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• The Moment We Knew: Barack Obama Wins Virginia & The White House

  Friday, Nov 7, 2008 4:28PM / Standard Entry / Members only

  
  Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUbEUB-BrBo
  

  
  But this article in the Washington Post explains what a long journey it has been in Virginia to overcome Republican dominance that has existed ever since Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” of playing to white resentment by blaming Democrats for the Civil Rights movement. The article focuses on the more recent past, of which Annabel and I have been a part.
  
  
  

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• Latinos, Asian Americans, African Americans Carrying Obama to Victory

  Saturday, Nov 1, 2008 1:58AM / Standard Entry / Members only

  
  
  Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hljtL80klM
  

  
  

  After reading this article in today's Washington Post, I've been thinking about how the collapse of the Republican Party directly corresponds to its abandonment of any pretension of reaching out to communities of color. But which came first?

  
  The article in the Washington Post focuses on Colorado, where one of the nation's most notorious anti-immigrant politicians is a Congressman (former Republican Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo). In my research on the immigration battle in 2007 (on which my upcoming film is based), I found that it was electoral dread and desperation that led Republicans all over the nation to experiment with the politics of fear and resentment that fuel the anti-immigrant movement issue. We also saw it on Republican news programs and Republican talk radio. I think it's safe to say it backfired.

  CNN reported yesterday that 70 percent of people of color in Florida are voting for Obama/Biden. Nationally, African American support is in the 90 percent range, and among Hispanics it is 66 to 70 percent. Asian American polls depend on the region, but I'm proud to say that in areas of the country where Asian Americans are empowered and informed, Obama/Biden is the preferred ticket by a 2 to 1 margin similar to Latinos (only with more undecideds).

  My analysis of this is that Sarah Palin's hateful speeches and the hateful reactions from her followers have reminded people of color across the nation how ugly and how dangerous racism can be. I think a similar repulsion is reflected in the movement of moderates and independents toward Obama/Biden in recent weeks.

  In contrast, you have Barack Obama, who's mixed ancestry and immigrant father say to all people of color that, if you look at America as a whole (as opposed to the factions of the Republican party) there is no longer a privilege or an advantage to being Caucasian, no, not necessarily. Obama doesn't have to say that in his speeches. We know this to be true because he is winning.

  So that's my introduction to this video demonstrating a strong collaboration between Latino and Asian American artists, including myself. It's a brand new English Language version of "Si Se Puede Cambiar" (With Obama, We Can Change).

  
  

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• Asian Pacific Americans Volunteering for Obama/Biden (in droves!)

  Friday, Oct 31, 2008 2:23AM / Standard Entry / Members only

  The videos and writing below are my best pitch to get Americans, especially Asian Pacific Americans, to volunteer for Obama/Biden this weekend. Click here to volunteer through your local campaign office (or just look up the address and show up!). Click here to learn about a canvassing effort in Las Vegas with groups driving in from Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.
  
  Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FX7bKHjC04
  

  
  

  Annabel and I have been volunteering three or four days a week for the Obama/Biden campaign in Northern Virginia, and will do the same down south in Charlottesville (home of Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia) this weekend.  With only a few days left before election day, duties as a volunteer are as rewarding as they are fun.  Barack Obama's vaunted get-out-the-vote effort has already narrowed the field down to people who are probably supporting Barack Obama, so as you go door to door, you'll be unlikely to be confronted with hateful idiots who still think Obama is "an Arab" (not that there is anything wrong with being an Arab of course).  Your job as a volunteer is to make it more likely that people who already support Obama/Biden will make time to go out and vote.

  Last weekend, Annabel and I visited the home of a 78-year-old woman who had immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan.  She said she very much wanted to vote but was too old to leave the house.  We helped her fill out a vote-by-mail application and explained to her that she will be able to vote after all.  She was very happy about this, and it made us happy to know we'd given her the opportunity to participate in a historic election, and made a small contribution to the expansion of the American electorate.

  Yesterday, I knocked doors in a forest neighborhood in Annandale, VA, where I met 8 very enthusiastic Obama supporters and only one guy who said "I'm the complete opposite of what you're looking for."  In particular I'm happy about talking to a 22-year-old man named Jason who intended to take advantage of early voting, but had planned to go on a day when early voting is not available in Virginia (Monday, the day before the election).  Thanks to my visit, he'll be making plans to go today, Saturday, or on election day.

  Over the past two years, I have seen the American electorate expand by leaps and bounds to include immigrants and minorities and many others who had previously been left out of the process.  Early on in this journey, Barack Obama has come to symbolize this national transformation, but it really is, as he will tell you, much bigger than just one person, even the future President of the United States.  This entire movement was made possible by our great democracy and the idea of government for the people, by the people.  Various measures have been taken to keep minorities from having a say in how this government should function, and the result has been disastrous, an electorate homogeneous enough to be blinded by fears and prejudices that cause them to repeatedly vote against their own interest, and against the interest of the nation.  Asian Pacific Americans can and are playing a pivotal role in a seed change, where the American electorate is becoming too diverse to allow a fear or hate-based political strategy to turn large blocks of voters against any particular minority (gays, Latinos, Blacks, Muslims, Asians, the poor, etc.).  With a diverse electorate, the only movements that can unite the country are based on values that we share across ethnic and religious barriers, across sexual orientation and cultural barriers -- in short, we will build a national consensus based on hope instead of fear.  Different groups fear different things, but we all hope for the same things: equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That is the direction we can take America if all of us participate.

  So go vote, of course, go vote. But voting is only one of the many ways that you can participate in your democracy.  By volunteering, you can help others who are intimidated or discouraged from voting, you can show fellow Americans how to become part of the process, and help them gain a sense of ownership and responsiblity for our government and how it is practiced.  Each person we bring into the process during this election will be an invaluable contributor to our democracy in the future (I'll expand on this in my first post after the election), all the more so because they forever remember that they participated in the historic election of 2008 -- and you will have made that possible.  So go do it!

  PS: I like the video above because it shows a great diversity of Asian Pacific Americans volunteering for Obama/Biden (I shot most of the footage but did not participate in editing).  We are about to release a new English language version of the video below, which now has 363,686 views on our United For Obama channel alone. It still chokes me up, right when we see Ken Leung's cameo at the end:
  Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky8Hvq-F0U
  

  
  

  
  

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• A Week Before The Election, A Breakfast Epiphany

  Tuesday, Oct 28, 2008 11:04PM / Standard Entry / Members only

  If future historians ever wish to find a window into the American political zeitgeist prior to the 2008 election, they should refer to the op-ed page of the October 28thm 2008 Washington Post, which today features yet another prominent Republican (this time a Republican dynasty former U.S. Senator) and a highly respected Independent woman explaining why they are voting for Barack Obama and not for John McCain.  Today’s op-ed page, which I savored over coffee and pancakes this morning, also features two superbly written deconstructions of the McCain/Palin campaign, one of which unmasks the plot to unleash upon America the “Palin mystique.”

  I recommend reading all four of these editorials. But in Palin’s Love Boats, Richard Cohen unleashes the most devastatingly revealing words so far written or spoken about the Conservative intellectual elite who, despite all the evidence, continue to advocate for Sarah Palin.

  “Palin is a down-the-line rightie, so her inexperience, her lack of interest in foreign affairs, her numbing provincialism and her gifts for fabrication…do not trouble her ideological handlers. Let her get into office. They will govern.”

  In Campaign on Empty, one of my personal favorite columnists, Eugene Robinson describes the fatal misjudgment of the McCain campaign:

  “In choosing a running mate, McCain made an absolute mockery of his “country first” slogan and instead put politics above all other considerations. It suffices to note that the Anchorage Daily News — the biggest newspaper in Palin’s state — endorsed Obama, saying that Palin was being stretched “beyond her range” and that she clearly is not ready to be “one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world.”

  “It’s hard to imagine that a McCain presidency could possibly be as scattered, irresponsible, uninspiring and intellectually bankrupt as the McCain campaign. It’s even harder to imagine that Americans, at this crucial juncture, will take that risk.”

  
  

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• Barack Obama's Celebrated "Cool" is Asian Cool!

  Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008 5:13PM / Standard Entry / Members only

  A few days ago in Northern Virginia, I attended a press conference headlined by a hero of mine, U.S. Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA), at which Barack Obama’s “Blueprint for the Change We Need for Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders” was unveiled for local newspapers.

  After the event, an Asian Pacific American reporter asked me an interesting question:
  
  As a mixed race Asian American, do you feel an added connection to Barack Obama, who is also mixed race and has Asian roots?

  I must have said something the reporter found interesting, because she asked me to expand upon it twice. I said, “Barack Obama carries himself with Asian dignity: you can see it in the debates.”

  Journalists describe the quality I’m speaking of as a “steady disposition,” and praise Sen. Obama as “calm under fire” and “calm, cool, and collected.” The word that springs to mind for me is “poise.” Poise was a measure of strength that was instilled in me when I was growing up in Hawai’i (Obama’s boyhood home), by Asian male role models such as teachers and baseball coaches. My mother, who is Chinese American, pointed to “quiet confidence” as a quality she admired in her father, Donald Tom, as a quality to which I should aspire. (If you have seen my narrative films, my Asian American male characters often exhibit poise and quiet confidence.)

  Journalists also marvel at the contrast between John McCain and Barack Obama during the debates. Where McCain is irritable, resentful, boastful, and disrespectful toward his opponent; Obama is poised, dignified, respectful, and gracious in responding to intense criticism.

  These are all qualities that I grew up admiring in Asian male role models in Hawai’i and among my Chinese American relatives in California. I suspect Obama grew up admiring similar traits growing up a few valleys east of me in Honolulu. And, I suspect these were qualities exemplified by his Indonesian step father.

  Obama’s calm disposition may mystify the media, but it’s no mystery to me. Barack Obama’s cool is Asian cool!

  I also wanted to share the other point I made during the interview.

  Asian Americans and mixed race Americans know how it feels to have our American identity questioned by others. “Where are you from? No, where are you really from? No before that where did you come from? You speak very good English.” This idiotic yet all-too-familiar conversation is not unlike the various attacks that Barack Obama has endured in recent weeks from the McCain campaign and its surrogates. “He is not like us. He is an Arab. He is a Muslim. He pals around with terrorists. He’s a socialist, no he’s a communist. He is a community organizer. He does the terrorist fist bump with his wife. He won’t wear a flag pin. He was educated in a Muslim school. He won’t salute the flag.”

  In the very town where I live in Virginia, the Republican party chairman sends his volunteers out to talk to voters with a speech about how Barack Obama is like a terrorist who bombs the Pentagon, to which his volunteers are known to shout, “Yeah, and we don’t even know where he was born!” (Obama was born in Honolulu).  Recently, John McCain was forced to explain to his supporters at a town hall in Minnesota that Obama is indeed a citizen of the United States! All of these lies have been designed to question Barack Obama’s right to identify himself as an American, and put fear, doubt, and hate into the minds of voters.

  I told the reporter that I’m very proud of the way Obama has responded and, to this point, overcome these attacks, just the way Asian Americans and all people of color do throughout our lives.

  If Barack Obama is successful this November 4th, it will be a victory for America and all it stands for. In particular, it will be a victory for those Americans who have had their identiy as Americans dismissed, derided, or challenged.  I’d rate Asian Americans at the top of the list.

  
  

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