When I walk through Jackson Heights, Brooklyn, or stroll past the tech offices in Manhattan, I see the America that drew me here as a student, a place where birth shouldn’t determine your future.
Yet, beneath this veneer of opportunity lies an uncomfortable truth: caste discrimination thrives in New York’s boardrooms, classrooms, and neighbourhoods. The ancient hierarchy that my ancestors carried from South Asia persists here, manifesting in whispered surname checks, workplace exclusions, and housing denials that would shock most New Yorkers.
This reality makes the current moment in Albany unprecedented. and , championed respectively by Assembly member Steven Raga, the first Filipino American elected to New York’s legislature and Senator James Sanders Jr, a veteran economic justice advocate from Queens, would add caste as a protected category under New York’s Human Rights Law.
Together, these bills represent more than legislative housekeeping; they embody New York’s historic commitment to expanding civil rights protections for the most vulnerable.
