Note to self: The next time that you are granted a Press Pass to an event as a representative of Sepia Mutiny, at the very least you should bring a pen to take notes. That way you look more legit.
Yesterday I attended the North American South Asian Bar Association (NASABA) conference in D.C. I had to sheepishly admit to people who asked that I was not in fact an attorney like one of them. My personal injury lawyer cover was totally blown as evidenced by one very cute district court clerk from Chicago who called me out on it. No longer would I be able to walk amongst the lawyers and speak legalese with the reckless abandon that had served me so well in years past.
The general buzz at the conference was that the most compelling panel from Friday had been the one titled, 9/11 Commission Effects on the South Asian Community. Unfortunately I arrived in D.C. too late to attend. The panel that I was most looking forward to was the one titled, Politics, Identity, and Mobilization: South Asian Lawyers in Election 2004. This panel consisted of Democrats Reshma Saujani and Ro Khanna, as well as Republicans Dino Teppara, and Suhail Khan. The moderator was Deepa Iyer. I sat in the very front row and made eye contact just long enough to try and make the two Republicans feel uncomfortable. I kid, I kid. If I was a jerk I would have brought my laptop and started typing furiously whenever someone said something provocative or something that I disagreed with. I even thought about putting a sign on the cover of my laptop that read Im blogging about YOU right NOW, but I needed people to trust me in order to get the story and cultivate future sources.
So what were my impressions? Before the start of this panel two competing sets of literature were distributed. Deepa, passed out SAALTs 2004 polling analysis (which I have blogged about previously) and Teppara passed out a home-grown stat sheet that described why the Republican Party was good for South Asians. The stage was thus set for what would surely be a partisan debate (which is always enjoyable). By the louder-than-physiologically-necessary inhalation and exhalation sounds coming from the audience behind me following partisan statements, it was pretty obvious that they were heavily left-leaning. As an aside, I should mention that Bobby Jindal was originally invited to be the keynote speaker for the conference but declined because he had other commitments. I know from speaking to a few attendees that a sizeable contingent of those present didn’t want him as the keynote anyways. Its undeniable that despite the fact that NASABA is a non-partisan organization, many of its members work in the public interest and immigrant rights sectors which lean heavily to the left.
The overall chemistry in the room was more educational than the “meat” of the actual panel. People (both the panel and the audience) had to be skillful and polite while in actuality calling the other side out-of-touch (the Democrats) and sell-outs (the Republicans). The only criticism I had is that at times the panelists tended to speak from a script. Ro Khanna left me with the impression that he was still campaigning and Dino Tepparas answers were too controlled and carefully measured. For politicians this is a necessity and not something I’d be as critical of, but in a conference setting where we were amongst our own and having a frank discussion, it would have been more interesting if both sides would have more convincingly admitted to their weaknesses and what they disagreed with inside their own party. Saujani and Khans answers seemed less rehearsed and their comments sharper, which is what I was hoping for during this session. The best question of the hour was posed by Subodh Chandra who is running for Attorney General in the state of Ohio. He started by saying (to paraphrase) that he had no problem with Teppara and Khan choosing to be in the Republican party if that is the party that they believed in, and that he was glad that there were South Asians who would hopefully help improve the Republican partys policies. However, Chandra asked, how could they accept the fact that their party’s base was filled with people whose beliefs were quite extreme with regards to both religious and immigrant rights issues that affect South Asians. Khan tripped up as he attempted to convince the audience that Pat Robertson and the other religious right-wingers that Chandra mentioned were not in fact the voice of the Republican base. I don’t think anyone in the room bought that however. The session ran twenty minutes over but was interesting enough that nobody made a move for the door.
A couple other highlights I should mention. The keynote speaker at the evening banquet (who was an older, second or third generation prosecutor from Vancouver where there is a lot of brown on brown violence) had the most memorable quote of the night. “You aren’t a true lawyer until you’ve had to defend a Punjabi.” Also, the evening came to a close with a set by comedian Daniel Nainan. He’s half Indian and half Japanese. How do I know? Because his website is indianjapanese.com and it’s the running theme through his set.
The NASABA conference left me with the warm fuzzies. Thinking back to all those fake South Asian conferences many of us attended when we were younger, its pleasant to see that our peers went on to become adults who are trying to make a positive change by getting involved in movements that matter. They are all legit now. That, in fact, was one of the best points to take home from NASABA. No matter what your day job is, GET INVOLVED. Network. Do something more than the minimum that is required of you to coast on. It made me want to leave in the middle of the banquet and start a South Asian Aerospace Engineers Association.
Next year the NASABA conference moves to Atlanta. I’d love another press pass.
Special thanks to the conference organizers, Rudhir Patel, Sona Pancholy, Seema Kakade, Akil Vohra, and Vijay Bondada.
