Fresno, California, has become the second city in the U.S. to ban caste discrimination, after the City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to incorporate two new protected categories into its municipal code.
Discrimination based on caste or indigeneity is now illegal in the city.
In the midst of a nationwide civil rights movement, led mostly by South Asian Americans who come from caste-oppressed backgrounds, local governments, business and institutions have been contending with the caste question. In February, Seattle became the first U.S. city to explicitly ban caste discrimination, and in California, a bill currently on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk would do the same statewide.
Is there any law in the US mandating arranged marriages? If not, then it reinforces the freedom we have here, including the freedom to marry someone we have never met because our mother tells us to.
To those of us who grew up outside that culture it seems absurd, but to people from India living in the US who also want to maintain a connection to their culture, I won’t tell them they can’t do it. Having the government tell them who they can’t marry is just as misguided as telling them who they can marry. Your mother has a different, non-governmental influence over the decision, though.