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Seattle’s Working People Won the Nation’s First Ban on Caste Discrimination
Many South Asians who have immigrated to the United States have been unable to leave caste-based discrimination behind.
A new local law aims to change that reality.
- Kshama Sawan
- The Nation
Standing in the Seattle City Council chambers on February 21, an Indian-American tech worker named Naresh recalled the caste discrimination he has faced beginning at age 5 in India.
His voice quivered with anger as he thought about the dignity denied to him.
If he touched a dominant-caste person, he said, they would claim that they needed to “take a shower because they consider me untouchable.”
Over the course of the…