All right, let's get into it.
Look, tonight, I want to talk about the 2020 election.
Now, I know it's a year away,
but candidates are starting to reach out to key minority groups
because they know we matter.
It's pander season, baby. You've seen it.
Hillary dabbing,
Trump with the taco salad,
Ted Cruz making matzah.
Like, come on, what's next? Pete Buttigieg drinking from a paper bag
with Desus and Mero?
Oh, wait, that actually happened.
And, Asians, guess what?
Our pander time is coming sooner than you think.
Asian Americans have historically been very minor players
in the political process, but that's changing.
Asian Americans are the fastest-growing population group
in the country, with the number of eligible voters increasing
by about 150,000 each year.
Voters of color and particularly the new Asian American voters,
flip those legislatures, so we know that it's possible.
We've seen it happen in other states, but we most recently saw it in Virginia.
She's actually underselling what happened in Virginia.
In 2000, the state voted Republican for almost every major public office,
but over two decades, Virginia's Asian population exploded
by 125%, and now...
it's entirely blue. Think about that.
The capital of the Confederacy
is now the capital of hot pot and bánh mì.
Asians also helped flip congressional seats
in the House takeover last year.
In Orange County, home to these three districts,
the Asian and Pacific Islander population
grew 27% in the last decade.
In 2018, all of these districts flipped.
This population growth is a huge opportunity for Democrats,
especially in 2020 battleground states like Nevada and Arizona.
There's just one problem, though.
Did you know that only 49%
of Asian Americans
who were eligible to vote,
voted in the last election?
That's really disappointing.
That's insane.
Asian American millennials
are the poorest performers of all.
This is the only area where we're under achieving.
All right, I get it. We suck at voting.
You could've just hired George Takei to flip us off for 30 seconds.
It's the same commercial.
Asians almost always have the lowest voter turnout
of any racial group, and I get why.
My uncle always says, “Hasan, look,
you can either make money or make a difference. You can't do both.”
You know how it is for us, right? But there's another reason
why we don't seem to care about politics.
Many of our voters that when we call them, they're like,
“You're the first person who's ever called in language,
in my native language. No one else is outreaching to us.”
They say, “Nobody's ever called me before.
Nobody's ever talked to me about voting before.”
-You don't get phone calls? -No.
-You don't get mailings? -No.
-Nobody comes knocking on your door? -No.
We gotta keep this going.
Is anyone texting you?
No.
Did you finish Game of Thrones?
No.
And your favorite type of Japanese theater?
No.
Now, I'm assuming your favorite James Bond film is Dr...
-No. -Okay.
Is this bit getting old yet?
No.
I gotta disagree. Now, look, a lot of us don't feel spoken to,
but we can't be ignored as a political force.
That's why tonight, I want to focus on Asian American voters
because despite our growing numbers,
politicians in the media ignore us, even when we're running for president.
Andrew Yang has a tremendous center of gravity.
He's getting ignored for some weird reason.
Andrew Yang,
I don't know much about his platform.
Andrew Yang, who, you know,
suffered underneath a media blackout for months.
In the last debates, he ultimately received
less than seven minutes of airtime.
I didn't even know he was running.
I saw him next to Joe Biden on TV, and I thought it was Gran Torino.
For real, Andrew Yang is one of the first Asian Americans
to make a real run for president.
But even though he's polling higher than other candidates,
Yang gets the least amount of speaking time at the debates,
and he is constantly left off of graphics that he should be on.
I mean, something here is clearly off.
MSNBC has left Yang off graphics at least a dozen times.
How has NBC allowed him to go this under-reported?
He's a presidential candidate, not internal sexual misconduct.
So, if you don't know a ton about Yang's platform,
here's a quick taste.
The 44-year-old entrepreneur
who made millions running a test prep company
had zero political experience, but his campaign took off
with his proposal to give every American adult
$12,000 a year.
His supporters are known as the “Yang Gang.”
♪ Yang Gang, yeah ♪
I love the idea of a rapper bragging about making $1,000 a month.
He's like, “Who needs a Maybach? I'm making $33 a day.”
I'll be real.
I'm conflicted about Yang.
On one hand, he's the Asian guy running for president. Amazing.
But on the other hand, sometimes he goes a little too Asian.
Now, I am Asian, so I know a lot of doctors.
The opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math.
I'm gonna be the first president to use PowerPoint
at the State of the Union.
Fuck that! I'm the PowerPoint guy.
Dude, look, I don't get why he doubles down.
He has a hat that says “MATH” on it.
And then, he has a pin that also says “MATH” on it.
And I know that because he wore it when I interviewed him for this episode.
I remember growing up as a kid
calling out to my brother and my mom anytime I saw an Asian of any kind on TV.
I used to watch those kung fu movies on Saturday afternoons avidly.
I still freaking love those things.
Growing up as an Asian American,
how did politicians and presidential candidates speak to Asian Americans?
I have to be honest.
I don't recall them ever actually saying anything specifically.
Like, did you ever have a moment where you felt spoken to
as a member of the Asian American community?
Where you're like, “Wow, that's my guy.”
I think I grew up like a lot of other Asian American kids
of our generation,
where my parents certainly didn't emphasize American politics that much,
and they didn't present it as something
that my brother and I should necessarily be trying to get into ourselves.
Why do you think many Asian Americans have found politics
to not be relevant to their lives?
I think for most children of immigrants,
our mission is to do well in school and get good grades
and then get a good job and make some money.
And politics doesn't necessarily fit into that vision.
What's the biggest issue for Asian American voters
-in this upcoming election? -I'm a college student.
So, I'm just thinking about paying off my student loans.
-Kind of worry about the economy. -Immigration.
To help us for the small business.
What's most important to you as an Asian American voter in 2020?
Representation, really.
We see Crazy Rich Asians last year.
It's gonna be great. I think representation's great.
-So more props to you, man. -Are you going to be voting for him?
Well, we'll see where we're going, yeah.
I want to know all the candidates first, all right?
Do you think a $1,000 a month in every American's hands
would grow the economy?
I'm actually very iffy on that one.
I'm not sure about universal income at the moment.
-I appreciate this level of honesty. -Me too, man.
-I'ma put it out there. I'ma put it out there. -Yeah! He's keeping it real.
I feel like you have had that uphill battle.
Your mic getting cut off, them getting your name wrong
-a lot of times. -What's up with that?
John Yang living his best life,
crowd surfing-- Andrew Yang, excuse me.
Crowd surfing on the campaign trail.
Can you imagine if they just screwed up another candidate's name?
Like, would they ever say “Frank Biden” or “Sandra Warren?”
And I was like, “You know, that never would happen.”
-Do you know who he is? -No.
That's fine. But you know who this is?
-Yeah, I know who that is. -Would you be interested
in the nation's first Asian American president?
Shit. Hell yeah. I'm Asian, right?
So, you would vote for that person for sure, like, no doubt?
Yes.
Well, you're looking at him. It's this guy!
-Yeah. -You're kidding.
He's been doing literally every interview and press outlet he possibly could.
-Yang Gang. He's in the Yang Gang! -How are you?
Not a plant! Not a plant!
-Yang Gang 2020. -Yang Gang.
-Look at that. -Yang Gang, right?
Yang Gang!
As an Asian American voter, have you felt spoken to?
Not particularly, I guess.
Mainly because I have certain concerns about certain policies that he has.
-That Andrew Yang has? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had an issue when you were like, “Oh, I'm Asian. I know a lot of doctors.”
I feel like you're perpetuating a lot of stereotypes
that I just don't feel comfortable you saying that.
What's happening is pretty Asian.
You're saying you're disappointed in him.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'll tell you what, if Yang wins,
those two are definitely not getting their thousand bucks.
But I understand their frustration
with the model minority stereotype.
It's the idea that all Asians are hardworking, successful, shy,
straight-A students and the problem is...
we're not all shy and smart.
Some of us are dumb.
There are dumb Asians.
Let's be real. We all have a cousin or an uncle
or Dinesh D'Souza. We all have that.
Now, the real problem with model minority status
is that it pits us against other minority groups.
And it erases our diversity.
First off, when people think of Asian Americans,
they tend to think of people from India,
China, Japan, Korea, or the Philippines,
you know, the ones with the section at the grocery store.
But that's just a fraction.
We actually polled our audience before the show
to see how many ethnic groups you guys can name.
Okay, and you guys did...
pretty good.
On average, you got nine, which isn't bad
if the real answer wasn't over 19 different Asian ethnicities.
Three of you just wrote in “Mandalorian.”
He wears a helmet the whole time.
There are other huge disparities between groups.
Whether it's income or education, Asian Americans aren't a monolith.
Now one politician who's been good about recognizing this is Cory Booker.
He's a case study on how to reach out to the community.
In his home state of New Jersey, 10% of the population is Asian American.
So, to talk strategy, I met up with him in Edison, New Jersey –
a town that is now 49% Asian American.
Here, you have this incredible community in New Jersey
that is touching every aspect of our culture,
except for often politics.
I think if you want to represent a state like this or any state frankly,
you should have a very proactive outreach to that community.
Yeah, man. I'm happy to be here in New Jersey, your state.
I'm proud you crossed the Hudson River.
Oh, of course. So, in New Jersey,
75% of eligible white voters are registered to vote.
Whereas only 55% of eligible Asian American voters are registered to vote.
It kind of feels like a chicken and the egg situation
where politicians don't want to reach out to the community
'cause there's low turnout.
-Right. -And...
the community doesn't want to turn out
because politicians won't reach out to them.
-You're right. -So, what comes first here?
I think it's got to be both, and I've seen this in black communities.
If you're not reaching out to go out there and register people to vote,
you're not gonna get a big turnout. You know, in Jersey,
we're trying to make it, we have Punjabi ballots.
We have Korean ballots.
We have Gujarati ballots. I mean, anything that we can do to create a system
where we're going to see more engagement because the best thing for democracy
is more democracy.
Actually, the best thing for democracy would be killing the electoral college,
but fine, Gujarati ballots.
Baby steps, right?
I think he was just want to flex that he knows Punjabi, all right?
Now, getting Asians to vote is hard enough,
but Booker has actually gotten Asians to support him in a way
I never thought was possible.
You have received campaign contributions, significant ones,
from the Indian American community, which is wild.
Yes.
I'm part of the Indian American community. It's very hard to get money out of them.
-How do I do it? -Well, number one, first of all,
you run for office,
and I'm confident if you ran for office, you would get tremendous support.
No, dude. The last time I was able to get money from the community,
I had to get married.
-And you're very not married, Cory. -I am very not married.
Then, when I found out Indian Americans just happily have given you money,
I'm like, you're straight-up doing PDA with Rosario. I'm like, “Dude...
You can't been doing that.”
-I-- yes. -With my wife, Cory,
we'll be holding hands and if I see anyone from the community.
I will immediately drop, James Harden Euro step around the Auntie
and keep it moving as if I don't know Beena.
-Is PDA bad? This is good counseling. -Yeah, man.
-Really? -Yeah.
You've never kissed your wife in public?
I mean, when I do, I definitely feel like it's dangerous.
-Really? -Yes.
Okay. I want to counsel you on that.
I mean, that's just another episode.
Yes, and that episode would be called “PDA: Tempting the Gods.”
Dude, we don't do PDA, you know this.
Have you ever seen your parents hug?
-Have you ever seen your parents kiss? -No.
Dude, if my dad was on his deathbed,
my mom would walk over and just give him a fist bump, like “Hey.
It's been real, bro. I'll see you on the other side.”
That's what it's like.
Now, of course, some of the reason our community likes Cory
is because of what his party actually stands for.
The Indian American community is one of the wealthiest minority groups
in this country and generally, people say,
you vote with your pocketbook and yet,
more Indian Americans are Democrat than Republican, why is that happening?
So, look, the issues that are concerns
of the Indian American community is starting with immigration laws.
These are issues that the Democratic Party is so much better on.
We have a guy in the White House right now that is, in a hostile way,
talking down to minorities and to immigrants.
I think honestly, the racism just outweighed the tax benefit.
Yes.
The Asian community could shift elections in Nevada,
Wisconsin,
-Atlanta. -Yeah.
We already saw it a bit in 2018,
finally we got in New Jersey, our first Asian American congressperson.
-Right. -In Oklahoma,
the Asian American turnout rose
and that alone made the difference in flipping a seat.
It's kind of exciting. This sleeping giant in American politics about to wake up
-and to really flex. -Can I just pitch you a way
to definitely get the entire Asian American vote?
The entire diverse span of Asian Americans, yes.
Immigration is the one thing that connects all of us.
-Yes. -Just go, “Cory Booker, 2020...”
-Yes. -“I'll let your cousin in.”
I actually think that would be a very good law to have.
-“Cory Booker, 2020...” -Right.
“I'll give you one cousin.”
I'm down with that.
You're telling me you wouldn't put that on a Camry?
I would for sure.
My cousin Sahil is dying to come to America.
Now the fact that we're becoming this critical of a voting block is incredible.
Especially when you consider how far we've come.
For decades, Asians weren't just excluded from American politics,
we were excluded from America.
“On the eve of the greatest wave of immigration in American history,
President Chester A. Arthur signed into law
an extraordinary piece of federal legislation.
It was called the Chinese Exclusion Act,
singling out as never before a specific race
and nationality for exclusion.
It made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America
and for Chinese nationals already here ever to become citizens of the United States.”
Yeah, in 1882,
President Face Pubes signed the Chinese Exclusion Act
barring all Chinese workers from the country.
So large numbers of Japanese, Korean, and Indian immigrants
came to fill the need for cheap labor.
But it confused Americans.
They're like, “Hey, I thought we banned Chinese people.
Where did all these Chinese people come from?”
So, just to be safe,
Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924,
which barred nearly all immigrants from Asia.
And just when things couldn't get any worse, this happened...
“The American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii,
bombed just after dawn.”
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
our West Coast became a potential combat zone.
Living in that zone were more than 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry,
two-thirds of them American citizens.
“Notices were posted.
All persons of Japanese descent were required to register.
The Japanese themselves cheerfully handled the enormous paperwork
involved in the migration.”
"Cheerfully?"
How was Japanese internment cheerful?
They're like... “The Trail of Tears.
The Cherokee Nation was getting their 10,000 steps in.
It was great cardio.”
Now, for the better part of a century,
America passed laws to dehumanize and exclude Asians from American life.
But that changed in the 1960s.
Black America ushered in an era of progress
with the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Act.
And during that time, another law rode that wave through Congress.
The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act signed by President Johnson.
“For over four decades,
the immigration policy of the United States has been twisted
and distorted by the harsh injustice
of the national origins quota system.
Today, this system is abolished.”
This ended the racist quota system
and let in a lot of highly educated immigrants.
Immigrants like my parents
and the parents of a lot of people who work on this show.
Like, right here. This is Jeejung's family.
She's one of our animators. Right over here, yeah.
This dude right here, this is Apollo's dad, Filipino Shaft.
Yes. Apollo works in animation.
This is Prashanth's family, okay? Back in the '80s.
Look how crazy this photo is.
White House, brown family, no fence.
It's a different America.
Okay?
We went from 900,000 Asian Americans before this law
to over 19 million today.
Yeah, we are all children of this one piece of legislation.
If it weren't for the 1965 act,
this studio would be a laser tag arena.
And there are also a lot of people who probably wish that was the case.
The immigration system must put
the needs of American workers and families first.
If Democrats were ever to seize power,
they would open the floodgates
to unvetted, uncontrolled migration
at levels you have never seen before.
You think you have it bad now?
You would never have seen anything like what they want to do.
Okay, I can't tell if he's being racist or introducing Cirque du Soleil.
He's like, “They want to do something...
you've never seen before.”
Right, okay. I wanna see that.
Now, this kind of all-caps racism
is driving more Asian Americans away from the Republican party,
but that hasn't stopped them from trying to win us back.
Do you guys remember that bizarre campaign ad
that DJT made to try to get the Indian vote?
Yeah, it was about 35 years ago in 2016.
I look forward to working with Prime Minister Modi.
We love the Hindus.
We love India.
“I'm Donald Trump, and I approve this message.”
We love the Hindus.
That sounds like something your white grandfather says
when he meets someone from Thailand.
He's like, “Oh, you're from Bangkok? We love the Hindus!”
You're like, “Grandpa, don't do that.”
Now, I know I've played that cough syrup nightmare before,
but I had to because it marked the start of a long love fest
between Narendra Modi and Donald Trump,
and that love fest climaxed this past September in Houston, Texas.
Tens of thousands of Indian Americans packed into a Houston stadium Sunday
for an event called, get this, “Howdy Modi!”
-“Howdy Modi!” -“Howdy Modi!
In Houston with President Trump.
Both of them patting each other on the back
saying what great leaders they are,
what great friends they are.”
A very Texas welcome to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Yeah, a Trump rally,
in Texas,
full of Indians.
Such a weird combination.
Like, think about it.
You have gun nuts and vegetarians.
Like, one side of the stadium is like, “We shouldn't put animals in cages.”
And the other side of the stadium is like, “You're right.
We should only put kids in cages.”
Look, when I heard about this, I knew I had to be there.
It's fucking nuts, but they wouldn't let me in
because they didn't like some of the jokes I've made about Modi on this show,
so I got kicked out.
And you know what's fucked up?
While they kept me outside,
they played this clip inside on the jumbotron.
“This is home. This is us.
We're entrepreneurs and comedians.”
They're like, “We're entrepreneurs. We're comedians.
We're traitors to the motherland.”
Now, since I was stuck outside, I figured, why not talk to the community,
see what's going on.
I wanted to know
if supporting Modi translates to supporting his orange brother.
-Did you guys vote for Trump in 2016? -Yes, I was very active,
-Okay. -and I'll be active in 2020 as well.
If you're a supporter of India, Prime Minister Modi, the BJP,
you can only be with President Trump.
Are you a big supporter of Donald Trump?
No.
I'm a sometimes Trump guy.
I'm looking for a Democrat.
-You didn't know that he was opening? -No.
Oh dude, it's the Jay-Z and Beyoncé of ethno-nationalism.
That's okay.
Who's Beyoncé in this situation?
The hot bod?
-Who? Modi? -Yeah.
-Fifty-six? -Yes.
-No he doesn't have a--
He doesn't have a 56-inch chest. He would be a linebacker in the NFL, man.
Dude, he wouldn't stop talking about Modi's chest.
It goes on for three more minutes.
If he ever meets Narendra Modi, Modi's gonna be like,
“Hey, eyes up here.
I have a brain, you know.”
Being at the Howdy Modi rally was such a trip.
But while I was there, it really hit me.
Asian Americans are becoming a powerful political force.
And it's a force that will not hesitate to get up in your face.
-Do you feel like we've arrived now? -We have. I think we have.
I see the change coming--
Oh, come on.
Okay.
I am.
Come on, we're brothers.
Okay.
“One, two...”
Yeah.
Look, honestly,
I wanted that picture as much as he did, because look, this is a true story.
My family knows him!
That guy is friends with my parents.
I didn't know he was gonna be at Howdy Modi, but I saw him again last week.
He came over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner in Sacramento.
That's how tight-knit our community is.
It made me realize two things.
Our community is big enough to fill up a football stadium,
but we also all know each other.
There are 19 million Asians in this country,
but only nine WhatsApp threads.
Dude, we are one group chat away from changing history.
That's why we can't keep waiting for politicians to speak to us.
If we do, we'll never be listened to.
We'll only be pandered to and personally,
I don't want to see Pete Buttigieg eating a samosa in Jackson Heights
on an elephant. You don't gotta do all that, man.
Just focus on the issues we care about.
And maybe...
just let in one of our cousins.