Ethnic Caucuses

I'm so glad that Giovanna Negretti, as a first time delegate, is blogging from her experience as a Latina at the DNC. I can tell you that at the Asian caucus events, the word from the Asian political veterans is that our community has exploded in terms of numbers, enthusiasm and maturity compared to the last convention and beyond.

Credit the record Democratic primary turnout and grassroots campaigning that has energized Asian politicos and activists like never before. It's still small -- compared to other ethnic and special-interest caucuses.

That’s why together with my friends Yul Kwon and NY City Council Member John Liu we launched the Asian Political Leadership Fund [link: http://www.asianleader.org] to promote political participation and leadership within the Asian American community.

Asian Americans have a tough time defining ourselves. For me, I see this as one of the main challenges to developing political leadership.

What is it that unites Asian Americans besides the fact that our ancestry is from Asia? It's a question Asian Americans constantly ask ourselves. We came over to the US at different times. We speak a thousand different languages. We don't all look alike. Some of us look alike but event we can't tell each other apart. Pacific Islanders (e.g. American Samoans and Guamanians) are added to our mix (which is why we often speak of API's - Asian/Pacific Islanders).

If you know the answer as to what unites us, please comment on this post!

But this is why these national caucuses are so important. They're opportunities to have community conversations that allow us to reflect and to shape our identity. We need to do this work on a regular basis because otherwise someone else will do it for us.