Hollywood celebrities, including Mindy Kaling, Kumail Nanjiani, Liza Koshy, and Lilly Singh, are teaming up for a South Asian Block Party fundraiser to help stuff the campaign coffers for Joe Biden three weeks from the presidential election.
The event is aimed at convincing Americans with Pakistani, Indian, and Sri Lankan heritage to sign onto the Biden 2020 campaign. The streaming program will feature comedians, musicians, and lectures about topics that might appeal to Americans of South Asian heritage.
For his part, Eternals actor Kumail Nanjiani — who was born in Karachi, Pakistan — said he is proud to participate in the online fundraiser.
“Joining forces with our community of brown folks/South Asians for a fundraiser for Biden-Harris is not just a natural evolution of my involvement, but something I’m so proud of,” Kumail Nanjiani said. “I’m thrilled to be participating in this first-of-its-kind get together with other South Asian actors, artists, and leaders to help our community unite our around this truly vital cause: essentially, fighting for the rights of all and the preservation of our democracy.”
“It’s about celebrating the community and really engaging youth, leveraging all this incredible talent that exists within this community,” said organizer Rajan Shah. “I think we take a lot of pride in the success that we’ve had across mainstream pop culture here in America, so this is a great opportunity to use those voices for good.”
Shah added that nearly 5.4 million people from the South Asian countries live in the U.S.A., who may now feel that they have representation on a political ticket for president with Kamala Harris on the Biden ticket. Harris is of Jamaican and Indian descent, though she often identifies as black.
Shah also said that he feels team Biden is pro-immigrant. “Rather than being hostile, which is what I think a lot of the community feels with the current administration, we have an opportunity to really celebrate the diversity of the country and really put into office an administration that really understands the very essence of immigrants in this country,” he said.
Other participants include Anjula Acharia, Aparna Nancherla, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, DJ Rekha, Janina Gavankar, Madhur Jaffrey, Aasif Mandvi, Ravi Patel, Girls Who Code CEO and founder Reshma Saujani, and others.
The pay-per-view event is set to air on Wednesday evening at eight pm eastern time, and it is but the latest celebrity-studded event for Joe Biden.
The original cast of the breakout Broadway play Hamilton are gearing up to reunite on this Friday for a virtual fundraiser for Biden.
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