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How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

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Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#101

A story. A few years back I worked with an Indian team of developers and testers. They did a great job. Their lead was an IIT graduate. They have two managing partners; one is a secular Hindu and the other a practicing Muslim. Multicultural they are. I went to visit them once. (Always a good idea to personally get to know people who work on your stuff!) They're in Odisha, in the east of India. I asked the group, over…

surprisingly, you are accurate. its tribalism at its core.

i could add some more examples.

sunni-shia conflict,

arab muslim vs non-arab muslim,

rich vs poor

punjabi muslim vs bengali muslim (what caused 1971 bangladesh war)

Few years back, an indian muslim went to join caliphate and fight for ISIS. he was made to clean toilets because Arab muslims treated/thought indian muslims are inferior and not good enough for jihad.

Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#102
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for sharing this. While it is apparent that US job market is not a meritocracy, it simply cannot allow ( hell, afford ) to import bad practices from afar.

It is already in US and is being defended by Hindu organizations with reason like - ‘Caste discrimination is a Hindu right that should go unchallenged’ https://twitter.com/YashicaDutt/status/1369314943061856261

As a Hindu, I am ashamed. I am glad to not be part of any such orgs. This is despicable. US cannot afford to continue this.

Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#103
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My cousin reminded me the other day that back in the 80s I was introduced by innumerable mums as “attends MIT and has a green card”. Literally that was my entire “biography”. Edit: seems like thing have diverged since I had to worry about these things: The waiting time for non-Indian green cards is the same btw.

For eb2 and eb3 visas, For chinese and mexicans it's similar. For everyone else, no.

I think Filipinos have similar wait times.

Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#104
post #99

If you are an IITian and still casteist then something is wrong with you! Look IITians are often entitled, opinionated and in rare cases obnoxious. But never during my 5 years in IIT KGP, I have ever felt casteism among students and even amongst alumni after that. Initially during freshman year there’s a slight sense of resentment against quota (affirmative action for lower castes) students but all of that evaporates…

You have a modern view of the world. You'll be surprised as I was back in the day that not everyone is open minded.

Ppl still want to keep old systems in place because their parents have brain washed them into thinking that they're upper caste and that Hindu Khatre mein hai

Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#105
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Toronto for well over a decade. Perhaps this is a irreconcilable difference of opinion, but what you call a "globalist punching bag" is also affectionately called a melting pot. What you call a manufactured husk is also called diverse vibrant city. Beauty is in eye of the beholder, I guess. Toronto has one of the best culinary scenes I've ever seen, and a lot of character if you know where to look ("little…

>what you call a "globalist punching bag" is also affectionately called a melting pot. Toronto is explicitly not a melting pot. Trudeau and others have been explicit in describing Canada (and Toronto) as being a mosaic of cultures, or a patchwork, or quilt, and not the melting pot that America touts itself to be. Canada's migration policies are one facet of my labelling it a globalist punching bag, among many, but ce…

If I'm coming across as accusing you specifically of racism, I apologize, I did not construe your comment as such. FWIW, many "little X" towns in toronto are in fact caucasian...

You are entitled to your opinion and Trudeau to his, all I'm saying is that it's a bit callous to characterize a large number of people as "shallow" or buying into a meme (the thing about loving americanisms) on the same breath as claiming it's a quilt (the implication of which is that there are significant congregational, not-americanized bubbles).

One can also make negative remarks about Americans and their americanisms, there's no need to accuse subsets of other populations of doing things subsets of your own also do, as a crutch for a us-vs-them style of narrative. That's cherrypicking. In aggregate, people are more similar than they are different.

When I say torontonians got over differences, this is sort of what I mean: diversity isn't a driver of outrage narratives for us, just a fact of life.

Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there is at least gold where you grew up. Lots of other areas have gone through the same transformation without the 'gold'. For example where I live is a touristic part of Spain. It wasn't touristic at all 40 years ago, so much so that people washed their clothes in the river (not joking). Come mass tourism they abandoned everything and erected megahotels. But tourists priced locals out, nobody can afford housi…

I was just in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Everything was geared towards grabbing those tourist dollars. Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I’d feel a little better about it if the tourist cash stayed with the locals, but I don’t suspect it does. It’s like displace local culture with tourist culture, and pray the tourists keep coming.

[deleted]

Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The heroin resurgence came on the back of enterprising Mexicans who took advantage of loose sentencing of small amounts and rampant Oxy addicts looking for alternatives. Did anything bad ever come on the backs of enterprising Americans? Is there any purpose of your comment other than to indict an entire country of people for the actions of a few?

That wasn't the argument. My mom died, I know others that died and I know the history behind it. It used to be truth seeking was important. There is truth to what Trump was saying. At the time he made that statement the opiate epidemic was still in full swing. You can take the media narrative that it was racism, but 70k dead a year for the last decade requires a more nuanced look.

> It used to be truth seeking was important. There is truth to what Trump was saying.

No, there is no truth. I consider all the hardworking people, including Mexicans, who harvest my fruits and vegetables, do construction and landscaping labor, work in meat processing plants, and any other task “to be the best”.

How one can indict Mexico for the opiate problem rather than the pharmaceutical companies and doctors that rubber stamped it all and looked the other way is beyond me.

Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#109
post #91
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My cousin reminded me the other day that back in the 80s I was introduced by innumerable mums as “attends MIT and has a green card”. Literally that was my entire “biography”. Edit: seems like thing have diverged since I had to worry about these things: The waiting time for non-Indian green cards is the same btw.

Not sure what you mean by non-Indian green cards exactly, but just to clarify, the waiting time for EB2/EB3 green cards for those in India is really dramatically behind everywhere else (final action dates are a rough proxy for "waiting time" but actually understate the problem): https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/v...

Because as someone from the EU, why would I go to California? I have been there countless times because of my job and was always happy getting back to Europe (where in most parts no old people fill bags, receptionists do not need to work with broken arms and not a myriad of poor Mexicans are treated like the reenact "Gone with the wind").

I had to suppress a laugh flash whenever an ICE agent wanted hard to find out if I wanted to illegally stay in the country. Why on earth would I?

Re: How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley

#110

I don’t know anything about Indian culture; could someone who is from there shed some light on how prevalent the prejudiced mindset is? E.g., do 80% of people think the caste system is stupid and outdated whereas the other 20% still hold some prejudice toward Dalits? What about Indians that have moved to the U.S.? And is this issue improving quickly or slowly?

The prevalence of caste based discrimination is dependent on the environment that Indian person grew up in. The more urbanized their upbringing, the lesser the prevalence of caste.

However, the government fucked up by baking caste based reservation systems into law, thus making it harder to eliminate the presence into oblivion.

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