In a vote of 6-1, the Seattle city council members voted to ban discrimination based on caste, adding it to the list of protections, under existing law. When I first read this, I thought I must have read it wrong. On reading it a second time, I realized that I had in fact read it correctly. Seattle has become the first city in America to ban discrimination based on caste. But we don’t have castes in this country. Banning something that doesn’t exist, is insane. We have laws in this country to protect against discrimination and we do not need to build in special circumstances, particularly when they have no relevance. If in fact there are businesspeople from India who subscribe to that antiquated nonsense, they should either, a) leave this country b) be deported if they’re not citizens, or c) face fines and/or jail time if warranted.

The caste system for those unaware, determined your social status in India, without the possibility of upward mobility. Whatever caste you were born into, determined the type of life, job and status and ultimately whether you were doomed to lifelong, abject poverty and ridicule, essentially outcasts. It’s the opposite of what we aspire to here in the United States, “The land of opportunity” and why the millions have flocked here since our founding. It’s extremely complicated and goes back as far as two-thousand years. Some still adhere to the caste system, despite the fact that it was outlawed in India over seventy years ago. It certainly has no bearing on anything that happens in this country.

Our Constitution’s preamble begins with three words that separated us from all of the other countries on earth, when it stated, “We the People.” The preamble to the Declaration of Independence, states “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” I understand fully the reality of what was happening at the time, and that those words only applied to white men and certainly not women, who couldn’t vote until 1920. But that doesn’t make those words any less powerful or meaningful. Those words are what has allowed this country to grow and change for the better. Those words are what will allow us to continue to grow and move forward. We may take one step back, but we have always taken two steps forward.

This is the United States of America, not India. Their laws, systems, don’t have any relevance on our shores. Let me go on the record as saying that the caste system was an evil, unjust system, created by those, who wanted to hold onto power by keeping down those less fortunate. It’s more complicated than that but all that really matters is that it was a horrible system. It would be no different from saying that slavery is a good thing. You don’t have to be a liberal to understand the evils of slavery. It’s the reason, that despite being a nuclear power, India remains a third world country, at least socially. Much of its history, including the lack of respect for women, has often resulted in rapists facing little to no jail time. I’ve written about several rapes, some gang rapes and the outrage of decent people in India, in this blog. Have things changed? Perhaps slightly!

There are no words to describe how ridiculous this is. It’s just one more example of the far left losing touch with reality. The one person who voted nay, obviously didn’t understand it either. The caste system is oxymoronic to our founding principles. An ancient and extraordinarily complex social system that has absolutely nothing to do with this country. If, anyone or any group is bringing or brought that primitive, nonsense to this country, it shouldn’t be validated by creating protections against something that isn’t real and doesn’t exist. There are laws in this country and certainly in Seattle, to protect against discrimination and I suggest that they use them if and when it becomes necessary.