What is caste? What is caste discrimination? In her book “Caste,” Isabel Wilkerson powerfully writes that looking at caste is like holding society’s X-ray up to the light. But what happens when you don’t know what to look for? The challenge with caste discrimination is that, sometimes, even those who perpetuate it can’t explain what it is or how it works. As is becoming increasingly clear through California’s recent litigation against Cisco Systems for its role in perpetuation of caste-based discrimination, caste perpetuates itself nonetheless, in India and at home in the United States--whether we know what it is or not. The question that remains is how do attorneys respond to the challenge of caste, how do institutions account for and protect against caste discrimination, and how (if at all) does US law learn to recognize, prohibit and punish caste discrimination.

Panelists

• Jaspreet Mahal, Accessibility Specialist for Graduate Students, Academic Services, Brandeis University
• Nico Slate, Professor of History and Department Head, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
• Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Executive Director, Equality Labs