PRESS RELEASE
Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC) welcomes California Assembly Judiciary Committee Vote in favor of SB 403 and is committed to educating the oppressed on legal protections
For Immediate Release
(Ambedkar King Study Circle – July 10, 2023)
San Jose, CA: Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC) welcomes the unanimous vote in favor of SB 403 by the California Assembly Judiciary committee which has added caste as a protected category under ancestry. If this law had been in place before the 2020 Cisco caste discrimination case, the victim would have been able to obtain justice without delays. The Cisco HR department would have been more likely to settle the internal complaint from the caste oppressed employee, rather than having dismissed it with the true, but terrifying statement that “caste discrimination is not unlawful”. Explicit mentioning of caste in our civil rights laws marks the beginning of an era where the caste oppressed can begin to feel safe from the exclusion and discrimination exerted by the oppressive dominant caste forces.
This 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.
At the same time, AKSC would like to express disappointment over the assembly Judiciary committee chair, Mr. Brian Maienschein, for diluting the Senate version of the Bill which made caste as a protected category more explicitly. AKSC also rebukes the argument of Mr. Ash Kalra about making both sides happy about the caste discrimination bill. There cannot, and should not be a balanced position in an unbalanced reality. When have legal protections for the oppressed ever made the oppressor happy? By wielding their immense wealth and power, dominant caste forces have been able to manipulate social and cultural narratives for far too long. Mr. Maienschein and Mr. Kalra echo this very same dominant caste narrative. For a discerning observer, this can only necessitate the stronger protections in the version of the bill that was passed by the senate, which AKSC will continue to fight for.
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