CHICAGO — Actor BD Wong told AAPI members at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday what he told his multiracial son at his bar mitzvah.
“I told him in front of everyone, ‘You’re not half of anything. You’re all of everything,’” Wong said. And with the first-ever Asian American candidate of a major political party set to accept her party’s nomination on Thursday, Wong said AAPI people should be proud of that part of Kamala Harris’ identity.
“I’m amazed that we’ve easily characterized her as the first black female president. Often the South Asian part, the Asian American part, gets left out of the list,” Wong said. “And we really have to acknowledge that, we have to be really proud of that, we have to perpetuate that and remind people that this is an … amazing thing. And I think in our kind of nonconfrontational Asian American nature, we kind of let that slide, but let’s really commit to it.”
Angela Alsobrooks, a U.S. Senate candidate in Maryland, U.S. Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Andy Kim of New Jersey — also a U.S. Senate candidate — were among the select Democrats who addressed the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) caucus on Wednesday, as they celebrated Harris and what her rise to the top of the Democratic ticket means for their communities.
“We are in a joyful time where Kamala Harris is bringing us together, bringing joy back to our country,” Alsobrooks said. “I love what was said a moment ago about being half of anything but all of everything. Doesn’t that apply to all of us?”
They also discussed the challenges Asian American politicians face, describing how they still face stereotypes as they try to gain a seat at the decision-making table.
Kim (D-N.J.), the Democratic candidate to succeed Bob Menendez in the U.S. Senate, told the crowd that Asian Americans are the fastest-growing demographic group in New Jersey, but when he began running for Congress six years ago, he was told that an Asian American candidate had no chance of winning his district.
“My congressional district was 85 percent white, less than 3 percent Asian, and they voted for Trump,” Kim said. “They said, ‘Listen, if you want to win a seat in Congress, why don’t you move to northern Jersey, where there are a lot more people who look like you?’ That’s what they told me. But I said, ‘I want to run for my district because it’s my home. I’m not just looking for a district where I can win.’”
Kim said he asked the people who told him — some of whom were Democrats, he added — not to refer to him by his last name or skin color.
“I am as much an American as anyone else. My story is not just an Asian American story, it is not just a Korean American story, it is fundamentally an American story,” he told the crowd, amid applause. “And I am proud that this 85% white district, less than 3% Asian, that voted for Trump twice, has now elected a Korean American Democrat to be their voice three times.”
Kim added that while campaigning for the Senate election, he hears the same skeptics.
“And I said, ‘Look again, don’t think I’m just a voice for Asian Americans. Don’t think I can only talk about these issues,'” he said, adding that he’s tired of being called out for lend a hand only when there’s hate incidents against Asian Americans.
“Yes, it’s important. Yes, it’s important in the context of affirmative action and other issues that are on the agenda, but I will say this: We have a say in everything, not just Asian-American issues. We deserve a seat at the table for every decision that’s made about this country.”
Khanna (D-California) spoke about Harris, with whom he has worked since she was in California government. “She had to break down barriers, so she knows we have to break down barriers so other people have a chance,” Khanna said.
He said the politics of authenticity that Kim spoke of were used by Republican vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) when talking about his own wife, Usha. In his speech at Vance described the Republican National Convention how his family has owned a cemetery plot in eastern Kentucky for seven generations, Khanna said, suggesting that Usha Vance also would be buried there.
“And I think, you know, Usha Vance is an Indian American, just like me. Does she have a choice in the matter?” Khanna wondered. “What annoyed me about that speech was that Vance was basically suggesting that the longer you can trace your heritage, the more generations you can trace your heritage that somehow defines what it means to be an American.”
“When we elect Kamala Harris as president of the United States, we will show that this country is a multiracial democracy where it doesn’t matter how long your pedigree is, you can be an American. Anyone can be an American.”
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