Sikh activists demand apology from Kamala Harris for defending discriminatory policy

[wyldwolf]

A group of Sikh activists has launched an online petition asking Indian-American Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to apologise to the community for allegedly defending a discriminatory policy in 2011 that prohibited state prison guards from keeping beards for religious reasons, even though exceptions were given for medical reasons.

In a statement, these Sikh activists alleged that during her tenure as California’s Attorney General, Harris defended a policy that prohibited state prison guards from keeping beards for religious reasons, even though exceptions were given for medical reasons. The case settled without a policy change in 2011, prompting the US Department of Justice to open a civil rights investigation and forcing California Sikhs to successfully lobby for stronger workplace religious freedom laws in the state the following year.

“Kamala Harris lectures her opponents on civil rights, but she needs to apologise for trampling on the civil rights of Sikh Americans as California’s attorney general,” Rajdeep Singh Jolly, a lawyer and political consultant in Washington, DC, said.

“While the Obama/Biden administration was taking historic steps to allow observant Sikhs to serve in the US military, Harris was fighting hard to deny religious freedom and equal opportunity to Sikh Americans,” Jolly said.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/sikh-activists-demand-apology-from-kamala-harris-for-defending-discriminatory-policy-in-2011/story-L3rn0ttp2XNhyh2F2Bx8qN.html

[corbettkroehler]

1. Freedom Of Religion Must Be Universal (n/t)

[stonecutter357]

2. WOW !

[sop]

3. There goes the Sikh vote

[wyldwolf]

5. Yeah. They're not that important anyway, right?

[Vegas Roller]

35. Sikhs are a very important voting block in California

Many of them came here from late 1800's to early 1900's to help build railroads and now own a lot of farms and orchards as well as trucking and other businesses.

Even more important than votes, they pump a lot of money in the campaigns.

[drray23]

45. I saw a very interesting short documentary

On youtube (I think it was) about the Sikhs that are into trucking. There is a network of Sikhs owned rest stops in California that caters to their religious (there are shrines in the rest stop) and dietary needs.

[Maraya1969]

4. She made a mistake. She needs to make it right.

[SunsetDreams2]

6. Was the 1st story about this from Daily Caller in April?

That’s what I’m getting when I search. I will keep looking

[wyldwolf]

7. I have no idea. But why would that matter?

[SunsetDreams2]

8. The Daily Caller is a conservative rag

whom according to my search first told this story on April 10th and then it was picked up by Conservative Daily News on April 11th. It matters a great deal where a story originates

[wyldwolf]

10. If they published '2+2 is 4" would that call into question that basic truth?

BTW, January 2011:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8283894/Sikh-man-cannot-become-guard-because-of-beard.html

Do you deny this event happened?

[SunsetDreams2]

14. I'm not trying to deny anything.

I am suspect of any conservative rag. That’s what I was coming up with. I could do without the snark.

[friendly_iconoclast]

12. "It matters a great deal where a story originates" Is the story accurate, or not?

[Kind of Blue]

11. Trilochan Singh Oberoi is the name of the Sikh man who filed

the lawsuit and won. I'd like to hear Sen. Harris and hope she doesn't take too long to come forward about this.

Under the deal made public Thursday, the state will not change its rules requiring most men to be free of facial hair so they can be fitted for gas masks. But it is paying Trilochan Oberoi (tree-LOH’-chin OH’-bur-roy) $295,000 in damages and giving him a $61,000-a-year job as a manager in the corrections department.

https://americanturban.com/2011/10/27/state-of-california-settles-with-trilochan-singh-oberoi-but-maintains-discriminatory-policies/

[SunsetDreams2]

13. Ok thank you

I’m going to look into this further

[Kind of Blue]

16. ...

[cwydro]

9. Oh boy.

No comment.

[Celerity]

15. It was Jerry Brown who kicked this all off by challenging the ruling in favour of the Sikh

Harris got the case settled in his favour, and he was hired.



As Poll Numbers Surge, Attacks on Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Increase; Sikh Attorney Challenges Record on Civil Rights

https://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/as-poll-numbers-surge-attacks-on-presidential-candidate-kamala-harris/article_aa63b8ac-9dbd-11e9-84de-671cffedf1df.html

snip

Indian American venture capitalist Shelly Collins Kapoor, who serves on the Harris campaign’s National Finance Committee, told India-West that sexism was clearly at play. “The end result (a settlement in favor of the plaintiff) was obtained by Harris. Why is she being denied credit and criticized for obtaining the settlement?” Kapoor queried, also questioning why the issue is now coming up nearly a decade after the case was settled.

Regarding Jolly’s petition, in 2005, Trilochan Oberoi, a 65-year-old veteran Indian naval officer, applied to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to work as a prison guard at Folsom State Prison. After passing a number of tests, he was told by prison officials that he would have to shave off his religiously-mandated beard to take a respirator-fit test which requires wearing a gas mask. Oberoi refused and the CDCR denied him employment.

Oberoi sued the state and received a ruling in his favor in 2008 from the State Personnel Board, which noted that the CDCR had made no efforts to accommodate a religious requirement or to consider alternatives to the gas mask.

Former California Attorney General Jerry Brown — who would go on to serve two terms as the state’s governor — challenged the state Personnel Board’s ruling. The state sat on the case for three years as Oberoi awaited a decision.

Harris, who won her first term to serve as the state’s attorney general in 2010, was asked about the case by India-West at a press conference when she announced her win in San Francisco. She told this publication that she did not know about the issue, but would look into it.

Ten months after Harris took office as attorney general, Oberoi was offered an administrative post at the Folsom State Prison, and began working there Nov. 1, 2011. “I feel like a soldier who has finished a long battle,” a jubilant Oberoi told India-West in 2011, shortly after his case was settled (see India-West story here: https://bit.ly/2Xii92u).

Pressed on whether he had brought the issue up as Brown was running for governor, Jolly told India-West that the Sikh Coalition had launched a petition drive asking the community to call upon their state legislators to demand that Brown should rush up a verdict on the long-stalled case.

“We got a lot of push-back from his supporters, who claimed we were being partisan and who felt we were jeopardizing his candidacy by taking this issue up,” he said.

The Sikh Coalition did not ask Brown for an apology, as Jolly has done with Harris.

snip

[wyldwolf]

17. The case settled without a policy change.

Does this mean it's a good policy?

"The Sikh Coalition did not ask Brown for an apology, as Jolly has done with Harris."

So?

[Celerity]

18. The Sikh Coalition has ties to Biden

Sikh Coalition's Executive Director, Sapreet Kaur, with Vice President Biden and Dr. Biden.



Sikh Coalition's Program Director,Amardeep Singh, with Vice President Biden and Dr. Biden.

[wyldwolf]

20. How so?

I have some old pics of me taken with a variety of politicans because of position I once held. That doesn't denote a 'tie.'

This is rather like others in another thread discounting a poll in Iowa because one of the pollsters worked for, with, or know Elizabeth Warren.

And didn't this story break waaay back in April?



And didn't the Obama administration do a lot for that religious group?

[Vegas Roller]

37. Weak sauce nt

[Celerity]

41. I prefer hot

[Kind of Blue]

21. The "so" is Sen. Harris was elected 5 years after Mr. Oberoi brought suit and she settled it

within a year of taking office.

"Harris was fighting hard to deny religious freedom and equal opportunity to Sikh Americans,” Jolly said.

Please tell if you know more about what Sen. Harris has to apologize for. Thanks in advance.

[wyldwolf]

22. OK, let's apply your logic elsewhere

Joe Biden served several terms in the US Senate and two terms as VP... AFTER his supposed racism.

No apology needed.

Next?

[Kind of Blue]

25. LOLz, so you don't know what she needs to apologize for after resolving his

case in his favor within her first year of taking office.

[wyldwolf]

26. LOLz. She settled the case in one defendent's favor without changing the policy

He was bought off.

That did little for the rest of the Sikh community.

Next?

[tonedevil]

30. Do you understand...

the no facial hair policy is because they have to wear gas masks? If you have facial hair the integrity of the mask is compromised and you are very likely to breath in the substance you are trying to protect against by wearing the mask. In this case it would be the religious freedom to be injured or die from inhalation.

[wyldwolf]

33. I understand...

... that was their reasoning. Do you understand her actions provoked a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation? Do you understand she argued to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Sikh man denied a government job because of his beard? Do you understand an arbitration board ruled in his favor that the agency had discriminated against him by making “no effort” to consider alternative accommodations, such as allowing him to wear a tight-fitting mask?

[tonedevil]

38. You are absolutely correct...

there is no health or safety risk for people with beards who must wear face masks and Senator Kamala is a religious bigot who gets great joy from thwarting the religious beliefs of Sikh's. I'm so glad to learn from someone with such vast knowledge as yourself.

[Kind of Blue]

40. Still doesn't answer what she has to apologize for.

Do Attorney Generals change safety regulations/policy at prisons?

Hopefully we'll get more information as the story develops.

[tonedevil]

27. LOL... /nt

[Celerity]

24. the top searches for this story are all mostly RW sites and 2 Indian sites, one (that I posted) that

is critical of the attack. This is definitely being spun by the MAGAT media, even if they were not the progenitors.



Also Senator Harris is hardly an anti-Sikh activist, despite Jolly's attempts to shape that narrative.

From 2017

https://www.facebook.com/SenatorKamalaHarris/posts/the-sikh-practice-of-langar-is-a-sacred-tradition-where-a-free-meal-is-shared-by/526793277663810/




disgusting MAGATS in those comments, those fuckers are pure hate

[Kind of Blue]

28. No wonder I couldn't find anything but Mr. Oberoi's name and

no news sites I'm familiar with.

This is a stupendous fail!

Thanks again for your expert searching skills

[SunsetDreams2]

29. +1

[wyldwolf]

31. Really? When I google "Kamala Harris sikh beard" I get...

I get five out of ten sites that aren't rightwing.



Indica News
NBC News
Telegraph.co.uk
Indian Express
Religion News.

This means rightwing sites are publishing the story, but it's nowhere near exlusive to them.

Is it your position that if a rightwing site publishes a story, that story shouldn't be taken seriously EVEN IF mainstream and non-political sites are also running with it.

Shall we apply that standard to every story?

[Celerity]

32. as time marches on, search results change as the algorithms yield different results

A lot depends if the MSM picks this up and runs with it going forward.

[wyldwolf]

34. Of course. I work in SEO. But you didn't anwer the question

Is it your position that if a rightwing site publishes a story, that story shouldn't be taken seriously EVEN IF mainstream and non-political sites are also running with it?

Shall we apply that standard to every story?

[Celerity]

36. I never said that at all

Is it your position that if a rightwing site publishes a story, that story shouldn't be taken seriously EVEN IF mainstream and non-political sites are also running with it?

No, I do not believe that, I was simply pointing out (in a limited way) the current state of the early amplification.

[wyldwolf]

39. I didn't accuse you of saying that. I asked if that was your position

[Kind of Blue]

19. Wow!!! Thank you, Celerity!

[SunsetDreams2]

23. Thank you Celerity

I’m still not following why Harris has to apologize for settling the case with him and giving him a job with the state. All within a year of being elected AG.

Jerry Brown was the AG for much of this case

[Goodheart]

42. As somebody opposed to religion rituals and mandates

I'm going to give Kamala a pass on this one.

Sorry, Sikhs.

[BannonsLiver]

44. +1

They’ll be fine.

[Cha]

43. Wow.. this caught my eye..

“While the Obama/Biden administration was taking historic steps to allow observant Sikhs to serve in the US military, Harris was fighting hard to deny religious freedom and equal opportunity to Sikh Americans,” Jolly said.

Good for the Obama/Biden Admin! They don't get enough credit.