This California lawmaker is battling caste discrimination
POLITICO | Sejal Govindarao
It didn’t take long for state Sen. Aisha Wahab to make waves in Sacramento. The first-term lawmaker from the East Bay came out of the gate with a bill that would have forced Capitol staff to wait two years, instead of one, to work for lobbyists. Then the Democrat spearheaded a politically explosive debate over caste discrimination.
The first bill was shelved amid objections from advocates for victims of sexual harassment who said it could make it harder for people to quickly leave hostile jobs. Meanwhile, her caste discrimination bill brought hundreds of protesters to Sacramento — including many from her own district — angered by legislation they argued is unnecessary and unfairly tarnishes people from India.
California lawmakers passed the bill today. If Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signs it into law, California will become the first state to outlaw caste-based discrimination in housing and employment. The caste system is an ancient hierarchical system with roots in South Asia that dictates what jobs and schooling people can access.
After introducing the legislation, Wahab received death threats and now faces a recall for “loss of confidence and breach of trust” and “collaborating with special interests and introducing bills that could lead to profiling and increased bullying in schools.”
Wahab, the first Afghan American and one of the first Muslims elected to the state Legislature, comes to this role with an adversity-laden past. Her father was killed when she was a small child growing up in Queens, N.Y. — one reason she’s become a gun control advocate — and her mother died not long after. Wahab and her sister were raised in foster care until they were later adopted by an Afghan couple in California, and she has faced financial struggles over the years.
As the session enters its final stretch, we checked in on the lawmaker to see what she makes of what’s become an unusually eventful first term.
The following has been edited for clarity and concision.
THE RECAST: I know you’ve faced vitriol and harassment, as well as a recall campaign in these past few months. How are you doing?
WAHAB: It’s genuinely emotionally taxing. We’re just trying to do good work and focus on the issues at hand. And a lot of the attacks are unwarranted, unnecessary, deeply vile in so many ways. If you take a look at just my Twitter feed, and what I’m tagged in, it is extremely racist. It’s extremely sexist. It’s extremely disrespectful. And a lot of the opposition for the caste bill, in fact, is not based on the merits of the actual bill. It’s a lot of fearmongering and misinformation. And I think that’s problematic to the community and society as a whole.
THE RECAST: What political lessons have you learned from the caste bill?
WAHAB: Genuinely, I do think that a civil rights bill will always have opposition. The opposition is often rooted in fear and power, and the moment that you try to balance power, opposition will always try to fearmonger. And I think that when you take a look at the potential the bill has, at the end of the day, it’s just an anti-discrimination bill. Nobody in California should be opposed to it, right?
THE RECAST: What did you make of the opposition to the revolving door bill?
WAHAB: I was deeply disappointed that the committee watered down the bill so significantly to appease certain groups and so forth. And the honest truth is that big money has a huge influence in our day-to-day politics, whether we’re talking about Citizens United or we’re talking about more from a state level or even a local level. And dark money does not belong in politics, let alone some of the things that we can do in regards to lobbying reform needs to happen. And I think the larger public 100 percent supports that.
In regards to the opposition, again, it was inaccurate. Some of the things that I’ve read and some of the statements that were made when I presented the bill, it was a mirrored bill to what the state Legislature deals with. It was a 12-month cooling off period. That’s how it was presented.
We do see a literal revolving door. They quit in the state Legislature, and within 24 hours, they’re back in the state Legislature in the Capitol on behalf of a lobbying interest.
THE RECAST: Some first-year lawmakers try to get the lay of the land before taking on contentious policy fights. Why did you go in the opposite direction?
WAHAB: My obligation is for the 40 million Californians. That is my obligation, let alone primarily to my district. So for me, I’m not going to waste the time, power and privilege I hold when people elected me to do good work, right? One, I learn the most when I’m doing the things that I care about. I’m far more engaged, far more interested, far more focused on doing the work that I want to do for my district and for the state of California.
THE RECAST: What have you learned about the process of championing a bill and building relationships in the Capitol?
WAHAB: I think that there’s a lot of lessons learned. I work with every single person that is willing to have a conversation. I have an open door policy. I meet with Republicans, I meet with advocates, I meet with anybody willing to have a conversation. In fact, roughly 80 percent of my bills are bipartisan bills. … I focus on the policy issue, not necessarily the politics. That’s one of the biggest differences I’ve seen just being able to assess myself versus how things really work.
The first two weeks [in office], I felt that I had to do things the way that everyone has been telling me. I have to do it, right? Whether that’s hitting the circuit in the evenings, whether that’s meeting with certain groups and so forth. And I realized that that’s just not me. So, yes, I do show up differently. But I also show up and I’m far more confident in the work I’m able to do because I am approaching it as myself.
Yes, that’s not going to be the most politically correct thing to do. It’s not going to be the most advantageous when it comes to doing things how other people do it or what’s expected of you. But this is when I talk about representation.
Representation doesn’t just mean checking a box; it also means advocating for issues that are different, showing up as yourself and really being true to your core beliefs. I think that I’ve been doing it and I’m actually far more comfortable and confident in myself showing up that way, than any other way.
THE RECAST: Is there anything that you would do differently looking back?
WAHAB: I don’t believe so, because even if you take a look at something and think of it as a mistake, the value of learning from that is far more important to me than anything else.