Kal Penn has always interested me as a person. Even though I can’t say I enjoyed the Harold and Kumar franchise, I became a fan when he left House to work for the Obama Administration. Penn is currently appearing on the show Designated Survivor with Kiefer Sutherland. Penn was born in New Jersey. But as he doesn’t look like your typical Jersey boy, some idiots like to remind him of that under the current administration. One in particular reached out to Penn on Instagram with typical social media diplomacy, “… you don’t belong in the country you f–king joke.” Since Kal is far more clever than the knuckle-draggers heckling him, he did something marvelous by way of response: he started a crowd-funding page for Syrian refugees. As of this writing, the page has raised over $800,000 for the International Rescue Committee. And the marvelous part? Penn did so in the name of the @sshat who spat out on him on social media.
Designated Survivor star Kal Penn translated an act of hate into love — and more than three-quarters of a million dollars.
Spurred by a bigoted social media user who told him “you don’t belong in this country,” the actor, who was born in Montclair, N.J., to immigrant parents, launched a crowdfunding campaign Saturday in support of Syrian refugees, who are indefinitely barred from entry into the U.S. under President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
The actor also went on CNN Monday to discuss his efforts, which far exceeded his initial expectations. “I’m a pretty privileged guy. What about the 14-year-old me or the kids who look like me who don’t have the luxury of this platform?” he said. “Maybe we can raise $25,000 and show guys like that that we’re better than this.”
“All I did was set up a page,” he maintained. “It just speaks to the tens of thousands of people who felt the same way I did who said, ‘Let’s help some refugees out.'”
Obviously, it’s incredible that the “take a seat” message is accompanied by an $800,000 donation. But Penn is gracious enough to point out he is speaking from a place of privilege and that’s why he has to speak out, for those who aren’t and have no voice. When he spoke to the LA Times, he said his hope, besides actually raising money, “is that actions like that show the rest of the world how we really feel and who we really are and that he does not speak for us.”
Penn claims all he did “was set up a page’ and it’s raised over three-quarters of a million dollars for refugees. Many of you may be thinking, ’all I did was write a tiny check to the ACLU’ and it brought in $24 million dollars. At the end of the day, wouldn’t you rather say, ‘All I Did’ instead of ‘I Wish I Had’?
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Twitter
Good for Kal! And I fucking can’t with these assholes who think they’re somehow more entitled to be here simply because they’re white. With the exception of Native Americans, we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants.
Yup. Those types tend to be uneducated imbeciles for the most part.
Not all of us. You can’t classify African-Americans as descendants of immigrants. Our ancestors didn’t ask to come here, they were dragged here in chains.
I would think the exception/African-Americans not being immigrants, is naturally understood when the ancestors of the people in question had no choice at all whether to come here or not.
Correction: with the exception of Native americans and African americans, we are all immigrants.
HA – I gave to the fund when it was at $8K on the way to $10K – and now it’s more than $800,000! Way to go, Kal – I hope it reaches a million. That asshole who insulted you is probably gnashing his rotten teeth in frustration! He who laughs last…
I watched this go down on twitter a couple of days ago. He literally started with a goal of raising a relatively modest amount, like $10,000, and it just kept growing and growing so he kept setting the bar further away. It’s amazing it has grown to over $800,000.
Love him. Love this. Not much to love these days, but good for him for taking a nasty situation and making gold come from it.
Right on Kal! Well done!
That picture of him with POTUS… 😭😭😭
It’s lovely that he has that picture.
i donated a small sum, because i thought it was awesome the way he rose above the insult and made so much good come of it. And as the poster above said, it was amazing to see how it started rolling and he had to keep raising the goal, as it was reached with in a few hours.
I had donated to Syrian refugees for Xmas, but I also must say, that as there is so much suffering and need in the world, sometimes you need an extra push to motivate you to donate. This was just not helping others in need, it was also sticking it to some a**holes….so it was a win win for me.
REPRESENTING MY HOMETOWN!!! Also good to see other Asians faces on this site. I’ve always liked Kal. I also LOVE Harold and Kumar (Jon also a good guy) but maybe it’s because I’m a jersey girl (also not a typical Jersey girl). Montclair is different than many typical Jersey towns. A little upscale and very liberal, but the epitome of diverse! I wasn’t a huge fan of my hometown growing up, but since moving to the south, I miss them liberal yuppies compared to the conservative hick types down here…no offense! I’m a north jersey girl forever.
Sexy, smart and talented…..sighhhhhhhhhh
you did your grandparents and Gandhi-ji proud, Kal Penn!
Good on Kal, I’ve been a fan since Harold & Kumar but he just won 10 million more cool points in my book when he left to, of all things, work for the Obama administration!
And now he’s won a hundred million more cool points for this.
Amazing ! Nice to know there are good people out there.
I know this must seem a bit superficial in these times, but we are still allowed to have fun, right? So can we have a “Hot Guys of the Resistance” and can we start with Kal Penn?
I second the motion!
Also I’m happy to see the immigration ban subject posting today when Trump is trying to move on to the next page by announcing his Supreme Court pick. This is how he got away with outrageous stuff during the election.
Say one crazy thing as the media try to cover it, say another crazy thing two days later to distract the media from the previous crazy. It works so he’s doing it now: drop Obamacare, then quickly move on to Muslim ban, next Supreme Court pick, next week bring soda back to school or start a twitter beef with Kim K.
What a great idea!
You should send Celebitchy an email about it. So that she gets a nice email!
I fell for him when I saw him on HIMYM. Love him!
I’m sorry he was subjected to that but his response was absolute genius. Bravo Kal!
Yes, what an amazingly gracious and generous thing to do. I cried when I read the tweet and his response.
Fists up!!!
It amazes me how much money people can raise for whatever cause. Fast, easy and convenient. That’s what money can do, yet the actual cause of the problem are never really resolved. why?
Is this a serious question? In what specific circumstances do you think the money being raised is sufficient to solve the issue yet could/did not?
Because some people are concerned for their fellow man and think high taxes and comprehensive public services are the way things should be done.
Some people are also concerned for their fellow man but think it’s up to individuals to offer support through charity.
And some people think everything should rest on individual responsibility and neither want to pay higher taxes nor contribute to charity.
The second group would contribute anyway. And since elections in the US generally seem to produce governments that prefer to keep taxes relatively low, people in the first group also contribute since they didn’t achieve the government style they’d prefer. But if those causes and social problems are to be fixed in any other way than funding drives, you’d need that first group to be bigger than both other groups combined.
I think that’s what you were asking!
I don’t know if that’s true. Every situation is different. When a high school band didn’t have the funds to attend a music festival, people stepped up to cover the expenses and the problem was solved. But I guess you could say that the underlying problem of inequitable school funding wasn’t solved. Still, it was a nice thing to do for the students.
OT a bit, I also tend to think some people see the success of crowdfunding and feel a little jealous that they can’t get in on the “fast money” action. Just this week the girlfriend of a FB friend posted a “go fund me” request because she “wasn’t feeling good about herself and money would help.” I thought it was a joke at first but she was serious.
This is so fantastic. I’ve had a crush on Kal Penn since “House.” Now I adore him even more. I LOVE that he put the fund in that racist cretin’s name. Clever, handsome, articulate and kind-hearted. Bravo, Kal Penn!! 👏
Really Kal?
In 2013 he said stop and frisk saves countless lives and he has also said black people commit the most crime. I guess it’s OK to get racially profiled if you are black according to Penn but if you look like him then oh noes we must stop this injustice.
Like someone wise said and I quote “#POCsolidarity When it was stop and frisk against black folks it was good and we’re just keeping america safe by arresting criminals. now that it’s brown folks they all in their feelings like it’s 9/11 all over again.”
I haven’t read the tweets and am not defending what he wrote. He did apologize for flippantly tweeting about something he didn’t fully understand and made an effort to educate himself afterward.
Good for Kal! He trolled the troll and raised money for a good cause.
I wish the names/accounts of these racist jerks weren’t blurred out. These people need to be exposed and get treated with the same scorn they give to others.
I cannot in good conscience donate to ACLU after they defended paedophilia http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95942&page=1
To say I am disgusted would be an understatement and I wish more people did their research before donating money to any organizations, much less one promoted by a celebrity. Always, always take a few seconds to Google and do your research people!
well, to nitpick, they are defending the rights of people who happen to be pedophiles. As unsavory as their ideas are, they still have the right to express them in the literature they create- and that’s what the ACLU is defending. It’s easy to stand up for someone’s rights when they are ‘good’ people, it takes more courage to defend someone’s true rights when they are doing something most people oppose. But, I think those rare cases strengthen our base and don’t provide an alley for basic rights to be chipped away at.
Beef jerky, so you think it’s ok that we take away the rights of little children to their own body, physical and emotional well being and their full understanding of the word “consent to sexual
Activity”, just so we can defend the right of paedophile pigs to bleat on about how they can coerce children into having sex with them? How sexual play between an adult, who knows what they are doing and naturally has more power in the relationship, and a child who barely understands and can consent to what is happening, is ok? That this is simply an “unsavoury idea” and takes “moral courage” to defend in your words?
Thanks An for posting that about the ACLU. I was mulling over donating to them in their fight against Trump but I think I’ll direct my money to organizations that don’t support the right to spread paedophilic messages.
They’re not “defending pedophilia.” They’re defending free speech, as disgusting and immoral as the free speech may be. Freedom of speech is complicated. Sometimes you’ve got to defend the rights of bad people. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” and all.
+1000 to Meredith and An. Defending the right to free speech isn’t like sitting around in a peace circle singing Kumbayah. It can get very ethically complicated, but if we don’t want someone to take away our right to say that Trump sucks, we have to give others the right to freedom of speech, even if they are saying truly disgusting things.
Sorry, I meant +1000 Meredith and BeefJerky.
Wow, really? That’s all you took away from that article? This is as bad as claiming us Californians made child prostitution legal. SMDH.
The ACLU has defended plenty of groups that I find heinous, including white supremacists. You seem to be confusing condoning thought or behavior with protecting Constitutional rights. what about defense attorneys? Do you think they condone murder? Rape? Of course not. But even very bad people with bad ideas are protected in this country. I don’t even know why I’m bothering with this comment. You either get it or you don’t. Our freedom isn’t always pretty.
Please everyone keep donating to the ACLU. They have a tiny fraction of attorneys, in the low hundreds, fighting hard for our basic rights.
A beautiful example of the type of grace under pressure that these terrible times need.
Kudos to Kal Penn for going high and inspiring others to do the same.
This makes me so happy! What a classy response to a bully and troll, and thanks to all those who joined in to make something good of it, helping the helpless and standing up against racism.
I needed some good news today!!!!!!!!
First they came for the immigrants and refugees and we said, NOT TODAY MOTHER#$&^@#!
I love this. I donated when it was in the $600k range, so thrilled to see it climbing!
I can’t say I’m a fan of his as an actor, but I really admire that he stopped his career to go work at the White House, and that he turned something awful into something positive here.