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California moves closer to historic caste discrimination ban

California moved closer to becoming the first U.S. state to ban caste discrimination after a bill to outlaw the practise passed the California Assembly late on Monday.

U.S. discrimination laws ban ancestry discrimination but do not explicitly ban casteism. California’s legislation targets the caste system in South Asian immigrant communities by adding caste to the list of categories protected under the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

The bill was introduced and authored by state Senator Aisha Wahab, an Afghan American Democrat, in March. An earlier version of it passed the state Senate before undergoing revisions.

hesusingthespiritbomb ,

They gonna do anything about the culture of indians only hiring other Indians?

rez_doggie ,

Apply this to police and their families. They treat everyone else like they are trash.

CarlsIII ,

TIL this has been legal the whole time

SmoothLiquidation ,

You are pretty much allowed to discriminate for any reason UNLESS it is explicitly forbidden.

ryathal ,

More generally anything not explicitly prohibited by law is allowed in the US legal system.

GiddyGap ,

It’s 2023, folks! How is this still a thing…?

Pat12 ,

pretty shitty that this is even a thing we have to address

Astroturfed ,

Isn’t this effectively illegal by many other anti-descriminate laws?.. Seems a bit silly. As with most discrimination laws the problem is proving and enforcing it.

quindraco , (edited )

Does anyone know how caste discrimination is usually accomplished? Unlike with racism or sexism, the basis of the bigotry shouldn’t be remotely visible, and unlike bigotry based on sexuality or religion, it’s not even determinable from the person’s knowledge: everyone knows what they’re attracted to and their own philosophical views, but almost no-one knows who their great-great-great grandparents were. It seems a curious thing to be bigoted based on something so challenging to assess.

Maajmaaj ,
@Maajmaaj@lemmy.ca avatar

So one of the articles I read said it happens through conversation and asking prodding questions about last names, your diet, etc. And then, after getting enough info, the higher caste person will start shitting on the lower caste by not inviting them out, telling everyone else about the lower castes person’s “status” etc.

Edit: It even goes as far as only seeing higher caste folks gaining positions in IT and stuff. I’ll see if I can find the article later.

quindraco ,

The diet thing sounds like classical bigotry for sure, like refusing to promote someone if you know they like matzoh because you assume they’re jewish. I wonder what foods they associate with lower castes.

Maajmaaj , (edited )
@Maajmaaj@lemmy.ca avatar

Meat.

Edit: you silly fucks downvote me for being right. The higher castes like Brahmin are associated with vegetarianism.

treefrog ,

It is classical bigotry.

And we do it in the U.S. through classism too though it’s much less apparent (mostly because Americans like to believe in ‘upward mobility’).

How you talk, what you eat, what kind of music you like. All of this can betray caste (or class) and keep you out of job positions or even schools if the person interviewing you has conscious or subconscious biases.

The rich have a term, new money, which is a way of saying, you don’t belong in our caste. Or class. Pick your term for bigotry.

eltimablo ,

I have only ever seen "new money" used when referring to someone coming into money and blowing it all on something dumb like a giant, inefficient luxury car or some other depreciating asset.

treefrog ,

Honestly I learned it from books that take place in New Orleans. Families that have had plantation houses and estates in their family since before the civil war.

I don’t hang out with old money people to first hand know how they talk behind closed doors. Just have read some authors that do.

Pat12 ,

the level of bigotry in the US is nothing compared to caste discrimination in south asia

treefrog , (edited )

If being a bigot was socially acceptable here we’d see more abuses in broad day light like Asia

But people still get murdered and tortured for being different in the U.S. And there’s still tons of covert and overt bigotry in every level of society from housing, to work, to school, to medicine.

So, I get you. In Asia it’s acceptable to treat people this way which means there’s fewer legal protections. It still happens in the U.S. And I’m sure the victims and their families couldn’t care less if we argue about where it’s worse.

ohlaph ,

Yeah, it has many names and often less obvious terms to describe the same thing.

ChunkMcHorkle , (edited )
@ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world avatar

deleted by creator

dogslayeggs ,

They ask innocent, shallow questions that don’t seem to get much information from you: last name, home town, schools, diet, temple where you worship. Add that to visual clues like whether you have a string around your chest, where you have a dot placed on your face or how big the dot is or whatever, etc. Put all those small, innocent little bits of information into a big picture and it’s basically a logic puzzle of finding enough clues to narrow down the caste.

Pat12 ,

They ask innocent, shallow questions that don’t seem to get much information from you: last name, home town, schools, diet, temple where you worship. Add that to visual clues like whether you have a string around your chest, where you have a dot placed on your face or how big the dot is or whatever, etc. Put all those small, innocent little bits of information into a big picture and it’s basically a logic puzzle of finding enough clues to narrow down the caste.

exactly

laylawashere44 ,

Because different castes are generally different ethnic groups. Most people can tell Chinese, and Japanese people apart just by looking at them. You can do the same.

I’m not Indian, I’m Pakistani and while there isn’t a caste system in Pakistan, there is definitely discrimination based on ethnicity in Pakistan.

And while most people can’t tell Pakistani people from each other in the west, Pakistani people themselves can look at each other and tell if one is Muhajir, or Siraiki or Pathaan or Sindhi.

Pat12 ,

Most people can tell Chinese, and Japanese people apart just by looking at them.

i’m not sure this is true

AstridWipenaugh ,

One of my Filipino buddies gets told to go back to Mexico a lot. Racists are dumb.

Pat12 ,

Does anyone know how caste discrimination is usually accomplished? Unlike with racism or sexism, the basis of the bigotry shouldn’t be remotely visible, and unlike bigotry based on sexuality or religion, it’s not even determinable from the person’s knowledge: everyone knows what they’re attracted to and their own philosophical views, but almost no-one knows who their great-great-great grandparents were. It seems a curious thing to be bigoted based on something so challenging to assess.

last name, skin colour sometimes, city of origin

i’ve been on hiring teams and seen resume come through with photos of applicants (a big no no), religion (also a big no no), father’s name (unheard of usually), and caste (again, unheard of otherwise)

AstridWipenaugh ,

I was a hiring manager for a US company hiring in Kuala Lumpur. I got a ton of resumes with that kind of stuff that’s illegal for me to ask. I asked one of the existing employees from KL what was up with it and he explained it’s normal there because ethnic Chinese people are disliked there. So a lot of the companies based in KL require a photo so they can throw out anyone that looks Chinese.

Pat12 ,

I got a ton of resumes with that kind of stuff that’s illegal for me to ask. I asked one of the existing employees from KL what was up with it and he explained it’s normal there because ethnic Chinese people are disliked there. So a lot of the companies based in KL require a photo so they can throw out anyone that looks Chinese.

isnt malaysia like 30% chinese?

AstridWipenaugh ,

Something like that. But if you’re not Chinese and you know there’s lots of racists out there, attaching a photo helps you. I got some that didn’t have photos too.

wahming ,

Might be wrong, but I believe it’s based on family name. You could avoid it by changing your name, but obviously a lot of people don’t want to do that.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Good. It’s ridiculous that particular horrible cultural practice in India gets carried over to the so-called “land of the free.” Hopefully this will make things more free for Indian-Americans who would be considered of lower castes in India.

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