They struggle for roles, because diverse roles don’t often exist for south asian actors — the reason the Outsourced people were so excited was, even though they were stereotyped roles, they were LEAD roles, something a lot of those actors have strived for for a long, long time and rarely gotten a shot at. And in the arts, Desis gravitate towards being performers, but not as much towards directing and producing, i.e. decision-making that would open up more opportunities for non-white actors. So essentially, they take what they can get, and I don’t think you can fault them for it. Kind of similar to Hattie McDaniel…..people always gave her crap about taking stereotyped black “mammie” roles, but at the same time, she won an OSCAR as a black woman in the 1930′s. You have to give her credit for that.

There actually are a lot of indian americans (younger) that Identify more with hip-hop culture and not so much the whiteness — but these are the kids of working class families, not the ones that grew up in affluent, “whiter” suburbs. Also — there are a lot of younger Indians leaning to the right, the ones who grew up in more affluent suburbs and all want to open their own businesses, or who are culturally sheltered and think gay marriage is gross….

J: Yeah, one of my young 18 year old cousins is a mini-Republican in the making, all about entrepreneurship, and grew up in predominantly white affluent suburbs. hip-hop is no longer black, urban, or low-income in its roots anymore – it’s global, and there are plenty of people of all races who identify with it, both as listeners and producers.

T: My point about the hip hop was not so much about identifying with blacks (look at most of Irvine, CA as an illustration — hip hop oriented but still very, very Asian). A better way of saying it is that there’s a contingent of young Desis who are not white-identifying, usually from less affluent backgrounds.

C: I think there is a subset of any minority that is not white or mainstream identifying. 626 and Garden City CA is a good example too. How does this compare with the diaspora experience?

Actually, if you don’t mind, this is a pretty educational dialogue. Would it be ok to post this dialogue, with names stripped out if you prefer, to the aaa fund blog?

T: I’m fine if you post the comments, i’ll leave it up to J.

J: Sure, no names please.

–Caroline

May 31, Rosslyn, VA: Happy Hour for Aneesh Chopra

Editor’s Note: The Commonwealth of Virginia holds its Democratic Primary on June 11. The below is from our friends at Aneesh Chopra’s campaign for Lieutenant Governor.

Aneesh Chopra for Virginia

Please Join
Aneesh Chopra
for a Happy Hour for Virginia’s Future

Friday, May 31, 2013
5:30 to 7:30 PM

Continental Modern Pool Lounge
1911 N Fort Myer Dr, Arlington, VA 22209
In Rosslyn close to the Metro and the Key Bridge

All are welcome — $10 or $20 contribution optional

Event Info: teamchopra.org/events/may/31

RSVP to Peter Appel, AppelPeterH@gmail.com

Learn more about Aneesh: www.chopraforva.com

Aneesh Chopra was the first U.S. Chief Technology Officer and fourth Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is running to make the Commonwealth better, faster, and fairer for every Virginian. Aneesh’s election will send a strong signal in today’s political climate that leaders focused on delivering a more open, innovative government can make a difference over those that emphasize gridlock and partisanship – and that with an execution focus, we can deliver results in months, not years. His campaign has built a strong grassroots network and Aneesh has earned endorsements from elected and grassroots leaders around the Commonwealth including Congressman Jim Moran, Congressman Gerry Connolly, former Congressman Tom Perriello, former Congressman Rick Boucher, and many more.

Question of the Week: Return of the Tea Party?

Will the IRS’s “Tea Party” scandal help the Tea Party regain some of its lost influence?  Here’s what Fox News has to say.

– Gautam Dutta

The Importance of Family Immigration

Editor’s Note: The below is a re-posting our Endorsed Candidate Rep. Mike Honda‘s piece in the May 17, 2013 edition of Roll Call. Our Chicago has made a statement on family reunification. Our AAA-Fund Endorsed Canadidate Sen. Hirono pushes her amendment for family reunification for financial aid for DREAMers. Our own Board Member Bel Leong-Hong why family reunification is so import to AAPIs. Our ongoing Blogathon is on this very topic. We encourage you to advance this important issue in any way you deem fit. Comment or contact us if we can help in any way.

For too long our immigration system has had an exclusionary effect, leaving families separated and causing unimaginable heartache. Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders know this too well. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for the first time in our nation’s history, excluded a group of people based purely on ethnicity.

The Chinese immigrants strengthened our nation’s infrastructure, only to be persecuted when their labor was seen as competition and when the dirtiest work was done. Their families excluded from our shores, these immigrants had to choose whether to remain in their new country, never to see their relatives again — or return permanently to China. Today, because of our broken immigration system, AAPIs experience a similar predicament. AAPIs sponsor nearly half of all family-based immigrants, yet wait decades in an immigration backlog. The wait time for a U.S. citizen petitioning for a brother or sister from the Philippines exceeds 20 years.

I commend the Senate “gang of eight” for forging a bipartisan immigration reform bill. I am concerned, however, that eliminating the ability of U.S. citizens to sponsor their brothers, sisters and married adult children for legal permanent residence will be disproportionately detrimental to AAPI families. The Philippines, Vietnam, India, China, Pakistan, South Korea and Bangladesh rank among the top countries with the largest number of siblings and married children awaiting immigrant visas. Exclusionary immigration legislation erodes the values that make America great; principles of love and family unite our nation. Now is the time to learn from our mistakes. Comprehensive immigration reform can correct ills of the past and honor the founding values of our nation.

As comprehensive immigration reform moves through the legislative process, we must ensure that family reunification remains the cornerstone of our immigration system. That is why I proudly stand with, and commend, Sen. Mazie K. Hirono of Hawaii for her courageous amendments filed in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hirono’s amendments strengthen the bill’s family immigration system by restoring the adult married child and sibling categories for families looking to reunite with their loved ones. They also recognize the value of siblings and adult married children to families and America as a whole — they join the military, become teachers and work in our health care sector, among many other things.

The family is the basic unit of our society. That is why today’s immigration dialogue should not pit family against employment. Strong immigrant families start businesses that create jobs and contribute to our nation’s social and economic fabric. They enhance opportunities to establish roots in their communities and prosper together.

AAPIs, whether they are high-skilled tech workers, small-business owners, students or health care professionals, make profound contributions to America’s economic prosperity. My colleagues in Congress must not underestimate the power and concerns of the AAPI community.

A broad consensus of business, academic and policy leaders warn that the U.S. is on the verge of science and technology workforce shortages. AAPIs are twice as likely to hold jobs in these fields as any other immigrant group, with as many as 1 in 5 workers employed in the engineering and technology sector. Additionally, more than 63 percent of foreign-born science, technology, engineering and math graduates are Asian and Pacific Islander. These aspiring citizens and drivers of our global economic competitiveness should not be separated from their families. The community’s growth rate, buying power and political power are explosive and irrefutable. This is a presence that must not be ignored.

On both sides of the aisle, my colleagues agree that family values are quintessential to the moral, social and economic fabric of our society — and that families knit this nation together. As Congress deliberates comprehensive immigration reform, we must stay true to a shared vision of preserving and strengthening our families, and therefore, our economic prosperity.

We know, unquestionably, the value each family member brings to the table. Immigration issues are not new to AAPIs. The AAPI community’s history is the story of immigration in our nation. We have a story to tell — a dog in the fight. No family should be left out of the immigration system, and only by forging truly comprehensive immigration reform can we forge a more perfect union.

– Mike Honda

Rep. Michael M. Honda is a Democrat who represents California’s 17th District.