wow, saalt, a non-partisan advocacy group...like acorn*

*joke stolen from john mccain at that dinner joke thing.

I fail to see how the proletariat are served by a webinar conducted during office hours.

2 · Nayagan said

I fail to see how the proletariat are served

I believe the correct usage is ".. how the proletariat is served ...", old egg!

Rahul Da Elitist,

You are correct, old bean. I'm sure there will be a strong pipe-fitter presence among the webinar audience.

I wonder who Vijay Prashad is rooting for...my guess is Cynthia McKinney. To vote for an African-American candidate who could actually win would ruin his whole schtick.

How will South Asians vote come Nov 4th? Do we have critical mass to form a voting bloc?

You can do this:

Join SAALT for A Pre-Election Online Conversation for Community Members & Media on October 30th.

to hear the guesses of a bunch of talking heads, OR

you could wait just 4 additional days and simply find out.

6 · Rahul the non-elitist plumber said

you could wait just 4 additional days and simply find out.

RuhSPECT the BLOC! Ruh-SPECT the BLOC!

I'm going to be late on the call but am excited. I think it's easy to pooh-pooh SAALT, but they've begun to actively fill -- and catalyze -- larger questions on resource sharing and outreach in the desi community. While the growth is relatively slow, I think it's meaningful, and I enjoy how they are able to bring folks together, particularly folks with incredibly diverse ways of self-identifying (and yet finding traction in a "South Asian American" package... hm!).

Wow, my sentences do not make sense at this time of night. I meant to say I like SAALT's work, and I think they're bringing people together in cool ways. Simple words, so much easier to handle.

and yet finding traction in a "South Asian American" package... hm!

Wow, my sentences do not make sense at this time of night.

makes perfect sense to me, camille. you can find traction in my package anytime ;-)

>>Do we south-asian americans have critical mass to form a voting bloc?

More importantly, have we lost all our traces of individualism to facilitate the forming of any bloc?

M. Nam

Do we have critical mass to form a voting bloc?

Third question: Would you (anyone, not just Taz) want it to if it wasn't voting the way you wanted it to? Strategic essentialism, baby.

Pretty cute--what a medley of voices! I wondered how many immigrant communities have historically been championed by an over-educated elite, and realized it was probably ever thus, but also suspect South Asians assimilation is accelerated via technology and the study of damned lies and statistics. So anyway, like I say, it was cute, but I want to object to calling anyone Car-thick or Uh-LEE. My daughter met a fellow in high school who begged her not to pronounce his multi-syllabic last name in anything but the rather alarming supposedly American way, especially over a PA system, but then at college she was able to persuade an entire department to call her friend Muh-neesh instead of Mannish.

...and of course I feel that conflating South Asian with "Asian" is was and ever shall be a mistake, especially when you're identifying another group as, say, Italian-- very much as hatchet to scalpel, to abuse a metaphor currently being bandied about.

you can find traction in my package anytime ;-)

makes perfect sense to me, camille. you can find traction in my package anytime ;-)

Amrita -- immigration policy. :)

why is louiecypher passing up this golden opportunity to denounce prashad and a group that bills itself as a "progressive action collective?" has the recession so dampened our beloved pataka?

UPDATE: The Webinar can be viewed here. http://www.saalt.org/categories/South-Asians-in-the-2008-Elections-Online-Webinar-/