Vote Against Hate: The AAPI Victory Fund presents a message to South Asian/Americans

MOST FIRST-GENERATION immigrants have a different view of America than those who have lived here for decades. The difference can be as marked as the difference perspectives between the immigrants who brought their families to America and their children, who have mostly grown up in this society

The hate-filled rhetoric coming out the 2016 presidential campaign worries Vijay Chattha, founder of a public relations company in San Francisco. He created a video featuring South Asian celebrities to get a message across to his parents and the first generation of immigrant parents. “All Americans should be worried about things like the economy tanking as soon as Trump gets elected, his ability to have access to nuclear weapons, [his effect on] international relations,” Chattha said. 

“I think South Asians specifically should be worried about trickle-down racism and hate crimes," says Chattha. "If (Donald Trump) wins a lot of people are going to feel emboldened to do whatever they want to. That’s scary. Anyone who is South Asian should remember 9/11 and how the community was perceived afterwards. It was a scary time.”

The video was produced by the AAPI Victory Fund – the first Super PAC of its kind – is focused on mobilizing Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) eligible voters during the campaign cycle and moving them to the ballot box by Nov. 8.

In recent weeks, the Trump campaign have been touting their support among South Asian/Americcans. The Republican Hindu Coalition hosted Trump at a charity event in mid-October. Last week, Trump released a Diwali ad in which he attempts to speak Hindi. The ad has reportedly been running on Indian-American television channels.

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Despite putting their supporters of color in the front row, that apparent support is thin. According to the 2016 National Asian American Survey AAPIs, Latinos, African/Americans and South Asians are overwhelmingly against Trump. 

The same survey said 70 percent of Asian Indian registered voters said they were either voting for or leaning towards voting for the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

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This Hindu Donald Trump believer puts his money towards the GOP campaign

Shillalah Kumar founded the Republican Hindu Coalition.

ALTHOUGH several polls say AAPI voters tend to favor Democrats and Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump does have his supporters in the Asian/American community.

As a matter of face, it turns out that one of Trump's major donors is a Hindu/American businessman, Shalabh Kumar.

Kumar, who is Indian born but now lives in Chicago, is the founder and head of the Republican Hindu Coalition. He and his wife each donated the maximum — a combined total of $898,000 — to Trump and Republican centered PACs to get Trump elected president.Kumar was already sold on supporting Trump before he met the presumptive GOP nominee, but he had a few lingering concerns that he wanted to iron out in a one-on-one meeting. “His positions were not very clear. Sometimes he says off-the-cuff remarks about call centers in India … so I was a little bit concerned about that,” Kumar said in an interview with The Hill.  He was referring to Trump’s campaign trail wisecrack about Indian call center workers and Trump’s use of a mock Indian accent.

While Kumar didn’t bring up the call center mockery in his conversation with Trump, he told The Hill he believes that Trump loves India and the Indian people. “I have seen his heart,” Kumar said. He believes his donations should help eliminate some people’s perception of Trump as a bigot.

Kumar made his fortune through company, AVG Advanced Technologies, manufactures and sells electronics products.

According to the RHC website: "The U.S. has 2.8 million Hindu Americans with highest per capita income of any other group in the country. We have the highest education, highest proportion of managers, highest number of entrepreneurs (one out of seven), highest donations to charity and least dependence on government. Hindu Americans pay almost 50 billion dollars per year in total taxes."

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