My friend Reshma recently emailed me to ask if I could highlight a fundraising event in NYC she was holding for Obama. Reshma, formerly of South Asians for Hillary and South Asians for Kerry, is one of the members of Barack Obama’s new Asian American Finance Committee (other members mentioned here). Normally I would have just placed the event info on our “Events Tab,” where you can highlight just about any desi-related event. There was something about this event that was different though and I couldn’t put my finger on it until I re-read her email again. Then it struck me that the event itself represents a political first…as far as I know. This is the first time that such a large group of Indian American “celebrities” is being deployed in favor of a Presidential candidate. I am putting quotes around the word celebrities not to minimize the successes of some of these individuals but rather to contrast their pull to what we traditionally think of as Hollywood political celebrities (e.g., George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Angelina Jolie, Jane Fonda, etc.). In the past, both parties have relied on wealthy DBDs such as Sant Chatwal or various tech entrepreneurs or medical doctors for their campaign donations (from mostly first generation Indian Americans). Obama and his committee are taking a different approach, perhaps because he doesn’t want McCain to call him D-Punjab.
In all the loud talk of unity amongst the campaigns there is at least one tear jerker, or sort of - a controversial Indian American supporter of Hillary Clinton, appears to have not found favour with the Illinois Senator Barack Obama in the post-union phase of the Democratic party for 2008 presidential elections.
Sant Chatwal, known as one of the most effective fund raiser among the Indian American money bags, is not in the list of Asian Americans Finance Committee officials announced by the Obama campaign. [Link]
Instead of enlisting only rich “uncles” to help bring in the cash from our community, Obama picked a much younger group and that younger group in turn thinks young desi celebs may be the way to bring in the cash for their candidate (although this is probably just one of many ways they are considering). Their target demographic appears to be very similar to the type that reads SM:
I believe the way this model works is that a typical second-gen voter (and many younger DBDs) will see that some of his/her favorite brown celebrities support Obama and will thus follow suit and additionally supply some cash to the campaign (and probably get to meet these folks as well). I am pretty sure (unless someone has statistics to educate me) that this is a fairly successful model among many larger communities. What I am very curious to learn however, is if this model will work when applied to our South Asian American community which is still quite small by comparison. Small enough in fact the some of the people reading this may already be friends with one or more of the individuals listed above.
There are two thoughts I take away after learning about this event:
- Perhaps the political power of South Asians in America is finally beginning to shift from the first generation to the second.
- It looks like every year there are a few more South Asian Americans with a high enough profile that they can be thought of as celebrities and opinion influencers. This is quite a departure from the 80s and 90s where desi celebs and Bollywood were inextricably tied together.
Finally, I have to say that if the AAFC had asked for my opinion I would have requested that Huma or Padma be put on the flyer as well 
