DNC Desi roundup Part 3: Art, heart, and two smoking barrels

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“Contain Multitudes” 8x10, recycled cardboard, magazines, paint

[For those of you who are new here, read this! All the journalists I recommended in my first DNC/Elections issue also have follow up reports and more to come on the elections! And check out my thoughts on Michelle, hope, and more links in my second round up on the DNC]

I’m not quite ready to get into the personal aspects of my art work and the last thing I want to do is be precious and pretentious about it but suffice it to say this collage was made during a part-time sabbatical when I was trying to figure out the next move in my life. I called it ‘contain multitudes’ because that’s what I was trying to do: stay in journalism, explore this new project, be a good sister/daughter/friend, make enough money, take care of myself, and the eight million other things we are tasked with as adults.

As I was searching for the words to describe how I felt about the DNC, I came across this photo in my phone and it clicked: Democrats contain multitudes and that continued co-existence is chaotic, emotional, and could ultimately be a superpower.

Harris may be leading in the polls post-DNC, but pollsters have warned not to be lulled into complacency after what happened in 2016.

While there was genuine joy - the unofficial theme of the convention repeatedly came up on the stage and in the crowd - over having a female, Black and South Asian, and relatively young candidate in Kamala Harris, there was also an anger and sadness from the progressive wing and others over Gaza. I won’t get too into the latter since there is a lot of great reporting on that (This segment from Amna Nawaz of PBS NewsHour on the DNC denying a speaking slot for a Palestinian American elected official from Georgia; Team Zeteo were covering the protests outside of the convention venue)

It’s not just the people protesting outside the DNC venue that are horrified by the October 7 attack and the tens of thousands of children killed in Gaza since then, a raw set of emotions brought up during and after a speech by the parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg Pollin. The big Democrat Tent might have to expand to make it past November to include the hostages’ families and protesters because all of them are actually calling for the same thing: a ceasefire.

There are young men feeling ignored by the party, too. They don’t see Harris making appearances in the spaces where they are online: places like well-known streaming channels or podcasts. They don’t want to be demonized and, in their own way, they want old school retail politics. This is a challenge in an abbreviated campaign schedule for sure, but I think it would go a long way in the long run for the sustainability of the party.

There are people who feel committed to Harris and Walz no matter what because the prospect of having Trump back in the White House with JD Vance seems like a policy and patriotic disaster.

The Democratic tent will have to contend with all of these segments over the next 71 days. They could let it divide them the way some could argue Hillary Clinton’s bid did or they could harness that diversity of opinion by having the campaign distance itself from Biden where needed, reach out to young men in a more effective way than Trump and Vance have, and pull in more down-ticket candidates to do the same.

In one of my favorite films that I watch on sleepless nights, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, director Guy Ritchie’s ragtag four friends lose a poker game and have a week to pay back £500,000 pounds to a notorious mobster. It seems impossible and the alternative of running away is far more feasible but they’re forced to be creative, get their hands dirty, and compromise. They also relied a little too much on luck.

But, this isn’t a movie, millions of children are living in poverty, rural communities still don’t have access to broadband, and our healthcare system could charitably be called a hot mess. The Harris-Walz campaign has a monumental task compared to the staid and steady approach of the GOP that seems to be working for them regardless of the awkward gaffes at donut shops and ramblings at the border wall. I don’t think Democrats can rely on Harris’ identities, the heartwarming charm of the Walz family, or Not Being Trump in this election. It didn’t work for Hillary Clinton for a reason - people contain multitudes.

They don’t just want a Black and South Asian woman who cares about reproductive rights, many want one that will also have solid stances on climate change, education, student loan debt, human rights, and fiscal policy. I say this as someone who has written about identity in this cycle and the past, having my eyes well up with tears as Rhoda Morgenstern and I watched a woman of color accept the nomination, and saw her aunt on stage wearing a sari and embracing her: these next 71 days are perhaps a crucial time for the party messaging to move beyond all that.

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Now onto your reading list:

As I mentioned in the last issue, watch out for data journalists in particular this election season. Sandhya Kambhampati of the LA Times put together this piece on South Asian donors and the candidates they support, particularly Harris.

There’s been a particularly irritating line of discourse to me since Harris began running in 2020: that she doesn’t talk about her Indian heritage ‘enough,’ a term that is never well-defined. Her access to her Indian heritage was through her single mother and her aunts and she talks about them frequently despite likely being ostracized by our community at different points of her life. I’m not sure what it is people with this criticism are looking for because they never seem to be able to articulate it either. In any case, Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy writes about Shyamala Gopalan’s legacy and the influence it has had on her daughter.

Also, Anand Giridharadas has been covering the DNC for his newsletter The Ink, which is worth the subscription!

This isn’t from a South Asian journalist but I thought Alex Wagner’s podcast episode on the DNC was particularly interesting because she discussed family values, patriotism, and traditional masculinity - things we see from Republicans usually - as they appeared redefined at the DNC.

There’s also this interesting story about men leading with empathy from The 19th.

Speaking of The 19th, follow Shefali Luthra as she writes frequently about reproductive health, one of the Harris campaign’s major platform issues. She also recently wrote a piece about the embracing of ‘auntie culture’ in this year’s election and that ethic of community empowerment that serves more than the self.

On a lighter note, read about the Asian American designers who dressed Michelle Obama and Ella Emhoff, a piece by Sakshi Venkataraman for NBC News Asian America.

I curated a thread of community media outlets in Chicago who were covering a lot of stories about protests and the impact of the convention and the party on local businesses - stories you won’t see anywhere else.

In the spirit of containing multitudes, I also want to share some stories that are not strictly about the election in this issue but still play some role.

My dear friend Jennifer Chowdhury has been closely watching the student uprising in Bangladesh for Al Jazeera and the history of the movement, downfall of Sheikh Hasina, and the aftermath for New Lines Magazine. Give her a follow for more of these stories and about the South Asian Muslim diaspora, reproductive rights, and other stories.

That’s a wrap on the DNC stories for now, but there will be more from me on AAPI voters, campaign finance, links to read from colleagues that are non-election news, and perhaps a few more pieces of art in coming issues.