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A comment on An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve. Parent comment

Re:An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has t... by crazygringo on Monday September 04, 2023 @02:03PM (#37383161)
The problem with that argument is that it's the same one used to justify not having laws against racial discrimination or gender discrimination.

E.g. you can be white manager and not a racist and promote a better-qualified white employee rather than a less-qualified black one, and then be sued. "Just because I automatically found myself being white!"

The solution is simply to have good documentation around the reasons for who you're promoting, and then the suit will lose. (In 99.99% of cases, the suit won't happen in the first place because no lawyer would take it if there isn't hard evidence of actual racial discrimination.) This kind of documentation is generally pretty easy, and it's good business practice besides.

This has worked pretty well at making a big dent in race-based discrimination. Why should it be any different for caste-based discrimination?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has t... by blahblahblack on Monday September 04, 2023 @02:10PM (#37383224)
They have been literally infinite issues related to gender and race discrimination before such protections were in the law. Regarding the caste-based issue, there is literally just one case that was in the courts. And the case was pulled back (not settled). There is Zero evidence of any caste-based discrimination across the Americas in workplace today.

You can not get away from your race. But you can get away from religions and caste. I would like to get away from my religion and caste. This bill makes it impossible.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has t... by crazygringo on Monday September 04, 2023 @02:20PM (#37383315)
> There is Zero evidence of any caste-based discrimination across the Americas in workplace today.

That seems to be factually untrue. And you can't cite the lack of court cases as evidence, because court cases aren't brought unless there's a law in the first place.

> I would like to get away from my religion and caste. This bill makes it impossible.

No, the bill is a path to do precisely that. What you're saying makes as much sense as "passing anti-racism laws makes it impossible to get away from race as issue". That's not how it works.

[ Parent | on HN ]