|
Jai Bhim Equality Labs friends,
As summer ends, and many of us return to work, we are thinking of the red skies over California and long hospital lines as COVID-19 races across South Asia. For those of you in San Francisco and the Bay, here are disaster preparedness tips and some wildfire safety tips. Meanwhile, in the Gulf of the US and in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, entire cities and communities have been decimated by flooding and other forms of climate disaster. Poor, rural, and migrant South Asians are on the frontlines of climate change, confronting the end of entire nations as fossil fuel companies, multinational corporations, and climate deniers sit back. We invite you to tell us how you're experiencing climate disaster and change by replying to this email.
This week, we continue to encourage all of you in our community to fill our Caste in Tech survey and our End Caste in the US petition. Even though many of you may be tired of signing petitions, this one is critical for us to demonstrate public support for ending caste discrimination in the U.S. For many people, caste is something that never made it out of South Asia -- but the reality is, caste is very present in the U.S. Since word of the Cisco case broke in early July, nearly 300 caste-oppressed individuals in the US have reached out to Equality Labs to report stories of caste discrimination in the workplace. That’s why we need your help reaching 10,000 signatures on our petition, supported by Color of Change. If you are outside of the United States, use 95134 as your zip code.
Nineteen years after the September 11 attack, we are thinking of our Muslim communities and their resilience in the face of ongoing Islamophobia. In addition to hate crimes and surveillance, Muslim Americans have faced attacks on immigration and militarization of their homelands, and we are committed to fight alongside Muslim communities for the long haul. Join the Justice for Muslims Collective for their month-long political education series, where they cover structural Islamophobia, gendered Islamophobia, and healing justice.
Scroll down to learn more about upcoming events, more opportunities, and read about Dalit efforts to respond to COVID-19 in India.
|
|
|
In solidarity,
Equality Labs
|
|
Over the next week, we’ll be sharing testimonials of people who have experienced caste discrimination in the US.
Today is Mohit, who says, “The managers and other workers found out I was Dalit and started calling me slurs...They would trip me up in my tasks and then report me to my manager who was also from a dominant caste. I considered reporting it to HR but what could they do? They can barely find India on the map, do you think they would understand caste?” Art by @kakikasi
. |
|
|
A major exposé from the Wall Street Journal demonstrated plainly what we have been organizing around for years: hate-speech on Facebook has ties to nationalist forces, and is complicit in genocide. From the massacre of Rohingya refugees, spurred on platforms like Whatsapp, to allowing the hate-speech that led to Muffazarnagar riots, Facebook India has become a key player in fomenting hate. Employees and advocates are gathering to hold FB India accountable.
Read the article here, with excerpts below.
More here, featuring our research: Facebook Failed To Delete 93% Of Posts Containing Speech Violating Its Own Rules In India
|
|
|
"Caste has been here (in the US) for a long time," said Thenmozhi Soundararajan.
"Wherever South Asians go, they bring caste." Read more on CNN. |
|
|
Join Justice for Muslims Collective as they launch their month-long political ed.+ action series, Until Liberation We Resist:19 Years of Resistance to the War on Terror. Today: Healing Justice + The War on Terror at 7 PM ET. Link.
|
|
|
Survivor leadership is crucial at this moment as we elect new political officials and push policies forward. Join us in unveiling an agenda to advance survivor justice across the country. Register for our Virtual Summit taking place Sept. 24-26! Link.
|
|
|
|
India had become the newest hot spot for COVID-19, with the number of cases quickly on the rise, with almost 100K cases reported yesterday. Unsurprisingly, Dalit, Adivasi, Muslim, and poor people will suffer greatly as a result of this health crisis.
Below is an excerpt from the National Dalit Movement for Justice, in Delhi, which has been providing relief to Dalits in India.
It won’t be wrong to state that the worst-hit community in this pandemic are the Dalits and Adivasis. They had to bear the double brunt of the society; one is the loss of livelihood and other is using ‘Social Distancing’, as a tool to strengthen the casteist ideology to ridicule the Dalits. Thus, NDMJ through this platform also want to denounce the term ‘Social Distancing’ and opt to choose the word ‘Physical Distancing’. National and State coordinators of NDMJ through various media sources were continuously monitoring the cases of caste atrocities, and other forms of injustice towards the marginalised and vulnerable section of our society in this pandemic lockdown.
According to the data collected by NDMJ-NCSPA-NCDHR and through various media sources approximate 100 cases of atrocities of different kinds have been reported in different parts of India during the lockdown period. This includes, the practice of untouchability in various forms, assault-which includes verbal and physical assault both, sexual assault, police brutality, murder which includes both honour killing, as well as murder, inadequate PPE Kit for sanitation workers, death due to hunger, death of migrant workers etc. It is a sad state of affairs that amongst the list of deaths in the pandemic, death of these voiceless, marginalised people will never be counted by the government.
Use and share our COVID-19 cards, available in Hindi, English, Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, and more.
|
|
|
This guide is designed to help people from all walks of life—political newcomers as well as experienced activists—take action to ensure that we have a successful election in November 2020. A successful election is one that is: fair, free, respected, and safe. Get the toolkit here,
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
