Yashica Dutt Profile picture
May 31, 2019 11 tweets 3 min read Read on X
I wrote this after #RohithVemula's death. It's not entirely surprising that it remains as relevant today after Dr #PayalTadvi's institutional murder when people are still asking if caste really exists in India.

huffingtonpost.in/yashica-dutt-/…
1. Be aware of your confirmation bias
If you've never experienced caste-based discrimination first hand, you'll simply tend to assume that it doesn't exist. Because that's not your lived experience. But for millions of Dalits, it is their everyday reality. So listen to them. 1/9
2. Learn the history
Try to educate yourself about the exact nature of the caste-based oppressions that are being discussed, because our textbooks don't tell us enough. Figure out for yourself why the reservation and the quota system were needed in the first place. 2/9
3. Understand your privilege
The advantage your ancestors received in open and unchecked access to education and wealth, while Dalits were brutally denied all of those is a privilege. It doesn't disappear because of something you did or didn't do. 3/9
4. Don't make it about you
No one is calling you out personally. If you don't associate with a casteist mindset, have no prejudices based on it and are fully aware of your own complicity in caste structures, you are an exception, not the rule 4/9
5. Don't be the tone police
Our Dalit pride does not exist to offend you, but as a reminder to ourselves to feel it more often. Again, it's not about you. 5/9
6. Accept you are not casteless
Your caste exists, as does ours. Not acknowledging it is not making that go away. 6/9
7. Realize you are not being "kind"
Don't expect the Dalit discourse or community to be grateful just because you are deciding to engage. Thinking you are being "nice" by understanding the complex debate for our benefit in itself is casteist. 7/9
8. Understand you're not being 'demonized'
Blaming your birth is not what this is about. It's about reminding you how "lucky" you got while some of us didn't. The current discourse predicates on attacking a mindset of privilege and prejudice, not individuals. 8/9
9. Ask why are you so angry
If you find yourself flying into fits of rage in the face of a rational opinion, maybe it's time to ask why. Is it because someone you thought of as inherently "lower" than you is now speaking as an equal? Hint: This is what prejudice looks like. 9/9
Thanks so much, @Vidula_Vil for posting this on your Instagram and reminding me how this article is still sadly relevant to our times.

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More from @YashicaDutt

Aug 23, 2023
When I came out as Dalit in Jan 2016, it was in response to the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula, a moment that changed the lives of so many younger Dalit folks including myself. It was a turning point in Dalit history that gave many of us the courage to reject our shame 1/9


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Like a massive section of the community I had not read Sumit Baudh's 07 piece where he talks about not knowing his caste & 'coming out as Dalit' to their roommate at 18, until last week. I reached out them as soon as I did & initiated a text conversation that lasted days 2/9 Image
Sumit spoke to me at length, inquiring my situation & what I planned to do next. He even expressed sympathy for my situation, acknowledging that he "understood I had NOT read his essay until my experience with MIH" & ALSO that the makers should have credited me to begin with. 3/9
Read 9 tweets
Aug 19, 2023
Most people criticizing me were waiting to find something to latch on to. A tweet I wrote in defense against a troll acc is suddenly proof that I’m erasing the contribution of those that came before me? When I’ve spent YEARS doing just the opposite! Read any interview I’ve given.
As a Dalit woman who came to this movement on my own but was able to build something powerful that Dalits like myself who didn’t have access to Ambedkar could identify with, how apologetic do y’all expect me to be for my work? The real issue? Me taking my credit as a woman.
Prof @BaudhSumit wrote an incredible paper on ‘coming out as Dalit’ in response to a moment—the decriminalization of sodomy in 07. I ‘came out as Dalit’ in NY in the wake of Rohith Vemula’s death in 2016.Both responses independently applied a ubiquitous term ‘coming out’ to caste
Read 14 tweets
Jul 27, 2023
So let me get this right...Dalit Muslims & Christians should not get Reservation b/c their leaders surrendered their rights to do so in the 30s/40s & if we do this for them, then "everyone" will ask for Reservation?

Is that it? The opposition to this is based on a historic blip?
Should we not take stock of the present & call a spade just that to recognize how brutally Dalit Muslims & Christians are treated within their own communities?

The ones killed for transporting beef, those who're shunned into separate churches & historically denied opportunities?
Even if we agree that using Reservation as a tool to consolidate The Hindu Dalit population wasn't intended, is that what is not happening now?

Are we supposed to be blind to how Hindu Dalit communities willfully give up conversion as to not lose access to affirmative action?
Read 6 tweets
Aug 18, 2022
The Dalit child who was murdered by his caste superior teacher in Rajasthan wasn't killed just for drinking water, he was killed for polluting the water that belonged to the 'upper' caste teacher with his thirst. Image
Growing up Dalit anywhere isn't easy, but in Rajasthan it can be especially toxic. Image
The lethal combination of archaic traditions that are almost always anti-women and pro-heirarchy, and the desperate need to preserve power through caste order creates an unbearable state for Dalits to exist. Image
Read 5 tweets
Jun 9, 2022
Standing in complete solidarity with Thenmozhi Soundarajan for speaking against the bigotry at Google in canceling her talk.

Since the Cisco lawsuit in 2020, caste in US has become a visible human rights issue, now impossible to ignore in tech, academia & beyond. 1/n @dalitdiva
More than 90% of Indian Americans are upper caste.

For decades they have silenced any conversations on caste, while simultaneously claiming a model minority status.

Caste is now finally in the spotlight, thanks to the unending efforts of Dalits/ Ambedkarite orgs in the US. 2/n
Since 2020, there's a marked increase in the awareness, conversation & movement around caste.

From Cal State's inclusion of caste in diversity list to Dr. Ambedkar's Jayanti acknowledged in several states, the efforts to erase caste or gaslight Dalits are no longer working. n/3
Read 10 tweets
Oct 19, 2021
It’s time to address this hateful, vile & toxic narrative that keeps making rounds every time I get active on social media.

Let’s start with facts:

- I grew up in small town Rajasthan, often in extreme poverty, in a Bhangi family, discriminated at times even by ‘lower’ castes
- Rajasthan,among the worst on gender & caste disc., didn’t offer any space for Bhangis to breathe, let alone reclaim our identities or Ambedkar.

- I grew up hiding my caste & feeling shame about it — a choice some can afford to sneer at but one that was crucial for our survival
- The privilege that some Dalit communities had in terms of being able to access AND embrace Ambedkar’s ideas/Kanshiram’s ideals + growing up in activism was clearly not available to all of us— among the main reasons why my work has resonated with 1000s of Dalit folks globally
Read 8 tweets

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