Dalip Singh Saund among Asian American trailblazers: Obama
Wednesday, 09/05/2012
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-news/Dalip-Singh-Saund-among-Asian-American-trailblazers-Obama/articleshow/13062624.cms
Identifying first Indian-American Congressman Dalip Singh Saund as among early trailblazers for Asian-American community, president Barack Obama said the community must be treated beyond as the model minority.
Reaching out to the untapped Asian American community ahead of the November presidential elections, Obama said treatment of Asian Americans must go beyond treating them as the "model minority" to better understand the challenges faced by many groups, especially recent immigrants.
Majority of the Asian Americans, among the early immigrants, Obama said didn't had money.
"A lot of them didn't have belongings. But what they did have was an unshakeable belief that this country -- of all countries -- is a place where anybody can make it if they try," he said.
"Now, many of them faced hardship; many of them faced ridicule; many of them faced racism. Many were treated as second-class citizens -- as people who didn't belong. But they didn't give up. They didn't make excuses. They kept forging ahead. They kept building up America," he said.
"But they were trailblazers like Dalip Singh Saund -- a young man from India who, in 1920, came to study agriculture, stayed to become a farmer and took on the cause of citizenship for all people of South Asian descent," Obama said addressing the annual gala of Asian Pacific American Institute for American Studies.
"And once Dalip earned his own citizenship, he stepped up to serve the country he loved -- and became the first Asian American elected to the Congress," Obama said amidst a round of applause.
