On March 19, 2023, CUCFA endorsed the following letter, which will be sent to President Drake, UC Chancellors, and Board of Regents calling for the inclusion of caste within the University of California’s anti-discrimination policy. To join this call, sign here by April 10, 2023:
Dear President Drake, UC Chancellors, and Board of Regents,
We, University of California faculty, staff, and students, are writing to request the inclusion of caste within the University of California’s anti-discrimination policy to further solidify the UC’s commitment to diversity and equity and ensure appropriate protections for caste oppressed students, staff, faculty, and community members. With the current UC-wide anti-discrimination policy undergoing revision, it is important that the updated policy explicitly includes caste to better address the ongoing caste discrimination across the University of California.
Caste is a structure of oppression that affects over 1 billion people across the world. As one of the oldest systems of oppression in the world, the caste system is a structure of graded inequality based on notions of purity and pollution. Caste is determined at birth and affects all aspects of life, including your right to human dignity, where you can worship, where you can live, who you can marry, and your prospects for educational and career advancement. To this day, caste-oppressed peoples continue to experience profound injustices including socioeconomic inequalities, usurpation of their land, rights, and brutal violence at the hands of the dominating castes.
Caste is prevalent across various faith communities across South Asia, and also transgresses regional and national boundaries to be found globally across communities part of the diaspora. Similar forms of caste systems also exist in various non-South Asian communities, with some examples being the caste system in Japan that marks the Burakumin caste as untouchable by birth, and the casta system across Latin America.
In the US, caste impacts over 5.5 million South Asians and has infiltrated a broad range of spaces and industries from education spaces to the tech sector to religious centers. According to the 2016 survey “Caste in the United States” produced by Equality Labs, 25% of Dalits reported facing verbal or physical assault based on their caste in the US, one in three Dalit students report being discriminated against during their education in the US, two out of three Dalits surveyed reported being treated unfairly at their workplace in the US, 60% of Dalits report experiencing caste-based derogatory jokes or comments in the US, and 20% of Dalit respondents report feeling discriminated at a place of business because of their caste.
Universities in the US are no exception. Caste-oppressed students and faculty are subjected to discrimination, bullying, and humiliation. According to the preliminary findings of the 2022 Caste in Higher Education Survey administered by the National Academic Coalition for Caste Equity (NACCE) and Equality Labs, 4 in 5 caste-oppressed students, staff, and faculty reported experiencing caste-discrimination at the hands of their dominant caste peers. Further, 75% of them did not report caste-based discrimination in their universities or colleges because caste was not added as a protected category and/or their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion departments lacked caste competency due to a lack of provisions and training. Given the prevalence of caste discrimination, leading universities and colleges across the US have amended their anti-discrimination policy to add caste as a protected category, including Colby College, Brown University, Brandeis University, and, most notably, the California State University system in 2022. Recently, Seattle also amended its anti-discrimination policy and became the first city in the nation to ban caste discrimination.
The call to ban caste discrimination has also been ongoing in the University of California system, with UC Davis becoming the first UC campus to add caste to its anti-discrimination policy, and UC Berkeley’s ASUC Senate unanimously passing SR 21/22-029 urging administration to amend the anti-discrimination policy to include caste in order to create equitable learning opportunities for all students.
We call on the University of California to also recognize caste within its anti-discrimination policy and commit to protecting caste oppressed peoples against discrimination on the basis of caste. Caste-based discrimination is an urgent civil and human rights issue that requires immediate action and we request you to recognize the humanity and the reality of caste oppressed faculty, staff, and students. Given UC’s commitment to ensuring a safe and equal working and learning environment for all, adding caste as a protected category will affirm the university’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and support for those most marginalized.
To support adding caste as a protected category, please sign your name and affiliation below by April 10, 2023.