Issue 42 • DECEMBER 12, 2022
PRESENTED BY THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
👋 Good afternoon, and welcome to The Yappie’s AAPI politics briefing — your guide to the policy news and activism affecting Asian Americans + Pacific Islanders. S
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— Edited by Shawna Chen and Mary Yang
THE BIG STORY
A close view of the Van Wickle Gates at Brown University. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
Why a growing number of colleges are banning caste discrimination
Brown University has become the latest American university to explicitly ban oppression based on caste after adding caste protections to its nondiscrimination policy. The move by the Ivy League school follows similar action at Brandeis University, the University of California, Davis, Colorado College, and the California State University.
🎓 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
The protections primarily aim to protect Dalit students, giving them the official means to report bias and discrimination, writes NBC News’ Sakshi Venkatraman.
About 40% of Dalit students across K-12 and higher education institutions said they experienced discrimination at school in a 2018 survey conducted by Equality Labs, a Dalit civil rights group. Almost 60% of Dalits surveyed reported experiencing caste-based derogatory jokes or comments, compared to just 5-9% of the “upper” castes.
Many Dalit students also report facing discrimination in residence and social situations, according to the survey. When their South Asian peers found out they came from a “lower” caste, Dalit students said they were asked to move to other living quarters and were excluded from South Asian student groups and professional networking circles.
In their words: “It’s the most openly held secret,” Brown student Neha Narayan, who advocated for the policy change, told NBC News. “Even as a caste-privileged student looking in, I can see how someone would be very alienated … In an environment where caste is never discussed, how difficult is it to speak up about caste discrimination.”
A handful of universities have added caste to their non-discrimination policies in recent years. Brandeis University was the first to do so in 2019.
“This is very important for us because we can feel safer,” Prem Pariyar, a Dalit Hindu and recent alumnus of Cal State East Bay, told CNN’s Harmeet Kaur in January after the California State University added caste as a protected status. “At least the university has a policy to recognize our pain and to recognize our issues.”
Pariyar added that more can be done, saying there should be caste competency training at universities and caste protections statewide.
CONTEXT
Caste is an oppressive religious and social classification system prevalent in South Asian communities that ranks individuals in four main classes in a hierarchical tier of “high” to “low” castes, with “lower” castes historically denied the same kind of access to resources and opportunities. Outside of the system are Adivasis, who are Indigenous South Asian people, and Dalits, who are considered the lowest in status.
Solidified under British rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the caste system was formally abolished following India’s achievement of independence in 1948.
Its effects of social stratification and economic inequality are still present in India today, but its cultural legacy continues to persist within India and other South Asian countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka—as well as their diasporas.
In the U.S. today, there are an estimated 5.4 million South Asians—the majority of whom are Indian. According to a 2020 survey published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, roughly half of all Hindu Indian American respondents said they identify with a caste group. Roughly 80% of Hindus with a caste identity said they belong to a “General or upper caste” background.
With the high concentration of South Asians in Silicon Valley, the tech industry in particular has struggled to address caste-based discrimination in recent years.
🗣️ COUNTERPOINT
Some who oppose explicit safeguards against caste discrimination argue that discussions about caste unnecessarily divide South Asians, claiming that caste protections would further provoke hate against Hindus on campus.
In October, two Hindu professors at California State University filed a lawsuit against the school, arguing its caste protection policies unfairly target Hindus by assuming Hinduism mandates a racist and discriminatory system. No other protection in CSU’s non-discrimination policy addresses any specific ethnicity, ancestry, or religion, the lawsuit claims.
Yes, but: “At the end of the day, you can’t force someone to not be casteist, but you can force them to be careful about how they’re casteist or what they say,” M. Bangar, an alum of Cal State Sacramento, told CNN. “These caste protections create an opportunity for people to report the things that they face.”
— By
Wendy Ying Lau
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Katrina Pham
A MESSAGE FROM THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
Since 1996, the Kauffman Foundation has tracked entrepreneurial data to understand how it has evolved over time.
Important highlights from 2021 data include a notable shift toward older new entrepreneurs and the rise in the share of new Asian entrepreneurs – from 3.4% in 1996 to 7.3% in 2021.
PULSE
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) at an event in Georgia. Photo courtesy of the campaign.
🗳️ ELECTION 2022
— KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM
GEORGIA’S SENATE RUN-OFF: 78% of Asian American voters supported Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) compared to 22% who supported Trump-backed challenger Herschel Walker (R), according to an Election Day exit poll conducted by the Asian American Legal and Education Defense Fund. Asian Americans make up 4.7% of Georgia’s electorate.
As in 2020, when Asian American voters helped deliver the Senate to Democrats, they again were the margin of victory for a race that saw new forms of outreach to AAPI communities from both parties—and helped ensure a 51-49 Democratic majority in the upper chamber amid Republican control the House.
Education, health care, and the economy/jobs were the top three issues influencing Asian Americans’ vote. Asian Americans aged 18-29 in particular overwhelmingly voted for Warnock.
Data point: Almost 92% of Asian American voters who support abortion access voted for Warnock, while 66% of Asian American voters who oppose abortion access voted for Walker.
— By
Shawna Chen
AAPI NATION
🔎 CITY SPOTLIGHT
Our occasional roundup of headlines from metro areas across the U.S.
ATLANTA — Asian American lawmakers in Georgia have created the state’s first formal AAPI Caucus. The bipartisan caucus, comprised of members from Georgia’s House and Senate, will work to boost AAPI representation throughout government and tackle AAPI issues.
“One thing we’ve heard from many Asian Americans is a dismaying sense of invisibility,” state Sen. Michelle Au (D), a founding member of the caucus, said in a statement. “But times are changing as is the face of Georgia, and this is represented in the historic representation we now see of AAPI lawmakers at the State Capitol.”
LOS ANGELES — Hate crimes in Los Angeles County surged to their highest level in nearly two decades, Rebecca Ellis of the Los Angeles Times writes. In 2021, authorities recorded 786 victims of hate crimes, a 23% increase over 2020, and 77 anti-Asian hate crime victims, the most since 2002, according to a report released this week by the county Commission on Human Relations.
The perpetrator blamed the victim for the pandemic in almost a quarter of the reported anti-Asian incidents in L.A. County.
PHILADELPHIA — Former Philadelphia Council member Helen Gym (D) has officially joined the race for mayor. In addition to advocating for quality public schools and housing access, Gym has also been a vocal opponent of the 76ers stadium in Chinatown.
“This is a conversation about what you want Market Street to become. We need something that showcases the diversity of Philadelphia, our walkability, our culture, our small businesses and our families. And that will grow the city,” Gym told City Life’s Victor Fiorillo when asked about the new stadium.
SAN FRANCISCO — A new report from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission finds that the city’s police department has the worst record in the state when it comes to stopping Black and Pacific Islander residents for what’s known as “pretext stops”—wherein an officer pulls over a driver for a minor traffic infraction but uses the stop to conduct an investigation of a perceived crime unrelated to the initial violation.
Civil rights advocates have said for years that pretext stops allow officers to stop and search based on racial bias. In San Francisco, officers pull over Pacific Islander drivers at over three times the expected rate based on their population.
📺 NUMBER OF THE WEEK
70
That’s the percentage of local TV news stations that lack on-air staff proportional to the AAPI residents in their designated market areas, according to a recently released report by the Asian American Journalists Association.
Only 4 out of the top 20 TV news markets have on-air staff that proportionally reflect their AAPI population: Phoenix, Denver, Miami, and Cleveland.
A television control room. Photo courtesy of Anthony Quintano via Flickr.
CATCH UP
Here's what else is happening across America...
The eruption of Hawai‘i’s Mauna Loa for the first time in almost four decades holds political and spiritual symbolism for Native Hawaiians and serves as a message to respect Indigenous communities and lands, NBC News’ Kimmy Yam reports. Coinciding with Hawaiian Independence Day, Native Hawaiians are viewing the volcano’s eruption as a rejection of colonial forces encroaching on their land.
“You don’t have authority to shape our sacred lands,” Kaniela Ing, a former state legislator who co-founded the organization Our Hawaii, told NBC News.
A new lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to follow through on a commitment to pay off 120% of the debt weighing on farmers who have “traditionally suffered racial or ethnic prejudice,” the Associated Press’ Scott McFetridge reports.
This encompasses over 6,500 farmers who carry extra burdens of federal loan obligations due to the USDA’s refusal to process loans from farmers of color—including Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
Both AAPI students and parents in New York City say racial diversity is a major consideration when selecting a school, according to a new survey from the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families. The findings counter the belief that Asians oppose integration in education, Gothamist’s Arun Venugopal notes.
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— By
Preston Lieu
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Rachel Lee
A MESSAGE FROM THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
The Kauffman Foundation helps unlock opportunity for all so that people can achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity – regardless of race, gender, or geography.