Why It Matters: The bill reflects divisions in the state’s South Asian community and its influence as a growing demographic.
The bill, known as Senate Bill 403, had driven intense debate — and divisions — within the growing South Asian community in California recently, especially in Silicon Valley, where South Asians make up a significant share of the work force.
Governor Newsom’s rejection of the bill is a victory for some Hindu residents and organizations who had argued that the proposal unfairly targeted them because the caste system is most commonly associated with Hinduism. They asserted that caste discrimination in the United States was rare and that existing laws banning discrimination on the basis of ancestry and religion were sufficient.
“This has been months of concern and stress that we’ve been carrying about the impact that this would have on the civil rights of all South Asians regardless of background, and we’re glad the governor saw the problems with it,” said Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, one of the organizations leading the opposition.
It comes as a blow to proponents of the bill who had argued that an explicit ban on caste discrimination was needed to increase awareness that such bias exists in the United States and to reassure victims who want to come forward. A group of South Asian activists had been on a hunger strike outside of Mr. Newsom’s office since early September to urge the governor to sign the bill.
In recent years, several universities and companies have added caste to their discrimination policies. Late last month, Fresno officially became the first city in California, and the second in the country after Seattle, to enact such a ban. But Governor Newsom is considering a future run for the White House, and he may not have wanted to get in the middle of longstanding ethnic and religious tensions among some Indian Americans, who are a fast-growing and vital demographic in purple…
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