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Yashica Dutt Profile picture
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10 Mar, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Since calling out HAF for their motion in the Cisco case, a lot of seemingly Hindu Americans are ‘enraged’ about Dalits pointing out the obvious caste discrimination that happens to us.

Aside from the abuse, bullying & trolling, the worst are those trying to obfuscate the issue.
The ones who know how to skillfully shut down any call outs for casteism by waving their flag of religious freedom

Something that understandably scares most non-Indian Americans into silence

In the name of preserving religious sanctity they want to gag even the mention of caste
Like they did in 2016 in the California textbook case, where HAF argued that mentions of caste should be removed. And succeeded.

This idea of obfuscating caste by citing religious freedom is that is highly strategic, well thought & not an accident.

nytimes.com/2016/05/06/us/…
Unfortunately for them, the narrative and awareness on caste & inequality has since changed.

Thanks to a multitude of Dalit voices, in 2021 it’s not as easy to hoodwink & silence caste discrimination under the garb of flimsy arguments.

We are speaking & the world is listening✊🏽

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More from @YashicaDutt

Yashica Dutt Profile picture
9 Mar
Despite obvious signs,many Indians still don’t believe that caste discrimination in the US is a lived reality for Dalits.

Wonder what they’d say to the Dalit couple who had ‘achoot’ - a slur for untouchable, scratched on their car while living in an Indian community in New York?
Or to the Sikh gurudwara in a Queens neighborhood who has faced multiple ‘VIOLENT’ attacks for displaying a photo of none other than Dr Ambedkar.

How is this response any different from the discrimination that we as Dalits suffer from ‘upper’ caste communities?
As we await the historic ruling from the California court in the Cisco case, let’s focus on the ‘double discrimination’ of Dalits.

We not only have to prove our injustice but also explain that caste exists, a reality effectively obscured by the ‘upper’ caste majority in the US.
Read 5 tweets
Yashica Dutt Profile picture
29 Sep 20
Imagine being a Dalit woman today.

You’re still mourning the brutal lesson in caste supremacy from 2006 Khairlanji, when a girl, her mother were paraded naked, raped & murdered.

And you hear another Dalit teen succumbed to the same brutality by ‘upper’ caste men, the same day.
You know police refused to file a report both times.

The Media ignored, until Dalits agitated, forced them to listen.

Then organized panels inviting upper caste women to discuss how ‘rape is a social evil’.

People registered shock, wondered how this happened, then moved on.
Forgetting this total control is what Dalit bodies are sanctioned for.

You realize between then & now, not much has changed

Even as a Dalit woman in India is raped once every 8 hours

As ‘upper’ caste men rape Dalit women for days, knowing most likely they won’t be punished.
Read 5 tweets
Yashica Dutt Profile picture
17 Sep 20
Reading @Isabelwilkerson’s Caste was an education in the racial heiarchy of the US. Her lucid writing & brilliance shines so powerfully that I often had to stop just to catch my breath.

But the book largely overlooks the current impact of a system that inspires its argument.
My review for @ForeignPolicy
Wilkerson’s Caste not only makes visible the plainly manifest yet stubbornly obscured reality of racial suppression of African Americans but also supplies other people of color with a vocabulary to understand their place in the lattice of racial and social order in the US.
Read 5 tweets
Yashica Dutt Profile picture
3 Jul 20
When researching Coming Out as Dalit, I often struggled to understand how exactly did 'upper' castes subterfuge caste discrimination as nonexistent not only in our society but internationally.

After spending 3 hours with @surajyengde's EXCELLENT treatise, I finally know. 1/n
They did that by dominating almost ALL positions of power and foreign policy, effectively eliminating Ambedkar, & nitpicking on the differences between Caste & Race to exclude it from international attention.

Why solidarity b/w Dalit Panthers & Black Panthers? This! 2/n
As we stand today in a crucial moment of America recokning (once again) of its racist origins, it's vital for Dalit and Black solidarity to take shape.

We NEED to counter the decades-long propoganda (which even Indians believe) that Caste is somehow not as savage as race 3/n
Read 5 tweets
Yashica Dutt Profile picture
10 Jun 20
Here’s why:

1. Dalit issues are not ‘mainstream’ enough for folks to care about. Our issues are too distant, too other to deserve attention.

2. The ‘few handles’ who speak about them are margiznalized as ‘Dalit writers’ who sole task is to do the emotional labor of outrage.
3. Dalit murders — for entering temples, for falling in love,for a mustache, for existing — are so routine & ‘expected’ that our deaths are the norm, not the exception.

4. The idea that mainstream = upper class, ‘upper’ caste lives is innate. So our deaths are forever the other.
It’s also easier for UCs to side with #BLM while ignoring Dalit, Adivasi, Muslim, working class lives is coz Black folks have been doing the difficult work of fighting for their right to be worthy for years.

Now the rest can just ride on the coattails of that ‘cool’ woke vibes.
Read 4 tweets
Yashica Dutt Profile picture
17 Apr 20
‘Comic’ #AtulKhatri called #RangoliChandel a ‘Chandaal’ for her genocide inducing tweet

With a history of using Dalit caste names as slurs, he is:

1. Equating a proto-fascist bigot w/ an entire community of oppressed ppl

2. Creating more caste-hatred for Chandaals than exists
That using a caste name as a slur is not ok should be common sense. But for casteist bigots who need schooling...

It reduces the humanity of a whole section of people to a curse, creating a false idea that it's valid to 'abuse' a Chandaal or a Bhangi -- verbally & physically
Every time someone says 'You look like a Bhangi' when calling lack of hygiene or 'Don't be a chamaar' for 'ill-manners,' validates & reinforces the 'lowerness' of Dalits, directly leading to their oppression including violence. It also makes Dalits (kids) feel invalid/unworthy.
Read 5 tweets

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