Need your help to send position letter to CA Legislature
Friends,
Need your help to send position letter to CA Legislature. SB 403 is with Judicial committee (Assembly) and July 5th is a hearing. Please take few mins and send your position letter by today.
Steps to send the position letter : - Please note that the website is buggy and slow. As a result, it may fail when you first submit the letter. You may need to try to submit 2 or 3 times or wait for some time. Also, it's easy if you copy your text somewhere else as sometimes the content may be lost as well. :(
Steps:
1. Go to the website https://calegislation.lc.ca.gov/Advocates/ .
2. Click to “Create an account”. Please wait a few seconds. The website is slow and takes a few seconds to show the next screen.
3. On the next screen – Select “No” for Lobbyist and Organization
4. On the next screen, enter your details and click on Register button
5. You will receive an email with the username and temporary password
6. In that email click on link provided. It will then prompt you to create a password with at least 1 uppercase letter, 1 lower case letter and 1 special character.
7. Proceed to the next screen — log in again if necessary at this point.
8. You will reach the main page that looks like below:
- 1. On the left side enter “SB 403” as shown
- 2. Hit the search button. You will pull the bill . You will see caste bill and name of Author as Wahab
- 3. Select ‘Judiciary’ under the Assembly Committees section as shown below
9. On the right hand side of page - Select “Oppose”
10. There is a box below to write your stance/position write a few lines on why you oppose the bill. You can use the text detailed out below.
Sample Position Letter on the Portal:
I am deeply concerned about SB403 and the irreparable harm it will cause to innocent Americans of South Asian origin and/or Hindu faith. My opposition to SB403 is by no means intended to infer “support for discrimination”, as some have sought to gaslight.
There are substantive and material matters that require objective, careful consideration going beyond headlines and conjecture.
We Oppose SB403 and urge you to kindly consider these ethical and legal challenges of the bill -
1) Constitutional & Civil Rights Violations: Not facially neutral - Does not apply to all, has disparate impact against certain people only. Violates the Unruh Civil Rights Act (CA Civil Code Section 51), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and US and CA State Constitutions. Violates Equal Protection Clause. Results in denial of equal protection and due process.
2) False Narratives & Simplistic Optics: Enables racial profiling of South Asians. Codifies false and negative claims about an entire category of people based on hearsay – maligns and creates selective discrimination.
3) Bad Faith Actors & Activists: Used non-scientific flawed survey by Equality Labs, a private company that likely stands to profit from SB403 and has a track record of hate speech targeted against minorities.
4) Ignores Scientific Data: Policy & law-making ignores scientific study from Carnegie Endowment - instead uses Equality Labs report that reportedly used fake falsified data (eg., foreigners asked to use US zip code) - https://tinyurl.com/CarnegieEndowment-NoSB403
5) Selective & Flawed Enforcement Infrastructure: No credible enforcement mechanism in place. Overreach by CRD in “Cisco” case incl. fabricated data, intimidation, reckless denigration. Notably this case was dismissed against the 2 engineers, yet forms the only ‘evidence’ cited by SB403 proponents (more info at www.castegate.org
6) Regresses child development: SB403 can have a direct negative impact on the wellbeing of Indian-American children. Initially in Grade 6, they are taught that caste is linked inextricably to Hinduism - which leads to stigmatization of our children. Adding to this where SB403 purports that caste practice manifests as human trafficking, rape, murder; the alienation and inferiority-complex Hindu-American kids develop vis-à-vis their peers can be substantial.
Please represent us and be our champion:
We request you to Vote No to SB403.
The least that our lawmakers can do to safeguard equal rights of Indian-American minority in the US and not unknowingly perpetuate racial discrimination, is have the wordings in the bill changed conclusively.
Please refer to Hindu American Foundation's proposal on re-wording the bill: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18MFj0FjaaMK1mLUIC_6LK2IYpcxqWKtY/view?usp=drivesdk
Additional Supporting Documents:
Letter from Cisco employees who experienced detrimental impact due to CRDs overreach: https://californiaforjustice.com/
Opinion by Barbara McGraw - Caste bill will harm South Asian communities: https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/04/20/opinion-caste-bill-would-harm-californias-south-asian-communities
StandWithUs (Israel Emergency Alliance) letter opposing SB403 - https://tinyurl.com/StandWithUs-NoSB403
Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) letter opposing SB403 - https://tinyurl.com/AAHOA-NoSB403
Cornerstone Synergy letter opposing SB403 - https://tinyurl.com/CornerstoneSynergy-NoSB403
African American Network of Kern County (AANKC) letter opposing SB403 - https://tinyurl.com/AANKC-NoSB403
Forward petition to your friends to sign:
Online petition opposing SB403 signed by more than 15K people: https://chng.it/FvCnHyfG
Thank you
Ritesh Tandon, US Congressional CA17 (Moderate Democrat). www.tandonforcongress.com