How To Be An Anti-Casteist
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How To Be An Anti-Casteist
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Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#2After an interview I attended at a fintech company, my Indian team lead straight out said she was trying to figure out the interviewee's cast. I was not familiar with the concept -- so my expression was mostly blank -- but she immediately followed up with "oh, I shouldn't have said that".
I took no action, but wasn't sure what to do. After I learned more about it, I started to wonder where I was in this hierarchy.
If you ever overhear something like this, what would you do?
Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#3After an interview I attended at a fintech company, my Indian team lead straight out said she was trying to figure out the interviewee's cast. I was not familiar with the concept -- so my expression was mostly blank -- but she immediately followed up with "oh, I shouldn't have said that". I took no action, but wasn't sure what to do. After I learned more about it, I started to wonder where I was in this hierarchy. If…
In an interview, it seems to me as highly unethical and likely discrimination. Although, not sure if there are legal ramifications to this sort of thing though.
Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#4After an interview I attended at a fintech company, my Indian team lead straight out said she was trying to figure out the interviewee's cast. I was not familiar with the concept -- so my expression was mostly blank -- but she immediately followed up with "oh, I shouldn't have said that". I took no action, but wasn't sure what to do. After I learned more about it, I started to wonder where I was in this hierarchy. If…
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Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#5Guess which "caste" is on the bottom. You've all seen it.
Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#6After an interview I attended at a fintech company, my Indian team lead straight out said she was trying to figure out the interviewee's cast. I was not familiar with the concept -- so my expression was mostly blank -- but she immediately followed up with "oh, I shouldn't have said that". I took no action, but wasn't sure what to do. After I learned more about it, I started to wonder where I was in this hierarchy. If…
Immediately remind the person that doing that goes against our company goals and culture.
Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#7After an interview I attended at a fintech company, my Indian team lead straight out said she was trying to figure out the interviewee's cast. I was not familiar with the concept -- so my expression was mostly blank -- but she immediately followed up with "oh, I shouldn't have said that". I took no action, but wasn't sure what to do. After I learned more about it, I started to wonder where I was in this hierarchy. If…
I have zero tolerance for trying to evaluate candidates on things other than performance against what the interview is benchmarking against. Hearing something like that would have had me instantly report it to HR.
It makes me angry now even reading it. Why would this have any impact on the work the candidate would be able to perform?
Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#8There were a lot of insightful comments when the lawsuit mentioned in the article was first announced.
Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#9After an interview I attended at a fintech company, my Indian team lead straight out said she was trying to figure out the interviewee's cast. I was not familiar with the concept -- so my expression was mostly blank -- but she immediately followed up with "oh, I shouldn't have said that". I took no action, but wasn't sure what to do. After I learned more about it, I started to wonder where I was in this hierarchy. If…
This is an extremely fraught topic, and I will give a very fraught answer:
I think you did the right thing in this situation. She did not express anything malicious and she corrected herself (at least partially).
It sounds like your colleague was doing something anyone would do (assessing someone by the social strictures they are familiar with) and did something wrong (devoted effort to it in a hiring context, said something aloud.) Yes, everyone does this sort of thing -- in American society overall we don't have good names for the subtle side of our class system, so we can't express the puzzle as clearly as some other societies, but we do see the world (consciously or unconsciously) along these lines.
When I hear people say inappropriate things -- usually less fraught ones like marital status -- I point out that they cannot say such things. It serves as a reminder of proper procedure. I do not escalate the situation if they seem to be acting without malice and, like the person in your story, seem to desire to do better.
(Full disclosure, I am a white-presenting man.)
Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist
#10After an interview I attended at a fintech company, my Indian team lead straight out said she was trying to figure out the interviewee's cast. I was not familiar with the concept -- so my expression was mostly blank -- but she immediately followed up with "oh, I shouldn't have said that". I took no action, but wasn't sure what to do. After I learned more about it, I started to wonder where I was in this hierarchy. If…
I had an interim manager who did this subtly. It wasn't hard for us to catch on after some time, we brought it up to HR and he was disciplined as far as I know, and soon left the company, not sure on what terms.
It's absolutely not okay to discriminate candidates by something like caste, or social status. It's like if your lead said she was trying to determine if they were an inferior race.