From New York Times, I'm Michael Obaro.

This is a daily.

Today, California is about to become the first state in the country to outlaw discrimination

based on a person's caste.

My colleague Amy Chin, on why so many now believe, a prejudice that originated on the other

side of the globe now requires legal protection in the U.S. and why so many are equally convinced

that it's a bad idea that will backfire.

It's Monday, September 25th.

Amy, I wonder if you can tell us about this piece of legislation which was recently passed

by California's democratically controlled legislature and now sits on the desk of its

Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

So the bill is called Senate Bill 403 or SB 403 for short and essentially it will make

caste discrimination illegal in California and that means everywhere from housing to employment,

discrimination based on caste will not be allowed.

It will become a protected characteristic just like sex, gender, sexual orientation.

People will not be able to discriminate on that basis.

So just define this word, caste.

I think we all have a little bit of a sense of what it means but would benefit from hearing

you explain it.

So the caste system is one of the oldest systems of social stratification and it began in India

thousands of years ago.

It has its roots in Hinduism and essentially it's a rigid social hierarchy that people

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