Exposing Caste Discrimination in the United States
Phillip Martin’s multi-part series for The World, “Caste Discrimination in the USA,” explores how the caste system has followed many migrants from India, Nepal, and elsewhere in South Asia to the United States. Caste discrimination impacts thousands of people living in North America, who have no legal recourse to address inherent bigotries and harsh realities that define everyday life for Dalits, or “untouchables.” This series hones in on grassroots and parliamentary efforts in the United Kingdom and Canada to establish legal protections for South Asian expats, migrants, and descendants who face caste discriminations in the diaspora, and lessons applicable to the United States. This project is led by Phillip Martin, senior investigative reporter for WGBH News and a contributing reporter for PRI’s The World (a co-production of WGBH, the BBC, and PRI which he helped develop as a senior producer in 1995).
In this conversation, Phillip Martin will be joined by Dr. Suraj Yengde, an award-winning scholar and activist from India who was born into a family of Dalits. Yengde is currently a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and an inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Initiative for Institutional Anti-racism and Accountability (IARA) at Harvard University. The two will discuss caste discrimination in India, how one overcomes those hurdles to arrive in the United States, and issues of caste, race, and ethnic discrimination in the United States.
This event is part of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
The Zoom Webinar link and instructions to join the call will be sent via email at 10:00 a.m. EDT on November 16 to anyone who has filled out the RSVP form. This event will be recorded and posted to the event page after the event date. Please RSVP to receive an email notification once it is posted.