Yesterday, @csustudents passed a resolution asking @calstate to add "caste" to its anti-discrimination policy. It is non-binding, and part of a multi-state effort led by @EqualityLabs, whose history of anti-Hindu activism is well documented.

Why is this effort #Hinduphobic? 1/ https://twitter.com/EqualityLabs/status/1381051960384757760

Any discrimination based on perceived "caste" is already covered under "ancestry"!

See @CalStateLA's statement. Any discrimination based on birth or ancestry is already covered. So why does @EqualityLabs insist on including "caste"? There's more to it. 2/

"Caste" is a colonial term, rooted in white European/Christian supremacy weaponized to categorically target brown folk identifying as Hindu.

Caste is not varna & @csustudents say the resolution is not anti-Hindu, yet names the 4 Hindu varnas. 3/ https://www.hinduamerican.org/racist-history-caste-system

How will you define caste discrimination @csustudents? Caste audit? Caste certificate? Caste declaration? A caste badge brown people have to wear?

You open the door for litigation by adjudicating a distinction ostensibly unique to brown folks that doesn't exist. 4/

Adding "Caste" to an anti-discrimination statute when ancestry is already included is to draw a bullseye on every South-Asian/Indian/Hindu student on @calstate campuses. It discriminates when the goal is anti-discrimination.

@calstate must ignore this discriminatory resolution.

One note: These @csustudents were misled by Equality Labs and have made their institutions vulnerable to potential litigation for violation of civil rights of all brown students on CSU campuses. (END)