USA: Seattle City Council provides ‘caste’ in its non-discrimination coverage, Hindu Americans object

On February 21 (native time), the Seattle City Council in USA handed Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s sponsored decision to determine ‘caste’ as a protected class below the City’s non-discrimination coverage. With the decision, Seattle turned the primary City within the United States to acknowledge ‘caste’ as one of many causes for discrimination. While those that supported the decision celebrated the victory, Hindu organisations and leaders identified it will put the group below further authorized scrutiny.

Regarding the decision, Hindu American Foundation (HAF) co-founder and Executive Director Suhag Shukla stated in an official assertion, “Throughout our two decades of existence, HAF has maintained that caste discrimination is wrong, violating core Hindu principles of the divine oneness of all beings. At the same time, we maintain that the singling out of South Asians and the addition of ‘caste’ to the non-discrimination policy violates the policies it now amends. The City of Seattle has voted to treat South Asians so that no other ethnic or racial community is treated under the guise of non-discrimination. It has voted yes to discriminating against ethnic minorities, repeating the ugliness of nativists in the state nearly a century ago.”

HAF added that by passing the decision, Seattle had violated the equal safety and due course of assured to each particular person by the United States Constitution. Notably, as per the structure, the state is prohibited from treating folks disparately on the premise of their nationwide origin, faith or ethnicity. The Foundation’s attorneys contended that the decision would implement a imprecise, facially discriminatory and arbitrary class towards the Hindus.

HAF Managing Director Samir Kalra stated, “Seattle has taken a dangerous misstep here, institutionalising bias against all residents of Indian and South Asian origin, all in the name of preventing bias. When Seattle should be protecting the civil rights of all its residents, it is actually violating them by running roughshod over the most basic and fundamental rights in US law, all people being treated equally.”

HAF additional famous that Councilmember Sawant claimed caste discrimination is “rampant” within the US. However, solely Carnegie Endowment has completed the one authoritative survey on discrimination towards the Indian and South Asian communities within the nation that famous that caste-based discrimination is uncommon within the US. The survey particularly debunked the methodology and findings of the doubtful organisation Equality Labs, which was the bottom of Sawant’s decision.

Ohio State Senator objects to the anti-Hindu ordinance

First Hindu and Indian State Senator of Ohio, Niraj Antani, criticised the ordinance handed by Seattle. He stated, “I condemn in the strongest terms the ordinance passed by the Seattle City Council. Caste discrimination simply doesn’t exist now. Adding it to their non-discrimination policy is Hinduphobic and is a tool for those who are anti-Hindu use to discriminate against Hindus in America, India, and around the world. Instead of passing this racist policy, Seattle should be passing policies to protect Hindus from discrimination.”

TODAY: As the first Hindu & Indian State Senator in Ohio historical past & the youngest Hindu & Indian elected official within the nation, I’m strongly condemning the anti-Hindu ordinance handed by @SeattleCouncil final evening. This ordinance is Hinduphobic & is a travesty for all Hindus. READ: pic.twitter.com/nLkMobGptV

— Niraj Antani (@NirajAntani) February 22, 2023
The proposed modification by Kshama Sawant

Two Councilmembers, Kshama Sawant and Lisa Herbold, proposed the modification to the City Council Act. They proposed to introduce Section 22 towards the so-called caste-based discrimination. Interestingly, the proposal doc clearly confirmed it was focused at Hindus and India. Calling it a world drawback that impacts over 250 million folks, Sawant recommended that caste is “often associated with Hinduism and India”, but it surely “transcends religious and geographic boundaries, with caste-based discrimination showing up in Christian, Muslim, Sikh, and other religious communities” throughout South Asia, Southeast Asian and African communities, together with Japan, the Middle East, Nigeria, Somalia, and Senegal.

Let’s revisit this eleventh hour modification which clearly is an try to treatment the constitutional purple flags raised by @HinduAmerican.

But, not solely does it fails miserably. It makes issues worse.

How? By increasing the focused hate and hurt.

🧵 pic.twitter.com/vEoSfeRoI7

— Suhag A. Shukla (@SuhagAShukla) February 21, 2023

She claimed that the caste system “travelled” with the people from the communities from the areas talked about above to different nations and obtained embedded into these areas, together with the United States. Despite being debunked by the authoritative survey that debunked the methodology utilized by Equality Lab’s propaganda, Sawant claimed within the proposal that the “experiences of caste-oppressed communities with discrimination has been growing in recent years”.

Interestingly, the Fiscal word of the modification skipped utilizing phrases like “Hinduism” and “India” and emphasised “South Asian Countries”. It learn, “While caste is associated with the South Asian region, its existence can be found in diverse religious or ethnic groups in many regions, including diaspora communities like Seattle and the surrounding area. Lower caste individuals and communities can suffer discrimination based on their caste identity, and it is not clear that existing protections against discrimination based on characteristics like race, religion, national origin, or ancestry are sufficient. These communities have been historically marginalised in both countries abroad and in Seattle as a result of prejudice intact in local communities. This legislation will allow those subject to discrimination on the basis of caste a legal avenue to pursue a remedy against alleged discrimination.”

Targeting simply South Asians based mostly on a biased Equality Labs survey that the credible Carnegie Endowment panned isn’t just fallacious, it’s unethical.

Sawant falls again on this flawed “survey” as she lacks details and proof. pic.twitter.com/JUjYna2xzX

— Suhag A. Shukla (@SuhagAShukla) February 19, 2023

HAF’s Shukla, in a tweet, identified that the Council’s memo famous the caste-based regulation would price the City $185,000 within the first yr and $100,000 yearly for the implementation. However, the query remained intact on the willpower of the caste. There was no route on how the caste of any particular person can be decided. Will or not it’s assigned by somebody, self-determined or assumed? There was no readability.

Internal @SeattleCouncil memo says that “caste” regulation will price $185,000 this yr & $100,000 yearly to implement.

But no route given as to how caste might be decided—assigned or self-declared or assumed? Will Indian Hindus have to hold caste certificates?

Legal morass! pic.twitter.com/xBgV3JeCg9

— Suhag A. Shukla (@SuhagAShukla) February 20, 2023
‘Biased and hateful’ – HAF debunks FAQ submitted by Kshama Sawant

In an in depth Twitter thread, HAF’s Shukla described how Sawant’s FAQ submitted to the Council was biased and hateful, focusing on South Asians. Notably, Sawant admitted in her doc that Seattle coverage already bans discrimination based mostly on nationality and ancestry. However, she failed to say that her proposal violated these insurance policies that she sought to amend by discriminating towards a minority on the premise of origin and ancestry.

#Leaked: an inner “FAQ” that Kshama Sawant is sharing along with her @SeattleCouncil colleagues defending her illegal caste proposal focusing on South Asians is egregiously biased & hateful.

A truth test 🧵@D5Juarez @Lisa_Herbold @CMSaraNelson @LewisforSeattle @SeaCityAttorney pic.twitter.com/HOzvSgK38l

— Suhag A. Shukla (@SuhagAShukla) February 19, 2023

Suhag additional identified that Sawant focused South Asians based mostly on a biased survey by a doubtful organisation named Equality Labs. In the FAQs, Sawant identified that the info from Equality Labs confirmed that one in 4 caste-oppressed folks cited bodily and verbal assault and one in three confronted schooling discrimination. She additional claimed two in three confronted office discrimination.

However, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace known as out the survey on Indian Americans by Maari Zwick-Maitreyi, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Natasha Dar, Ralph F. Bheel, and Prathap Balakrishnan titled “Caste in the United States: A Survey of Caste Among South Asian Americans (Equality Labs, 2018)” and stated it “relied on a nonrepresentative snowball sampling method to recruit respondents. Furthermore, respondents who did not disclose a caste identity were dropped from the data set. Therefore, it is likely that the sample does not fully represent the South Asian American population and could skew in favour of those who have strong views about caste. While the existence of caste discrimination in India is incontrovertible, its precise extent and intensity in the United States can be contested.”

Equality Labs is an especially outstanding anti-Brahmin Caste activism group within the United States. Known for its disinformation marketing campaign, Equality Labs has typically made headlines for its anti-Hindu propaganda. OpIndia has coated the organisation intimately, which could be checked right here.

Though it’s thought of taboo to speak about, it’s abundantly clear from quite a few reviews that the SC/ST Act in India, which is aimed toward securing the rights of the marginalised communities in India, is commonly misused to settle private scores. How Seattle City goes to make sure that the regulation won’t be used to focus on the Indian Diaspora residing peacefully within the City to settle any private rating is unclear.