You Can't Be Serious by Kal Penn

You Can't Be Serious by Kal Penn

Author:Kal Penn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2021-11-02T00:00:00+00:00


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It’s tough to explain that special moment on its own, unless you also have a sense of how more-traditional campaigns operated. Obama’s pitch—genuine, heartfelt, sincere—stood in contrast to the more calculating way an acquaintance working on the fundraising team of another campaign had approached me. A few weeks earlier, she had asked me to consider speaking at an event designed for the South Asian American community in New York.

As you know by now, while I’m mindful that many demographic groups (like South Asian Americans) are underrepresented in media, entertainment, politics, and policy, I generally dislike things that are exclusively couched in race or ethnicity. So, I asked a few questions about this South Asian political event. My finance acquaintance didn’t sugarcoat it: The reason she wanted my help was because there was “a lot of untapped money in the Indian American community.” She didn’t pretend that there were deeper reasons: It all came back to You’re a draw as an actor, Elections require fundraising, and You can help get the Indian money. As always, I appreciated the honesty, but this seemed a bit patronizing, so I politely declined.

The political finance world can be icky across the board. Most campaigns across party lines hold demographic-specific fundraisers. Like that South Asian political event, these are often organized by those demographic groups themselves. It’s a way to exercise political muscle and serve real community needs. In my case, after spending the first chunk of my career having to navigate race in Hollywood, I didn’t want to be a token brown guy for anyone.

Standing there at the Obama event, I thought about how a primary election offers a chance for people to not only air their disagreements and pitch bolder policy ideas but to show voters that an entirely different style of politics is possible.



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