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www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh Founder, Chairman & Publisher Ilayas Quraishi Chief Operating Officer Ela Dutt Editor Archana Adalja Contributing Editor T. Vishnudatta Jayaraman Advisor Arun Shah Ahmedabad Bureau Chief Peter Ferreira, Deval Parikh, Freelance Photographers Bhailal M. Patel Executive Vice President Chandrakant Koticha-Rajkot, India Executive Director Business Development Jim Gallentine Business Development Manager - U.S. Shahnaz Sheikh Senior Manager Advertising & Marketing Sonia Lalwani Advertising Manager Shailu Desai Advertising New York Muslima Shethwala Syed Sheeraz Mahmood Advertising Chicago Digant Sompura Consultant for Business Development Ahmedabad, India Hervender Singh Circulation Manager Main Office Editorial & Corporate Headquarters 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Tel. (212) 675-7515 Fax. (212) 675-7624 New York Office Tel: (718) 784-8555 E-mails editor@newsindiatimes.com advertising@newsindia-times.com subscription@newsindia-times.com Website www.newsindiatimes.com Chicago Office 2652 West Devon Avenue, Suite B Chicago, IL 60659 Tel. (773) 856-3345 California Office 650 Vermont Ave, Suite #46 Anaheim, CA 92805 Mumbai Office Nikita Ajay Pai Goregaon, West Mumbai Ahmedabad Office 303 Kashiparekh Complex C.G. Road, 29 Adarsh Society Ahmedabad 380009 Tel. 26446947 F ax. 26565596 Published weekly, Founded in 1975. The views expressed on the opinion pages are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of News India Times. Copyright © 2024, News India Times News India Times (ISSN 0199-901X) is published every Friday by Parikh Worldwide Media LLC., 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Periodicals postage paid at Newark, N.J. , and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address change to News India Times, 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Annual Subscription: United States: $28 Disclaimer: Parikh Worldwide Media assumes no liability for claims/ assumptions made in advertisements and advertorials. Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of the authors and Parikh Worldwide Media does not officially endorse, and is not responsible or liable for them. India-Canada News India Times (October 26 - November 1, 2024) November 1, 2024 3 This Election Season, Survivors’ Rights Are On The Ballot A s election day nears, it’s vital to recognize how the poli- cies we vote on are directly tied to pressing issues high- lighted during October: Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities, the stakes are high. This month spotlights the systemic and intersecting barriers survivors face, from healthcare inequities to immigra- tion obstacles and inadequate access to justice. At Sakhi for South Asian Survivors, we witness every day through our work in the community how policy choices directly affect the lives of survivors and how election outcomes leave lasting impacts on our communities. While national elections grab attention, the most critical decisions for survivors often happen at the state and local levels, where laws on domestic violence, reproductive rights, health- care access, and immigration are shaped. The South Asian and Indo-Caribbean diaspora, one of the fastest-growing communi- ties in the U.S., faces unique challenges. Nearly half of South Asians in the U.S. report experiencing violence, and in New York State, where most of our work is concentrated, a staggering 85% of young South Asians report some form of sexual violence. For immigrant survivors, these challenges are compounded by immigration-related abuse, with many facing threats to their legal status as a means of control. These numbers tell a broader story: policies that limit health- care access, criminalize immigrants, or fail to provide legal pro- tections endanger entire communities. Voting isn’t just a civic duty; it’s an act of survival. It shapes systems that either protect or fail survivors. In addition to the weight of our vote on policy, it’s essential to educate oneself before heading to the polls. Informed voting means recognizing that the choices we make in the voting booth directly affect our lives, the healthcare we receive, the legal protections we are afforded, and the resources available in times of crisis. For 35 years, Sakhi has worked to combat gender-based vio- lence through culturally specific services, policy advocacy, and spaces for survivors to heal and rebuild. We know that systemic change, not just services, is key to addressing the root causes of violence. In recent pieces for Ms. Magazine and Inside Philan- thropy, I’ve stressed the need for transformative policies and sustainable funding to ensure survivor justice. Change happens not only through services but through dismantling punitive im- migration laws, expanding healthcare access, and strengthening protections for survivors. This election is a chance to elect leaders who understand these issues and are committed to enacting policies that promote safety, equity, and justice. At Sakhi, we’ve seen how transformative policies can rebuild lives. When survivors have access to healthcare, economic resources, and legal protections, they can break free from violence. But this requires leaders who will deliver on policy, not just promises. This election, let’s use our vote to elect candidates who will fight for survivors’ rights and safety. The future of our commu- nity depends on it. D ave Bautista, whom you might know best from his wrestling career, or from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, or for simply being an enormously muscled man, recently appeared in a video with an important message for the young men of America. “Fellas, we gotta talk,” he tells them, sweatily emerging from a boxing ring. “A lot of men seem to think that Donald Trump is some kind of tough guy. He’s not.” What follows is two minutes of Bautista explaining exactly how Trump is a weenie. “The guy is barely strong enough to hold an umbrella,” he sneers as unflattering footage plays of Trump struggling with rain gear. Cut to Bautista flipping a truck tire. “Look at [Trump’s] gut,” he says. “It’s like a garbage bag full of buttermilk.” And later: “He’s got jugs. Big ones.” Cut to side-by-side images of Trump and Dolly Parton. The video, which aired last week on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” is somewhere between high-minded satire and knuckle- dragging insult comedy. Is it supposed to be funny because Bautista is operat- ing in the same juvenile mode that the former president likes to use, thereby exposing how silly it is for anyone to care how much a presidential candidate can bench? Or is it supposed to be funny because, ha-ha, man boobs? The fact that the point of this thing – This sketch? Parody ad? Suggestion? – is so hard to pin down speaks to a dilemma facing Kamala Harris and her allies here in the final act of the so-called Gender Election. How should she talk to the fel- las? After two months of campaigning hard for young women’s votes, drilling down on abortion and reproductive issues, Harris and her surrogates seem to have awakened to the possibility that win- ning this race might require appealing to a different coveted voter demographic: undecided young men. The kind of young men who might frequent IGN, the world’s largest gaming media outlet, where the Harris campaign recently purchased ads. The kind of young men who might tune in to a “World ofWarcraft” live stream on Twitch, the gaming platform where the campaign recently created a channel and broadcast a TimWalz rally live-narrated by a popularWoW player. The men who are among the some 14 million Spotify followers to Joe Rogan’s podcast, where Trump is set to appear Friday. (As of last week, the Harris campaign was reportedly in talks to go on the show, according to Reuters; it’s now unclear whether this will happen.) Trump supporters have long presented their guy as the masculine option, even before he was running against a woman. See: Swole Trump, a meme that portrays the former president as the embodiment of physical strength and desirability. A recent iteration, which Trump himself promoted on social media, imagines him as a Pittsburgh Steeler. Americans say they want a strong president; Trump has always taken the desire to an absurdly literal place, as if the commander in chief might be regularly forced to meet America’s enemies in the Octagon. In the early part of Harris’s candidacy, her campaign stayed out of this peacock- ing. It wasn’t their lane; those weren’t her voters. Then, when she namedWalz as her vice-presidential pick, he was presented as not only a running mate but also a Man – a football-coaching, mili- tary-serving, red-blooded man. But his energy, healthily masculine as it may have been, was a completely different genre than whatever Trump’s team is going for when they invited Hulk Hogan to rip off his shirt at the Republican National Con- vention, or when Trump went on Logan Paul’s podcast and discussed how cool his own mug shot was. You could ask a whole host of ques- tions here, about how to define masculin- ity, and who gets to own it, and who gets to exploit it, and how we landed on these rules to begin with. Or you could acknowledge a hard truth, which is, even afterWalz went hunting, and even after Harris went on Howard Stern, and even after she drank a beer with Stephen Colbert, Harris is not doing well with young men. Those under 30 support Trump over Harris by 15 points, according to a recentWashington Post-Schar School poll. (Women under 30 support Harris by 20 points.) Enter Dave Bautista. Enter a fella primed to acknowledge that some young voters don’t want sweet dad jokes. They want fighting, insult comedy, a president who treats the campaign as ElectionMa- nia 2024. So, if you can’t beat ’em, then bring in a former wrestler best known for his power bombs to announce that Trump is a “weak, tubby toddler.” There’s something serious behind this cringe campaign for the young male vote. And that is the fact that the demographic is legitimately in need of support. They have higher risks of suicide, lower chanc- es of going to college and finding employ- ment, and an increased likelihood of feel- ing lonely. “The young man’s experience reflects a broader crisis of confidence and purpose,” John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, wrote in a recent essay. They are experiencing real, serious By Sakhi for South Asian Survivors Kamala Harris And The Dudes By Monica Hesse - Continued On Page 4