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How To Be An Anti-Casteist

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Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#41

Post by tt433 »

topkai22 wrote: post #6
clumsysmurf wrote: post #2

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…

Immediately remind the person that doing that goes against our company goals and culture.

And puts the company at financial liability!

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#43

Post by baggy_trough »

astrea wrote: post #20
throwawayuuid wrote: post #16

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.

What would be a property of the language in the comment that would lead you to this conclusion?

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#44

Post by hartator »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #10
clumsysmurf wrote: post #2

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…

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.

> It's like if your lead said she was trying to determine if they were an inferior race.

Yes, it is.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#45

Post by erklik »

Natsu wrote: post #22
clumsysmurf wrote: post #2

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.

There's quite a few examples of this in the article but it seems mainly things like neighborhood, names, "background", and other things of that nature.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#46

Post by sreevisakh »

plaster wrote: post #9
clumsysmurf wrote: post #2

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 and she corrected herself

If you were an Indian, this would immediately raise a red flag. The intent of bringing up caste in a professional setting is clear - to discriminate. There is no other practical use for it. And the system is a hideous one with the potential to seriously damage professional environment. Signs of its practice like this should be considered threatening.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#47

Post by _pd19 »

viraptor wrote: post #39
topkai22 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immediately remind the person that doing that goes against our company goals and culture.

I've witnessed that and it works. You don't have to argue or make a big issue in some way. Just state that X is an equal person deserving same respect as all of you. Nobody's likely to call you out or complain about that statement.

I think it's a little early to say "it works." It causes them to display less outward prejudice when discussing the hiring process with others.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#48

Post by canistel »

See, you can have discourses on caste, you can deliberate as you will, but endogamy - marrying within your caste - is still the norm across India, even in the states where people are not that finicky about caste. Until this chain is broken, the shadow boxing on the sidelines will continue. Interestingly the Caribbean communities have somehow managed to shed caste, while retaining the Hindu identity.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#49

Post by pavanky »

One anecdote that struck me was that a cousin, someone a couple of decades older than I am and spent time in US since 1990s, openly admit to me that he was more open minded in India and became more caste conscious once he moved to the US.

I am not sure if he sounded regretful or just was sharing a fact of his life, but that really was weird.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#50

Post by tt433 »

kyuudou wrote: post #23
throwawayuuid wrote: post #16

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 gro…

I'll take this opportunity to state that the word "meritocracy" was originally a bit of a joke taking the piss out of the idea that an aristocracy would couch itself in the language of merit without actually changing much.
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