If the construction of the “model minority” myth for Indian Americans rides on the back of their alleged casteless-ness, then their anti-Blackness, or at least a deliberate effort to separate themselves from marginalized Black Americans and other “less desirable” Indian immigrants, has also played a massive part in its edifice. However, by the 1960s, around the second big wave of Indian “upper”-caste immigration, identifying as “not Black” was quickly becoming a go-to for Indian Americans. Regardless, Indian Americans who moved to the U.S. over the last century were treated with racism, with many of them still considered “Black” regardless of their effortful delineations. Excerpted from Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir of Surviving India’s Caste System by Yashica Dutt (Beacon Press, 2024). Born “in a formerly untouchable ‘lower’ caste family,” she passed as dominant caste to survive discrimination.