As she prepared to announce her decision not to run for reelection, Sawant spoke with Raghav Kaushik, a tech worker who will be part of Tuesday’s press conference and a longtime Sawant supporter (Image: CHS)
How will Kshama Sawant spend her final year on the Seattle City Council as she and her Socialist Alternative-powered office prepare for the work of launching a new national party? Much like the previous decade with long-shot political bids designed to shake up the status quo, renter-friendly legislation, and hyperlocal extractions of global issues.
Tuesday, her council office announced new proposed legislation to create “first-in-the-nation” protections against caste discrimination.
“Caste discrimination doesn’t only take place in other countries. It is faced by South Asian American and other immigrant working people in their workplaces, including in the tech sector, in Seattle and in cities around the country,” Sawant’s announcement reads.
“In fact, we know that caste discrimination has been growing in the United States across many industries, including technology, construction, restaurants and the service industry, and in domestic work. Caste discrimination is increasingly a grave contributor to workplace discrimination and bias—data from Equality Labs show that one in four caste-oppressed people faced physical and verbal assault, one in three faced education discrimination, and two in three (sixty seven percent) faced workplace discrimination.”
The Mumbai-born Sawant says the more than 167,000 people from South Asia living in Washington, “largely concentrated in the Greater Seattle area” mean “the region must address caste discrimination, and not allow it to remain invisible and unaddressed.”
She will be joined by a group of tech workers and Hassan Khan, a human rights activist speaking on behalf of the Ambedkar International Center, to announce the new proposal in a Tuesday noon press conference at City Hall.
The new effort on caste protections follows last week’s announcement from Sawant that she will not seek a fourth term on the council. In the Thursday speech, Sawant warned “the corporate establishment in Seattle” not to “rush to mix their martinis just yet” — “We are not done here,” she said.
Friday, the Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee she chairs heard the first discussion on another new legislative proposal to cap late fees for overdue rent.
UPDATE: Here’s Sawant’s conference on the proposed caste protections legislation.
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Absolutely the premier issue facing D3! So good to see Sawant attacking this issue with such vigor.
I don’t know if I’d call it the premier issue facing the district (the top three on my list would be housing, housing, and housing). But there are thousands of people in D3 whom this law would impact in a genuinely positive way and hopefully serve as a template for similar measures elsewhere in the region. I hope Sawant can get it done despite her severe shortcomings as an effective legislator.
We need to see specific examples here of this discrimination. Literally two of the biggest tech firms in the world, with significant Seattle area presence, are led by south Asians who worked their way up inside the companies.
Am I saying there is no discrimination? Of course not. Is this the dominant issue we should be focused on?
Most IT workers can give you examples. But speaking up about it runs us afoul of our HR diversity training. Is it a big issue? Yes when high caste people get undeserved raises and promotions it is unfair your fellow Americans. In the current economy, yes, it’s a big deal.
I’m pretty sure that Glenn’s comment is satirical.
This is a good thing. Why do people need to rank battles that are all needed? Just because X is an issue doesn’t mean Y isn’t also. The Sawant hate feels sexist at this point. Beyond over it.
Literally cannot wait for Sawant to go away. I loathe that she is our so-called “representative.” God forbid you’re a hard-working person who had to come up from poverty, built your own business in which you’ve hired all spectrum of employees and decide to invest in an apartment building in Capitol Hill — according to her, you’re the absolutely worst person in the world and deserve to be rounded up and burned at the stake.
But, if you’re a weed-loving millennial who doesn’t want to pay rent who believes they should be earning $100K a year to work in a coffeehouse while they fine tune their influencer gig, you’re a freaking miracle to the human race.
Maxine’s don’t use the most elaborate possible straw man you can think of challenge
Yes caste protections. This clearly shows that Sawant is down but she’s not…oh wait. yes, she is out. She’s out!
While caste protections is no doubt a totally valid issue, is this even in the top three for district 3?
Can’t wait till she’s gone. Am thinking of organizing a celebratory conga line down Broadway. Anyone interested?
Great idea!
It’ll be just you two lol
Don’t be so sure… many have stopped drinking the Sawant Kool-Aid.
The caste system was rampant in Microsoft IT 20 years ago. I’m retired now, but I doubt it’s gone away. There were some people with a whole entourage of ‘servants’ following them around and doing their job. I felt it was horrible, and also unfair to the rest of us at review time, and was told by co-workers (also from India) that I was racist for saying so.
So good luck Kshama. Good luck finding voters here who care.
What Sawant says is true. For example, the tech sector, among others, abuses employees who depend on their jobs to maintain their visas, like H-1B visas. Twitter, for example, is a perfect example of that at the moment. I hope she has success.
This is I am sure an issue among Indian workers here in Seattle/Redmond/Bellevue. They have quite a large diaspora in this area and collectively they should root out the problem in their communities and places of employment. Twelve years ago I saw the problem myself while working for a Bothell tech. company. I’m happy she’s leaving as she was a disruptive force Seattle city politics, always seemed to me to be a charlatan.
Why can’t she do this AND tackle the stuff D3 folks have been vocal about, like gun violence? That’s what we talk about at our block parties and, well, after a shooting. I emailed her about it…crickets.