Seattle made history Tuesday as the first city in the U.S. to expressly ban caste-based discrimination after an outpouring of input from South Asian Americans.
An ordinance introduced by District 4 Councilmember Kshama Sawant — Seattle’s only elected socialist and the only Indian member of the council — added caste to the list of statuses protected under Seattle’s existing anti-discrimination policies.
“This bill is not technically complicated, it’s a very simple question: Should discrimination based on caste be allowed to continue in Seattle?” Sawant said Tuesday, noting that she hopes the decision will be a “beacon” for other cities to follow suit.
“While simple, it is also profound and historic,” she added.
The council voted 6-1 to pass the ordinance, with at-large Councilmemer Sara Nelson casting the lone vote against.
While Nelson said caste discrimination is “abhorrent,” she voted against the ordinance citing a “reckless” potential for a lawsuit — specifically noting the likelihood of one coming from a “well-resourced” tech employer.
“Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should,” Nelson said.
Caste is a hierarchical system, stemming from Hinduism in India, assigned at birth in which the oppressed or Dalit are deemed “untouchables.” While India officially banned the system, its influence is still felt in South Asia and by South Asians in America.
Though there are 150,000 Indians in Washington, before Tuesday’s vote, someone who faced harassment or mistreatment based on caste would not be protected, while someone who faced gender, race or age discrimination would be, its supporters argue.
While the U.S. has never formally recognized the caste system, South Asians have faced discrimination within workplaces and higher education, with a growing number of organizations working to recognize and combat casteism in recent years.
Last year, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing was allowed by an appellate court to pursue a lawsuit against Cisco Systems, where an engineer was allegedly actively denied professional opportunities, a raise and promotions because of his caste background.
Brandeis University banned caste-based discrimination, or harassment based on caste, in 2019, and the University of California system — the largest state school system in the country — added caste to its discrimination protection policies in 2022.
Hundreds of speakers testified about caste during public comment in Seattle over the last two weeks, a vast majority of whom supported the ordinance. Of the over 100 speakers who were allowed to weigh in Tuesday before council ended comment — after nearly an hour and a half, with hundreds of in-person and remote speakers unable to speak — about a dozen were opposed, or asked the council to postpone the vote.
Opponents of the ordinance argue that the ordinance would be discriminatory toward Hindus and that with more than 2,000 different castes, it’s too complicated an issue to enforce.
Before the vote Tuesday, Sawant’s office denounced the argument that the policy would harm Hindus, comparing the argument to Christians who claim same-sex marriage imposes on the religious rights of those who oppose it.
“Everybody understands this is a right-wing argument. Genuine progressives support freedom of religion, but also understand that that cannot be an excuse to abuse LGBTQ people or discriminate against them,” Sawant’s office said in a statement about the ordinance published before the vote.
Supporters compared the system to apartheid and slavery, pleading for council members to pass the ordinance.
“It is not complex to decide against discrimination,” one speaker named Mohammed said.
“You don’t need to determine caste, you only need to determine whether to be the leader for the rest of the nation and make civil rights history,” he added.
Many of the Dalit or caste-oppressed individuals who spoke in favor of the ordinance withheld some or all of their names in public comment out of fear of retaliation. Groups ranging from religious organizations and higher education groups to the Alphabet Workers Union of Google employees spoke more freely in a joint letter sent to the city council.
“We oppose racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, antisemitism, and other forms of hate and bigotry. We are troubled that caste-based discrimination is not currently prohibited under our anti-discrimination framework,” the letter co-signed by over 170 different organizations reads. “Like racism,bcasteism is a system of oppression; it is a very real — and growing — problem in our country and our local communities, but one that is not understood by most Americans.”
Nelson said she was also concerned that existing protections around ancestry would already cover caste discrimination. Noting that ambiguity, Councilmember Lisa Herbold said that the city should lean toward providing protections where there is gray area, noting the recent inclusion of pregnancy outcome, immigration status and others to city discrimination laws.
“I think it’s really important that we err on the side of protection against discrimination and have that legal clarity,” Herbold said.
Sawant rebuffed Nelson’s comments, arguing that previous human rights efforts like race and gender equality would have been stunted if people hedged from progressive policies because of a fear of retaliation or lawsuits.
“Bring it on,” Sawant said to opponents in her closing statement.
After thousands of letters and petition signatures imploring the council to vote one way or another, the present members voted 6-1. Councilmembers Sawant, Herbold, Tammy Morales, Teresa Mosqueda Alex Pedersen, and Dan Strauss voted in favor, sending the rowdy crowd in council chambers into loud cheers. Councilmember Nelson opposed. Council President Debora Juarez and Councilmember Andrew Lewis were absent from the meeting.
___
(c)2023 The Seattle Times
Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Caste discrimination in the United States is a form of discrimination based on the social hierarchy which is determined by a person’s birth.
A Hindu advocacy organization accused California’s civil rights agency of violating the constitutional rights of Hindu Americans with its enforcement efforts targeting alleged caste bias against South Asian workers. The Hindu American Foundation Inc.
This opens up a totally new means to sue anybody for any reason, just because one is not given what they want.
“Everybody understands this is a right-wing argument. Genuine progressives support freedom of religion, but also understand that that cannot be an excuse to abuse LGBTQ people or discriminate against them,” Sawant’s office said in a statement about the ordinance published before the vote.
The LGBTQ Con and deception is just to want “equality, acceptance and tolerance.”
These LGBTQ’s are the open practitioners of the infamous crime against GOD and nature,
Who sold their souls to the malicious, venomous bullies of Organized LGBTQ mafia.
These Sodomites, will not tolerate and will attack and attempt to destroy anyone and anything not accepting and promoting their chosen, degenerate, sexually perverted lifestyle.
Here’s a simple solution. TELL ALL THESE damn foreigners, LEAVE YOUR OWN CULTURE BACK home.. You come here, to adopt to OUR CULTURE… If you don’t want to. DON’T COME!
socialist trash is all the west is
I say, go ahead and let Ama3on sue the city! Make it a federal case, and let them pour money down the toilet paying lawyers to defend against their discrimination.
Actually, if people come to this country to work, even as “guest workers”, then they need to leave behind the odious practices from the old country. Need to get back to the “melting pot”.
“CASTE your numerous invented American Woke minority categories upon the political waters, and the votes will return after many days” This is not a case of productive food chainers, fly casting into a productive American pond to catch something healthy to eat, but human flies casting their political ram rods into the swampy political waters trying to catch some voter to eat, with no limits placed upon the number of anti-American ideological useful idiots they can ensnare in their now nattering nabob nets of negativism used to divide American along fishy invisible racial lines, designed to hook the uninformed and mind malleable. Idle brains, like idle hands are indeed the Devil’s workshop. Some people have way too much time on their hands for mischief which is what you get when they are allowed to go on the government dole, and it looks like it will be decades before they live off the misdirected COVID trillions given out to the useless who just produce more uselessness and social division at their taxpayer paid for leisure, destined after life to be CASTE in the eternal lake of fire that separates the productive wheat from the woke weeds who choose government unbalanced unfair woke entitlement over earning their own way in balanced fair social competitions.
The constitution already dealt with the “caste” system.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
If we enforced the laws on the books, we wouldn’t need all these new laws people are thinking up.
But then again, no nation can properly govern itself without a good moral foundation. That’s why the further we get from God and His holy Word, the more corrupt our society gets.
AND that’s the problem. THE LEFT REFUSES TO enforce the laws we already have, thinking making boatloads of NEW laws will do anything.