casteism

[kast-iz-uhm]

noun

1. discrimination or hereditary social distinction based on caste, especially discrimination against those of lower caste.

2. any rigid hereditary system of social stratification similar to the system of castes found in India.

Example Sentences

The women, however, dismiss allegations of casteism and violence and claim they are only trying to unite their community.

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Popular culture from Tamil Nadu, the southern state where “Annapoorani” was made, has routinely taken aim at casteism for nearly a hundred years.

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Angana Chatterji, a scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, said that caste discrimination has a "pernicious hold" that impacts South Asian communities in the United States and that the California bill "recognized the basic and fundamental right to equality for all who are targets of casteism."

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U.S. discrimination laws ban ancestry discrimination but do not explicitly mention a ban on casteism.

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In August of that year, Pulitzer-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson published the acclaimed book Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents, which compared the U.S.’s history of racism to India’s more vicious forms of casteism; despite some criticism from lower-caste scholars, the book was a bestseller and has inspired an upcoming Ava DuVernay film.

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