Thread by @Newspaperwalli

Thread: Saale cha*** tumhari kismat badi tez hai, America pahunch gaye. (You cha*** – a slur against low castes – you’re lucky to make it to America.) Dalit students in the US suffer insults, isolation & broken friendships without knowing where to complain thewire.in/caste/insults-…

Dalits students facing caste-based discrimination often feel US colleges won’t understand India’s caste system, so they don’t speak out. South Asians discriminating among themselves escapes American society. It doesn’t fit categories like race & gender that are better understood.

After a year-long campaign by students, teachers and civil rights groups, California State University (CSU)—the largest 4-year public uni in the US with 23 campuses and over 480,000 students, has included caste in its anti-discrimination policy.

A growing number of American institutions, including Harvard University and California’s Democratic Party, have begun recognising caste as a protected category,

Dalits who faced caste-based oppression, including torture, in South Asian countries told me of the deep disappointment they felt when encountering casteism on US campuses. It was a sort of re-traumatisation, a feeling that they could never escape their caste.

While caste discrimination was earlier covered under other categories like ancestry and origin, Dalit activists say the explicit inclusion of caste in CSU’s anti-discrimination policy will push universities to collect data & develop the cultural competence necessary to combat it.

Those who reveal their caste often lose friends. Sometimes, even a best friend. The loss of friendships isn’t simply a personal matter. The interpersonal is institutional, says @dalitdiva. Uni networks become alumni networks. South Asians depend on each other for jobs & visas.

Even when one’s caste isn’t revealed, @dalitdiva talks of the “caste stress” Dalit students navigate while hiding their identity. A young woman who hid her caste in uni says she felt gross about doing so, like there was something wrong with her.

At a 3-hour online public hearing by CSU’s student body last year, Dalits spoke of their personal experiences of casteism while other Indian students opposed the inclusion of caste in the uni’s anti-discriminatory policy, saying they had never encountered caste.

“I was shocked to see the gaslighting of Dalit students at the public hearing on caste last year. It reminded me of the gaslighting faced by black students during the #BLM protests,” says Krystal Raynes, an American student who first encountered the concept of caste last year.

Black students supported Dalit students, saying they knew what oppression felt like.

Hindu American Foundation opposed the inclusion of caste in CSU’s anti-discrimination policy saying it targeted South Asians, institutionalising false & negative stereotypes. They felt caste as a specific protected category was not facially neutral like other protected categories

In a letter to CSU trustees, Hindu American Foundation says it will work with concerned faculty to file Freedom of Information requests to investigate the decision-making process for the inclusion of caste as a protected category.

CSU’s addition of caste as a protected category received support from labour unions in America as well as from South Asia scholars, including those belonging to the upper castes who say they have personally witnessed discrimination based on caste.