South Asians for Black Lives: Caste & Anti-Blackness

Join Equality Labs for a session on the connections between anti-Blackness and caste apartheid in the South Asian diaspora. As progressive South Asians move towards ending white supremacy and anti-Blackness, we must also undo our own internal hegemonies of caste, language, geography, gender, sexuality, and religion.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit transmedia artist and Executive Director of Equality Labs.

Sharmin Hossain is a Bangladeshi American queer Muslim and Political Director of Equality Labs.

Equality Labs is an Ambedkarite South Asian progressive power-building organization that uses community research, cultural and political organizing, popular education and digital security to fight the oppressions of caste apartheid, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and religious intolerance. Through these methods, we provide practical tools for South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities to make new interventions in longstanding systems of oppression and advocate for themselves.

Equality Labs centers the leadership of South Asian caste and religion-oppressed communities in the ongoing redefinition of South Asian identity in the United States, across the diaspora, and in our home countries in South Asia. Our membership includes Dalits (formerly known as the "Untouchable" people), Adivasi (indigenous people of South Asia), Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, and Christian South Asians. Co-presented with the Poetic Justice Foundation, the Institute for Asian Research, the South Asian American Digital Archive, and the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster.

We believe that all progressive South Asians must work towards the goals of ending white supremacy but crucially, also our internal hegemonies, such as that exemplified by caste. We must create spaces where women, femmes, gender non-binary, and trans leaders lead the way in identifying the problems and creating solutions. In doing so, we can truly ensure all South Asian Americans can create communities with equity.

Co-Sponsored by:

The UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC Institute for Asia Research, UBC Centre for India and South Asia Research, South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), Equality Labs, Poetic Justice Foundation, Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster