PRESS RELEASE
California Assembly votes in favor of SB 403, a bill to ban caste discrimination. Legal protections for Californians who face caste oppression are now within reach
For Immediate Release
(Ambedkar King Study Circle – Aug 28, 2023)
Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC) welcomes the 50-3 vote in favor of SB 403 by the California Assembly which has added caste as a protected category under the definition of ancestry.
Three score years ago, on this 28th day of Aug, Martin Luther King Jr. shared his iconic dream for an America where justice and equality are the reigning principles – an America that is free of all discrimination.
Today’s passage of SB 403 through the California Assembly takes us closer to this dream. The legislation provides relief to the oppressed who are scrutinized by their dominant caste counterparts in their workplace and socio-cultural spaces. AKSC will launch a campaign to empower oppressed caste members with ways to respond to the common situation where the dominant caste members spell out their caste and force the oppressed to out theirs. This bill and this education will certainly make dominant caste members more wary about having conversations around caste with an intention to identify, exclude and discriminate.
The anti-caste movement has been able to defeat the Hindu supremacist’s attempts to stop the bill in the Assembly judiciary committee by educating and mobilizing unions and civil rights organizations. AKSC will continue the crucial, grassroots work of movement building, that will take us toward a world that’s free of all oppression, a world that’s necessarily caste-free.
Since the Hindu supremacist forces will leave no stone unturned to stop the legislation, and this bill still requires Gov. Newsom’s signature to become law, AKSC has started a google doc to get the support of Teachers, Students and Researchers in Support of California SB 403 which we will submit to the governor.
Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC) is a member of America Against Caste Discrimination (AACD) an alliance with 20+ organizations fighting caste discrimination in the USA.
Media Contact: akscsfba@gmail.com