Coming Out As Dalit, A Memoir of Surviving India’s Caste System by Yashica Dutt

Here’s a question: When you hear the words “coming out,” what comes up for you?

I wonder if these words are becoming decontextualized as some marginalized identities gain a foothold in normative culture (see: Love Is Love!)? 

In borrowing the LGBTQ2IA+ term for leaving the safety of invisibility and masking behind,  Yashica Dutt proves the very real advances to being accepted in mainstream culture that some segments of this community has made. Her book title, before we even open to the pages, also reminds us that “coming out” is the opposite of “staying in,” and that to be closeted is to be safe to survive in the context of a dominant system that benefits from an individual’s or  a community's subjugation and silence. And the stakes are, in fact, that high: survival.

Nevermind, for now, that we hope these emergences are always voluntary. Too often, they are not. 

In her book Coming Out As Dalit, A Memoir of Surviving India’s Caste System, Yashica Dutt portrays the truth of what is at stake to those who occupy certain identities:  elements of a person’s humanity that can be painted over with false statements of value by systems of oppression.

While I may have guessed that the Indian Caste System was the handiwork of Imperialism, justified, as so many of this brand of atrocities are, by Religion, before reading this deeply researched and annotated collection, I had no idea how this oppressive framework operates in the US.

Whether it is the Indian Caste System, or any one of myriad invisible-to-the-privileged razor-toothed machines, one of the primary ways dominance (and privilege) is maintained is through ongoing unconsciousness of the individuals within. 

Indeed, even the thought of changing the workings of an entire system can be overwhelming. And one definition of privilege is a lack of needing to consider it. But what we do in our individual lives does matter. The first part of the antidote to this entire fabricated mess is for people who stand in any kind of power to decide to give a fuck, shut up, and listen. And read.