Seattle has become the first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination, which has directly affected those whose ancestors come from some southeastern Asian countries. Cheddar News explains what that means.

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Today Explained: Seattle Bans Caste Discrimination

It's time now for today explained this week, Seattle became the first US city to ban caste discrimination. This ordinance directly affects people who trace their family lines to places like India Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But because of migration trends, this story has significant implications across the US. The caste system in India dates back about 3000 years. It's a social hierarchy based on occupation and birth. Indian society used to be divided into five casts and numerous sub castes over the centuries. Some cast became very powerful. And even though cast has been outlawed in India since 1948 many people only marry or associate within these ancient casts at the very bottom of this hierarchy is a group of people known as the dollars. This particular group of people faced extreme discrimination to the point that they couldn't get good jobs, go to schools and were often disrespected just openly in public over the decades old civil rights activists managed to win some protections and help dismantle this millennia old system but change. It's just slow as people of south asian descent migrated around the world. Dalit groups say that old caste system, it followed them. They also say caste discrimination is common in US diaspora communities. It affects housing, schools and employment. Did you know that more than 2.7 million Indians live in the us and by that, I mean people who were born in India who migrated that does not include their kids or second generation Indian Americans. Us census data shows about 25% of all tech workers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent. Not everyone is happy about Seattle's new cast ban. Some hindu americans say legislation like this unfairly targets them because the caste system is rooted in Hinduism. Even though under the british and muslim rule, the system took a more nefarious form.