Live data from Hacker News

California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

reuters.com

101–110 of 633 posts

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#101
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Remnants of Hinduism. These incidents do happen, but they are rare and almost non-existent compared to Hinduism. Churches openly hold discussions on how all humans are equal.Also Jesus was born in a poor family, which would have made him a lower caste hindu if he was born in India If caste is beyond religion in India, then why did Ambedkar leave Hinduism and urge all of his followers to do so. Can you tell me one oth…

> Can you tell me one other religion which has the concept of caste in religious scriptures?

They may not be having caste-based discrimination but they do have other forms of discrimination. That's why you have terms like heathens, heretics and kafirs.

While I agree that Hindus have more of this caste-based discrimination, a simple search shows that it's not exactly uncommon in other religions in India.

https://scroll.in/article/876000/is-the-caste-system-deep-ro...

https://theprint.in/opinion/indias-muslim-community-under-a-...

https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2019/sep/01/c...

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#102

I am someone who was born a hindu dalit and I am so ashamed of sharing that identity of mine that I am posting anonymously. For someone wondering what the Hindu caste system is, here is a primer. Hindus believe that humans are like dogs and they have a breed. So a person who is born in a higher caste is of a better breed than a person born in a lower caste. Numerous genetic studies have found no significant differenc…

I have been living in the western hemisphere for the past decade or so, and it bothers me that other Indians to this day try to find my caste and try to argue that their caste is superior than mine. One of the reasons I avoid making Indian friends abroad. I have a feeling many of these Indians living in the west for a good amount of time have much narrower minds than most Indians living in India these days.

Tell them that there is nothing superior about misleading people using pseudo science such as astrology.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#104
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're raised in India, it is relatively easy to determine someone's general (varna) caste and specific (jati) caste from their familial name(s) and/or physical appearance. You can pick these things up by osmosis from adults (my case), through being taught, or simply through caste-influenced culture. It's quite complicated, and I'm not an expert. You don't even have to be Hindu to be a part of the caste system - M…

It is also relatively very wrong to "determine" someone's cast by their looks. You can say you guessed it, but you should stop short of that probably.

Personally, I would engaging with the caste system for any purpose other than to destroy it is very wrong. I've seen plenty of upper-caste people assume someone's caste based on their appearance. They may have been wrong, but I fail to see how that is relevant, as I'm not justifying or explaining, just describing. If your particular objection is to the word 'determine', then I think we're getting hopelessly bogged down in semantics.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#105

I am an Indian and have been in US for many years. There is one thing I have noticed among brahmins, during their Naturalization process many of them change their last names to Iyer or Iyengar (two sects of Brahmins). I am referring to guys from the southern part of India where I am from. Its not a common practice there. My interpretation of this is these folks have a perceived sense of superiority feeling about thei…

The quota system is actually called 'reservation' and it's not specific to South India.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_in_India

Though the percentage of the seats reserved varies with each state.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#106

> but Cisco determined caste discrimination was not illegal and issues continued through 2018 How this shit is legal.

To give you a concise answer, USA Federal law only prohibits discrimination based on the following characteristics: Race. Color. Religion or creed. National origin or ancestry. Sex. Age. Physical or mental disability. Veteran status. Genetic information. Citizenship. Anything else you can think of is a legal reason to discriminate

[deleted]

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#107
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was told by a colleague that most Indian folks you meet in tech in the Bay Area are the 1 percenters of India. Is that kind of what you're saying here as well?

Nah, more like middle to upper-middle class, with good access to education. 1 percenters are the ones with old family money and successful businesses (which they will inherit). They have no reason to leave the country for a tech job.

The concept of a middle class doesn't really apply particularly well to India in terms of it's use in economics. I have found in my experience that people who refer to themselves as upper middle class (in the Indian context) are usually simply embarrassed to admit that they are members of the upper class, since they don't see themselves as such. Economically, they undoubtedly are.

Edit: Having checked, the annual pretax income required to be in the top 1% of earners in India is 77000 USD.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#108
post #64

I am someone who was born a hindu dalit and I am so ashamed of sharing that identity of mine that I am posting anonymously. For someone wondering what the Hindu caste system is, here is a primer. Hindus believe that humans are like dogs and they have a breed. So a person who is born in a higher caste is of a better breed than a person born in a lower caste. Numerous genetic studies have found no significant differenc…

Quoted post unavailable.

Please don't take HN threads further into religious flamewar. If you have corrective information, that's great, but provide it neutrally.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#109
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be surprising or disconcerting to you, but it is an assumption that is usually borne out - I don't have figures for you, so I can't speak to this specific case. It is well documented that access to education, wealth, and most other factors that determine whether an Indian can emigrate to America for a highly-skilled job are extremely skewed in favour of the forward castes.

I was told by a colleague that most Indian folks you meet in tech in the Bay Area are the 1 percenters of India. Is that kind of what you're saying here as well?

The phrase used often is 'caste-class nexus'. I think that's a good way to put it.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#110
post #99

I live and work in India and I would like to throw more light on this. Me and my friends like to joke around that you will never get your dues, either pay raise or promotions unless you have the last names jain, gupta, sharma, verma. I had a guy on my team who was very capable but did not have the right last name, he was being harassed for promotions for 4-5 years. On the other hand the manager class was entirely "ja…

No surprise there. Nepotism, casteism and regionalism are widespread at certain companies in India.
Post reply on HN