THE can’t-miss SAFO event of the summer in NYC! 

Please join Kal Penn, Mira Nair, Karsh Kale, DJ Rekha, Trendroid, Bollygirl v. Dimm, DJ Nihal and others for an event benefiting Senator Barack Obama and the Obama Victory Fund.

WHEN:  Tuesday, August 12th, 7:00pm (VIP reception at 6:30pm)
WHERE:  Hiro Ballroom & Lounge at the Maritime Hotel, 363 W. 16th St., New York, NY

Tickets will sell out for this event, so reserve your spot TODAY!

This will be an amazing event with many entertainers and performances from the South Asian community.  Don’t miss out!

For questions, please contact Hrishi Karthikeyan at hrishi1@gmail.com.

You can download a flyer for the event through the link below:
Download NYC_SA_Aug_12.pdf

Great profile of 32-year-old Ryan Kim in Chosun Ilbo, the largest newspaper in South Korea:

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In 1998, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, author of such works as Beloved and Song of Solomon, famously argued that Pres. Bill Clinton was America’s "first black president."  She wrote, "White skin notwithstanding,
this is our first black president. Blacker than any actual black person
who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, he
displays almost every trope of
blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class,
saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."  Of course, an explicit part of Morrison’s discussion was the belief that no actual black person would be elected president in our lifetimes.  Amazingly, just ten years later, America demonstrated its ability to surprise the greatest skeptics by nominating a black candidate with a real shot at the presidency.

In today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Asian American columnist Jeff Yang discusses the possibility that Sen. Obama might be our first Asian American president.  Riffing on Morrison’s framework, Jeff writes:

"Evidence for Obama’s affinity with the Asian American experience
runs true even as one delves deeper into his history. "A lot of aspects
of the senator’s story will be recognizable to many Asian Americans,"
says Lu, a Harvard Law School classmate of the senator’s who joined the
team in 2005. "He talks about feeling like somewhat of an outsider;
about coming to terms with his self-identity; about figuring out how to
reconcile the values from his unique heritage with those of larger U.S.
society. These are tensions and conflicts that play out in the lives of
all children of immigrants."

And how he talks about those tensions could be rote recital
from the Asian American literary canon. With minor search-and-replace,
much of the first half of "Dreams" could have been excerpted from an
Asian American coming-of-age work, like Gus Lee’s "China
Boy," Gene Yang’s "American Born Chinese," or Michael Kang’s "The Motel."

Many AAPIs will probably find this familiar as well:

"By the time Obama talks about
his remote father’s outsized academic expectations for him ("Have I
told you that your brothers and sister have also excelled in their
schooling? It’s in the blood, I think"; "Barry, you do not work as hard
as you should … If the boy has done his work for tomorrow, he can
begin on his next day’s assignments. Or the assignments he will have
when he returns from the holidays") and about his overprotective
mother’s use of guilt as leverage ("A healthy dose of guilt never hurt
anybody," she tells him, "It’s what civilization was built on, guilt. A
highly underrated emotion") the Asian American reader’s feelings of
deja vu will have slipped from amusing to uncanny."

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Pinoy Obama Supporters and partners will be marching in the
Pistahan Parade. Join us Saturday, August 9, at 9 am to march, and stay
afterwards to help the Bay Area Filipinos for Obama register voters,
recruit volunteers, distribute Barack merchandise, and answer questions
about Barack outside the Pistahan festival.  Don’t worry if you’ve
never done anything like this before. We’ll provide training!

Volunteer shifts are 12-3 and 2:30-5:30 on Saturday; 11-2:30 and 2-5 Sunday.

Come be a part of history.  Details on meet-up location to be confirmed the week of the Parade.

RSVP for Saturday, August 9 activities (parade and/or volunteering) at http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/organizing/44jh2

Questions? Contact April Joy at filipinosforobama@gmail.com

Just a reminder that tomorrow, July 31, is the last day
to donate $5 or more for a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip for
you and your guest to the DNC in Denver and meet Barack backstage
before his big speech!  All money donated by midnight tomorrow will
also help our July fundraising numbers.  We’re closing the gap with
McCain and the RNC, but we aren’t there yet!

https://donate.barackobama.com/deadlinednc

Dear AAPI Friends:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/aapihome

Go below the fold for the press release.

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Jonathan Weisman’s post about today’s AAPI luncheon with Sen. Obama.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) introduced Obama at the fundraiser, held in a ballroom of Washington’s posh Mayflower Hotel, noting that Obama’s family includes Asian Americans and that he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. "The son of an immigrant, raised among AAPI’s in Hawaii, Barack Obama understands the struggles of immigrants searching for an identity in America," he said.

Obama ditched his usual stump speech for a more focused talk on issues of interest to the audience. He promised health care initiatives geared toward Asian American problems, gave a full-throated endorsement of federal support for minority-owned businesses (just days after McCain backed state initiatives banning affirmative action), and promised to restore the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Full post

Jonathan Weisman’s post about today’s AAPI luncheon with Sen. Obama.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) introduced Obama at the fundraiser, held in a ballroom of Washington’s posh Mayflower Hotel, noting that Obama’s family includes Asian Americans and that he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. "The son of an immigrant, raised among AAPI’s in Hawaii, Barack Obama understands the struggles of immigrants searching for an identity in America," he said.

Obama ditched his usual stump speech for a more focused talk on issues of interest to the audience. He promised health care initiatives geared toward Asian American problems, gave a full-throated endorsement of federal support for minority-owned businesses (just days after McCain backed state initiatives banning affirmative action), and promised to restore the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Full post

In the midst of a busy day, most staff
here at campaign headquarters took a few minutes to watch Senator Obama
deliver remarks in Berlin.  As I watched, I was struck by the resonance
his "improbable journey" story had with a European audience.  I know
his story of being raised by a mother from Kansas and a father from
Kenya resonates with many in the AAPI community, because it is a story
of cultures coming together.  I did not realize fully until today how
universal that appeal is.  Improbable, yet universal.  He is truly a
candidate for our times.

I wanted to take a moment to recognize
our Super Volunteers - Jordannah Bangi, Junelle Cavero and Sid Salvi.
They have been coming in every day, working diligently.  Thank you
Jordannah, Junelle and Sid!

Finally, please feel free to forward
this to friends, and if you haven’t done so, please take a moment to
sign up here to receive future updates from us, http://my.barackobama.com/AAPIforObama.

Gah Mun/Thank you,

Also, on Tuesday August 26th from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Asian Pacific
Americans for Progress will be sponsoring an "Asian American Grassroots
Strategy Session with Special Guest Congressman Mike Honda." Come join
us for this brainstorming session to be held at the Convention Center.

Please email Apafp@apaforprogress.org for more information or to RSVP.  You can also stay in touch by joining our facebook group at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2295577919