Nov. 15th - 21st 2021 the Global Asian American & Pacific Islander Caucus (AAPI) and the Global Black Caucus (GBC) are teaming up to take over each other's social media accounts to raise awareness of mutual issues.

First thing we want people to know is that solidarity is there.

Nov. 15th - 21st 2021 the Global Asian American & Pacific Islander Caucus (AAPI) and the Global Black Caucus (GBC) are teaming up to take over each other's social media accounts to raise awareness of mutual issues.

First thing we want people to know is that solidarity is there. It's been there. We can trace the historical roots of Asian-Black solidarity back to 1955 with the Bandung Conference, where representatives of people from the Asian continent and folks on the African continent came together to talk about what decolonization was going to look like for both of us. Fast forward to things like the relationship between Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. King, and then all the way to the fight against the Klan in New Orleans in the '80s with Vietnamese fishermen.

In the United States, issues of race can often be cast along the lines of Black and White — and, especially at a moment when the world is being forced to confront the ways systemic racism is built into the nation’s history, the reasons for that focus are clear. 

The AAPI & GBC Caucuses are teaming up to dismantle mutual prejudices from within their own communities and are highlighting their common issues. By moving forward and securing Democratic wins during elections, our communities become stronger together. 

During the Caucus Crossover Week, Nov. 15th - 21st 2021, both caucuses will be highlighting issues such as: 

• Asian & African American Votes Matter
• Environmental Racism Climate Change
• Unconscious Bias
• Reparations
• Human Trafficking
• Immigration
• LGBTIQ+

We will finish with a Caucus Crossover Panel Discussion between AAPI & GBC Caucuses on Sunday, November 21st 11am CET on Zoom.

Make sure to RSVP to be part of the discussion and to follow the AAPI & GBC Caucuses social media channels.

We all can learn so much from each other!

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the Asian population is the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group in the U.S.

The impact of this large group was evident following the 2020 November election with much analysis pointing to the strategic and important role played by Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters. During the Georgia run-off election, both the Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff campaigns had organizers focused specifically on the AAPI vote in Georgia. Looking ahead to the 2022 midterms, it will continue to be critical to get AAPI voters to turn-out. But what do we know about this voting group? What challenges do we face and how do we help get out the vote among the AAPI community in 2022?

Join the Democrats Abroad AAPI Caucus to hear from Christine Chen, co-Founder and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote). Christine and her team at APIAVote conduct a bi-annual survey on Asian American voters, which provides important information about voting behaviors and opinions. Hear about the findings from their 2020 voter survey and what trends they have noticed over time, as well as the AAPI vote overseas.

Following the discussion with Christine, there will be time to discuss as a group how we can get out the vote among AAPI voters living overseas. All will be welcome to participate and to contribute to developing the AAPI Caucus’ Get Out the Vote plan.

RSVP

Understanding the diverse AAPI voting population, including barriers and challenges to voting, will be crucial as we move into the 2022 midterms, not just to mobilize voters in the U.S., but also AAPI voters living abroad. RSVP to learn more about activating AAPI voters and how you can support the work of the Democrats Abroad AAPI Caucus.

Despite Oktoberfest being cancelled again this year, Democrats Abroad Germany has just the thing for you to celebrate: an online beer tasting!

DA Germany will gather online on Saturday, October 30th at 7pm CEST for the 13th Annual Democrats Abroad Oktoberfest Extravaganza! Instead of meeting in our usually reserved gallery seats, we will meet online from the comforts of our home for an online beer tasting.

Our online Oktoberfest ticket (€46) includes:

• 5 beers 
• 1 tasting glass
• Professional moderation and guidance during the tasting in English from Vagabund Brauerei

The tasting will last approximately 1-1.5 hours. The beer and glass will be sent to you prior to the event from the tasting company. These tasting packages can only be sent to addresses in Germany and EU member states. We encourage other country committees to join in on the fun, but please note that if your shipping address is outside of Germany, ticket costs are €51 (an additional €5 is added to the ticket price to account for shipping costs).

To reserve your tickets, you must complete this registration form (click here to open the form). In order to receive the beer kits in time, you must RSVP by October 11, 2021. The tasting will be held on Zoom and we will send participants the meeting log-in information 48 hours before the event.

**Please remember that Democrats Abroad may only accept donations from U.S. citizens.**

An Oktoberfest Prize Draw will also take place throughout the two Oktoberfest events. Click here for more information.

We are currently looking for volunteers to work on Democrats Abroad’s new postcarding campaign with the theme "Together We Can Defend Democracy." 

We will start stockpiling postcards for a big early 2022 mailing to all DA Germany members to motivate them to register early and be ready to be the margin of victory in the 2022 midterm elections.  

There's some simple, fun stuff to color on both sides of our new postcard that would work with a variety of color combinations, stripes, stars, or patterns. There are three short, exact phrases to write. If you can put a 60 cent stamp on your postcards or make a contribution for postage that would be terrific, but isn't necessary if it's not possible.

Contact Person: Sasha Arrington, [email protected]

Several caucuses exist within Democrats Abroad. The caucuses focus on particular topics and offer members the opportunity to become advocates for the interests of the particular group. There are currently 8 caucuses:

• Asian American & Pacific Islander Caucus
• Black Caucus
• Climate Caucus
• LGBTQ+ Caucus
• Hispanic Caucus
• Progressive Caucus
• Veterans and Military Families Caucus
• Women’s Caucus
• Youth Caucus

As a liaison, you would update the chapter on events the caucus is organizing and have the ability to propose and organize events on the chapter level related to the caucus or hold discussions at our monthly meetings. 

For more information on the individual caucuses, you can click here.

Contact Person: Katie Bathgate, [email protected]

The treasurer needs to keep track of any donations the chapter receives, any merchandise we sell, etc. The treasurer would also coordinate expenditures/reimbursements with the national Executive Committee if we make large purchases.

Time Commitment: 1hr / month

Contact Person: Katie Bathgate, [email protected]

We’ve made it past the 2020 election, but now what? This committee will focus on finding new campaigns and races for us to get involved in and establish where we want to go and what we want to accomplish over the next two years. If you are interested in helping organize or participating, please let me know.

Contact Person: Katie Bathgate, [email protected]

These positions could be held by one person or divided up into smaller, more manageable tasks. The time commitment per task would be around 1-2 hours per month.

• Social Media Manager- The Social Media Manager would be responsible for creating event listings on our Facebook page and posting content after our meetings and events (ex. a summary of an event). 
• Website Manager- This person would update our official page on the Democrats Abroad website with chapter events and brief descriptions of our events/chapter news (which could be based on the content from Facebook).
• Content Creator- A content creator can, for example, write up summaries of our meetings/events, prepare the descriptions for our events, etc. to be posted on Facebook and the DA website.

Contact Person: Katie Bathgate, [email protected]

On Saturday, September 4, 2021, DAG will set up tables all over Germany and reach out online to let American citizens know we are here and ready to help them stay engaged with U.S. democracy.  Let’s get out there in person and on social media to find Americans to join us.

New to Democrats Abroad? Sign up to receive a reminder postcard in January 2022! One and done – you’ll be set to receive every absentee ballot for the whole calendar year, from special elections to the all-important midterms.

Already a member? Sign on to help with one of our ongoing initiatives, from coloring personal postcards to making phone calls, to joining in with Caucuses and State Teams. It’s all hands on deck to get out the vote for the high-stakes midterm elections! Sign on by contacting your chapter GOTV coordinator or by emailing [email protected] 

Sign up or sign on and you qualify for our REGISTRATION PRIZE DRAW! Collect your ticket by visiting one of our tables in a city near you. Receive extra tickets and up your chances by making a donation or bringing a friend to join. 

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

We’re better together!

On Saturday, July 10th, the AAPI Caucus hosted Mingway Lee, an artist, who spoke about his experience during the COVID-19 crisis through a presentation of his drawings chronicling his evacuation to Travis Air Force Base, his stay under the first federally mandated quarantine in decades, and his eyewitness account of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.

His drawings recreated a vivid image of what it was like to be in Wuhan as the COVID-19 pandemic began and how uncertain this period was for everyone. Attendees expressed their gratitude for his willingness to share his experience. We all were able to gain an understanding of what he went through and were reminded of how no one knew what was going on or what was going to happen as we entered the pandemic.

If you missed it, you can see the recording here:

About the Artist

Mingway Lee is an artist living with his wife and two sons, Max and Rex, in New York City. He moved from Beijing to New York in 2012. In 2019, he graduated from Pratt Institute with an MFA degree.

Collaborating with an established writer/director, Clayton Broomes, Jr., he is writing a memoir with more than 100 of his drawings about how he went into the coronavirus crisis in China, escaped the coronavirus from Wuhan to Travis Air Force Base, and relived the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.

“In some ways, our libraries or what we read hopefully reflect a world we wish we saw - maybe a world beyond what we are in right now.” - Shuli de la Fuente-Lau, founder of @AsianLitForKids.

Shuli de la Fuente-Lau of @AsianLitForKids sat down virtually with Angela Chen from Democrats Abroad Lion City to discuss the intersection of children’s books, racial identity, and the anti-racism journey.

Did you know that Hawaii has its own contemporary music scene? In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Global AAPI Caucus will be listening our way through Donna Lum’s (DA Indonesia) Hawaiian music playlist. Join us as we listen to the easiest, breeziest music all the way to the Global Meeting. Listen to the playlist on:

• Spotify
• Apple Music

You can also listen/view the playlist on Youtube

“Perpetual foreigner” is a common term associated with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. This sentiment can be traced back to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America and for Chinese nationals already in the U.S. to become citizens, and is also associated with the establishment of Japanese Internment Camps (aka Japanese concentration camps) during World War II. Individuals of Asian descent have historically been “othered” and this treatment continues today.

With the 2021 Global Meeting quickly approaching (May 14-16), Democrats Abroad Germany hosted two sessions on May 1st to give the candidates running for a position on the Global Executive Committee (ExCom) an opportunity to introduce themselves and answer questions from our voting representatives.

During the Global Meeting, DPCA (Democratic Party Committee Abroad) voting representatives elected at the county committee level (15 from Germany) will elect the Global Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Legal Counsel. These individuals will lead Democrats Abroad for the next two years, guiding and supporting all of our leaders, volunteers, and members around the world.

All members were welcome to attend, as well as other DPCA voting representatives from other country committees. The Q&A session gave priority to DPCA Voting Representatives from Germany, and when time allowed, other questions were taken from other voting representatives in attendance.

Kontaktinformationen
Anya Leonhard
[email protected]
+49 1783265691

BERLIN, 26. April 2021

Am 30. April wird Präsident Biden seit 100 Tagen im Amt sein. 

Nach einer historischen Wahl hat mit Bidens Amtseinführung eine neue Ära der US-amerikanischen Politik begonnen – sowohl in den USA als auch international. Er stand zu Beginn seiner Amtszeit vor zahlreichen Herausforderungen, insbesondere die COVID-19-Pandemie und deren wirtschaftliche Folgen. Auch wurde Präsident Biden mit der präzedenzlosen politische Spaltung der USA und der Unterminierung unserer Demokratie konfrontiert. 

Dennoch hat Präsident Biden bereits eine Reihe von bedeutungsvollen Erfolgen hinter sich. Innenpolitisch hat er das vielfältigste Kabinett der amerikanischen Geschichte aufgestellt, ein Corona-Hilfspaket mit einem Budget von 1,9 Billionen Dollar bewilligt, die Impfungen von mehr als 150 Millionen US-Amerikaner:innen ermöglicht und viele der gefährlichen Fehlentscheidungen seines Vorgängers rückgängig machen können. 

Auf internationaler Ebene hat er mit dem Wiedereintritt in das Pariser Klimaabkommen die Rückkehr zur multilateralen Diplomatie signalisiert und ein klares Datum für den Abzug aller US-amerikanischen Truppen aus Afghanistan festgelegt. Auch macht Biden den Klimawandel zu einer Priorität der Außenpolitik. Die Financial Times bezeichnet all dies als: „Joe Bidens leise revolutionären ersten 100 Tage.“   

Democrats Abroad Germany gibt der deutschen Presse gerne deutsch- und englischsprachige Interviews zu den ersten 100 Tagen der Biden-Administration. Anfragen bitte an Anya Leonhard, [email protected] / Mobil +49 1783265691.

Pressesprecher:innen: 

• Englisch und Deutsch: Kenton Barnes (Chair), Emily Lines (Vice Chair), Anya Leonhard (Pressesprecherin)

Wenn Sie eine/n Pressesprecher:in aus einer unserer Ortsgruppen wünschen, geben Sie dies bitte in der Anfrage an. Wir verfügen über 14 Ortsgruppen in allen Regionen Deutschlands. 

Über Democrats Abroad 

Democrats Abroad ist die offizielle Auslandsorganisation der US-amerikanischen Demokratischen Partei und ist für 9 Millionen außerhalb der USA lebenden US-Amerikaner:innen verantwortlich. Democrats Abroad wird von der Demokratischen Partei als Staat anerkannt und gibt US-Amerikaner:innen im Ausland  eine demokratische Stimme in unserer Regierung. 

Democrats Abroad Germany ist eine von 48 Ländergruppen weltweit. Die Ländergruppen informieren US-Amerikaner:innen  im Ausland über ihre Rechte und helfen ihnen, am politischen Prozess teilzuhaben.

On March 25th, the Global Hispanic Caucus hosted the event “Immigration Reform: Farmworker and Dreamer Justice” in collaboration with the Global AAPI, LGBTQ, and Youth Caucuses as well as DA Canada, DA Spain, DA Mexico, and DA Germany. The event focused on the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, as well as the separate American Dream and Promise Act (HR-6) and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (HR-1603), which are currently being discussed in Congress. 

The first speaker was Tawheeda Wahabzada, a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient and the co-founder of Departed Dreamers, a group on social media to gather other DREAMERs & DACA recipients who left the country to provide a personal and professional support group for those who are starting a new chapter of their life in a foreign environment. She was raised in Carson City, NV, and moved back to Toronto, Canada in early 2020. Due to the restrictions put in place by the Trump Administration, she was unable to travel for her job and faced difficulties when talking with politicians, which contributed to her decision to leave. By leaving, it was a “way to finally reclaim [her] agency”. This decision to leave also meant that she cannot re-enter the U.S. for ten years. With the Dream and Promise Act, it will provide a streamlined pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, as well as for those that do not qualify for DACA, and those with temporary protected status. As the bill moves to the Senate, Tawheeda stressed the importance of pressuring our Democratic Senators to preserve the original language in the Dream and Promise Act.

Eun Suk “Jason” Hong is an ex-DACA recipient from NY/NJ who moved to Madrid, Spain, in August 2019 to pursue a dual Masters degree. He co-founded Departed Dreamers with Tawheeda. Eun Suk shared his story and the sense of relief provided by the passage of DACA, which allowed him and fellow DREAMERs to step out of the shadows and feel like they may be accepted in their communities. For him, “The Dream and Promise Act isn’t about providing a legal status or paper or documents. It’s about giving people their freedom and their humanitarian rights. [...] The Dream and Promise Act is the vaccination that every DREAMER needs.”

Edgar Franks is the Political Director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia. He has worked on a variety of initiatives that led to greater protections and treatment of farmworkers and their families. This union is the only farmworker union to be founded in the last 30 years in the U.S. and is made up of indigenous Mexican people. Edgar spoke to us about the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which was drafted during the Trump Administration and negotiated without much consent from farm labor groups. He pointed out some of the red flags of this bill and why this is not a bill farm workers actually want. This includes making e-verify mandatory, which requires the need of a valid social security number to allow someone to work, and the expansion of the H-2A program or guest worker program that allows employers to limit and control their movements and cap wages, among others.

Nicole Salgado moved into voluntary exile in Central Mexico in 2006 with her husband Margarito Reséndiz. Due to her husband’s immigration record, they had to leave the U.S. and wait ten years to apply for re-entry due to his permanent ban status. She wrote about it in her book Amor and Exile and shared with us the story of her and her family as they tried to re-enter the U.S. This included the psychological toll life in exile took and the stress of the process to re-apply for re-entry. She stressed the need for legislation to include families that are affected by exile and to help build awareness that families are being impacted in this way.

The event ended by the speakers answering some questions from the audience. A recording of the entire event can be viewed here. For those interested in participating in the “DREAM with Us” challenge, presented by the Global Hispanic Caucus, more information is available here.

**Main quote from Nicole Salgado during her talk at the event.

The AAPI Caucus was thrilled to host DA member and author Karen Kao for our discussion of her novel The Dancing Girl and the Turtle. The first part of her Shanghai Quartet, The Dancing Girl and the Turtle is a harrowing, immersive story of loss, violence, and power during one of the most tumultuous times of Chinese history.

Tofu Kofta… Mapo Tofu… Crispy Tofu Sisig… spicy, flavourful, mouthwatering!

Our diverse AAPI heritage offers up not only a banquet of tofu, but also a myriad of other delicious vegetarian and vegan dishes to entice us and satisfy our taste buds. A predominantly vegetarian or vegan diet is both healthier for us and for our planet as a whole.

That’s why we’re collecting your favorite vegetarian and vegan recipes for Tofu Tuesdays! We don’t have to go cold turkey (on turkey), and we don’t even have to eat tofu. But going meatless just one day a week helps to reduce our carbon footprint from food, as livestock contributes a whopping 14.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

With Climate Month and Earth Day right around the corner in April, we need your vegetarian and vegan recipes. So lend us Grandma’s tofu miso soup. Entice us with your veggie Poke Bowl. Make our taste buds cry for joy from your spicy Saag Paneer. Submit your recipes here.

Help us make Tuesdays more Tofu!

Photo by Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash

I only learned a few years ago that women did not have equal rights under the law. When I heard this, I was truly shocked that this was even possible. Thanks to the women's movement, much progress has been made and women have gained a lot of ground over the years. But there is still a ways to go and the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment would be a huge step forward. This should not be a partisan issue. When the rights of one group are taken away, we are all affected. We will all benefit by ensuring that no one can be discriminated against based on their sex. It is up to us to continue the work that began in 1923 when Alice Paul first introduced the Equal Rights Amendment and was continued in the 1970s and 80s. We cannot give up and stop now. There is no other choice, but to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment once and for all. I am an Indiana voter that lives in Berlin, Germany.