I was born in India and grew up in the South Bay Area, which has a big Indian population. I distinctly remember other Indian kids in my elementary/middle school asking me what my caste is. I later asked my parents and they refused to tell me, explaining to me why I shouldn't care. I still don't know to this day, although researching my last name implied rural origins. I am lucky to have immigrant parents who didn't bring this ugly aspect of Indian society with them - those other kids who asked me likely had parents who did, and were imbuing their kids with it from a young age.
Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
391–400 of 656 posts
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#392ITT: (Possibly) "Upper caste" Indians claiming: 1. This is due to a few bad apples 2. Reservation is the real problem (no it's not) 3. I don't do it therefore it doesn't exist I can tell you by experience the amount of concious and unconcious bias regarding caste amongst Indians both in India and abroad is ridiculous! I'm light skinned so people assume I'm "upper caste" and speak with me as such. My last name doesn't…
How do they know what each persons caste is?
Surname or family name is a common indicator but may not be 100% accurate
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#393I'm not sure if this will be seen but I'm very curious to hear from Indian folk: I am the hiring manager at a well known software company that employs a lot of Indians on H1B visas. A while back I brought in an Indian person for a full round interview. This person happen to have pretty dark skin. On the interview team was a light skinned Indian person with a very Brahmin last name that I'd say is pretty average techn…
As Napoleon said, do not ascribe to malice what can be explained by incompetence.
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm Norwegian, living there. A very good friend is Indian, her parents moved here while she was just a few years old. I never heard her talk about her caste, or the system in general really. That is, until one day, out of the blue, she said she was getting married. Her parents had found a boy who also grew up here in Norway that she was to marry the following year. After a bit of talking it was clear she was not very…
If caste only came up in a mutual interest decision like a wedding where there aren't power imbalances, isn't that fine? Who someone chooses to marry seems like an unreasonable place to intervene to resolve disparities.
except, imagine the conscious and unconscious bias it leads to. your socialization circles are all people in similar castes no?
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is common for affirmative action students to not do very well there. Do you have any data at all for this? No. Only my observation from when I went to IIT for my undergrad about 2 decades ago. At that time they even used to have remedial classes for students who came in through the reservation system. Again, I would like to emphasize that not all of those students were having difficulties coping with the workloa…
> they even used to have remedial classes for students who came in through the reservation... it is not uncommon for the general category students to crumble under pressure as well. So it sounds like IIT is generally a tough place to study at, regardless of how you get in. Surely you would agree that how someone got in isn't really relevant after they've been working for 2 decades? > in a class of mostly 4.0 students…
I am not sure why you are arguing. I did not say I know the circumstances of this particular situation. I am not making any claims about the ability of any student to learn and do well in any course. All I am saying is that throwing a bunch of under prepared students into the fire, potentially judged for every action, mistake or attempt to learn is a tough situation to be in. Under these circumstances at least a few people would get demotivated to an extent that would affect their future trajectory in life. It has been shown (in the context of school children) that if everyone around you including the teachers think you are good, you tend to do better than you would otherwise. The opposite would result in worse outcomes is not then a huge surprise. Again I am speaking generally, not saying anything about any particular person's circumstance. What are you disagreeing with here?
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiosity: Could an Indian of a lower caste change their name, or be named differently at birth, as to "fake" their way into a different caste?
This is why Sikhs are supposed to all have the same surname (Singh for men, Kaur for women). Sikhism has always been strongly opposed to the caste system- see, for instance, their tradition of offering free food to anyone who wants it as long as they will eat with everyone else there. According to a Sikh friend, in practice, Sikhs are still aware of caste- in fact, Sikhs from a high-caste background are more likely t…
That might explain some things... I had an Indian colleague once who used to tell "Sikh jokes" that he claimed were his cultural equivalent of "Blond jokes".
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why I scoff and roll my eyes at individuals who argue that tech is a meritocracy when discrimination between countrymen is happening even in companies like Google.
Nobody argues that tech is a meritocracy. Meritocracy is just an ideal, just like freedom, equality and defensive driving; it’s worth striving towards but you cannot ever reach it (and if you think you’ve reached it, you’ll inevitably start falling behind). Having said that, it’s one of the most meritocratic industries; do you know any billionaire doctors or lawyers that are college dropouts?
By analogy, one might look at the number of not-college-educated millionaire lotto winners and say that playing scratchers is the most meritocratic business you can be in.
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#398ITT: (Possibly) "Upper caste" Indians claiming: 1. This is due to a few bad apples 2. Reservation is the real problem (no it's not) 3. I don't do it therefore it doesn't exist I can tell you by experience the amount of concious and unconcious bias regarding caste amongst Indians both in India and abroad is ridiculous! I'm light skinned so people assume I'm "upper caste" and speak with me as such. My last name doesn't…
> Even in the US, people casually either slip in sentences or assume castes and speak as such.
What kinds of things do they say, or how does their speaking change once they learn? I'm totally outside of this culture but have been studying caste discrimination and its history lately and have been trying to learn all I can about it.
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#399ITT: (Possibly) "Upper caste" Indians claiming: 1. This is due to a few bad apples 2. Reservation is the real problem (no it's not) 3. I don't do it therefore it doesn't exist I can tell you by experience the amount of concious and unconcious bias regarding caste amongst Indians both in India and abroad is ridiculous! I'm light skinned so people assume I'm "upper caste" and speak with me as such. My last name doesn't…
> My college fucking put the caste next to people's names on notice boards for things like seating arrangements for an exam. How the fuck is a person's caste relevant?
I have seen far less serious things related to caste dragged on media for days. I think this is illegal, and I am sure I heard in the news there is a law against marking someone's caste. Also there is law where you can be selective about disclosing caste and won't have to disclose it if you don't want the benefit. Any proof you have for this?
Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians
#400This https://us.macmillan.com/author/sujathagidla/ writer says even Communists are not immune to caste influences. This book is a hard read, but it is worth a read to understand some of the background: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374537821