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How To Be An Anti-Casteist

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Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#21
post #20

I am just a regular unhyphenated American at a FANG, and I've never gotten a job offer when any of my interviewers were Hindustani. Coincidence, maybe? I think this particular nepotism is not exclusively internecine.

Based on the language in this comment, I can't help but imagine you somehow let your internal biases affect your behavior and language during these interviews.

You'd be surprised I guess.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#22

After 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…

How do you know if someone is fishing for someone's caste or the markers thereof? Sadly, I wouldn't necessarily even know if a colleague was doing this unless they were really direct about it.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#23

I am just a regular unhyphenated American at a FANG, and I've never gotten a job offer when any of my interviewers were Hindustani. Coincidence, maybe? I think this particular nepotism is not exclusively internecine.

I think this is a controversial reality that often gets silenced. Even between different cultures and castes from the Indian subcontinent there appear to be clear and discriminate striations[1] that few people in my experience talk about. I think it's a serious issue with the millenial and younger generations of non-Indian American citizens.

Once I worked with a group that was run by a brahmin hindi speaker and a group of Tamils was under her. It was really weird to see them speak English to each other since neither spoke each others' native tongue. She was not very nice to the Tamils and spent most of her time planning for ostentatious Diwali celebrations in the office.

The US has no place for this kind of discrimination. We strive to be (I hope) a meritocracy.

1: https://www.brightworkresearch.com/enterprisesoftwarepolicy/...

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#24
There has been a lot of outrage over the past week in India over the rape of a lower caste woman by upper castes. The police sided with the culprits and forced the family to cremate the victim to destroy evidence. This is a common tactic by upper castes to spread terror and keep the lower castes in line. Goes to show how entrenched the system is especially outside the big cities.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#25
post #20

I am just a regular unhyphenated American at a FANG, and I've never gotten a job offer when any of my interviewers were Hindustani. Coincidence, maybe? I think this particular nepotism is not exclusively internecine.

Based on the language in this comment, I can't help but imagine you somehow let your internal biases affect your behavior and language during these interviews.

No, I've had similar experiences. I check the "two or more races" category where applicable.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#26
post #9

After 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 s…

> and she corrected herself

I believe she did the exact opposite. (You could argue she meant "shouldn't have done that" - I guess you'd have to be there to know) Acknowledged that she wanted to do this, so it was conscious, not just a bad habit. And acknowledged that she shouldn't talk about it - not that she shouldn't have done it.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#27
post #9

After 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 s…

> She did not express anything malicious

Well, imagine that you, a white-presenting man (what does _that_ mean) were on a phone interview with someone you couldn't see, and afterwards, you said something like, "I was trying to determine if they were Black."

I'm not going to make judgement on whether that's a fair statement or not - what I am curious about is whether you think that you'd get the same kind of defense - would there be someone saying that you weren't malicious?

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#28
post #20

I am just a regular unhyphenated American at a FANG, and I've never gotten a job offer when any of my interviewers were Hindustani. Coincidence, maybe? I think this particular nepotism is not exclusively internecine.

Based on the language in this comment, I can't help but imagine you somehow let your internal biases affect your behavior and language during these interviews.

Based on the language in this comment, I can't help but imagine you judge everyone using similarly low amounts of information about their conduct and actions.
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