Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

131–140 of 213 posts

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

#131
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…

You insult a whole country, and call cities with millions of people as “soulless”.

And then you make a callous and hateful remark about how welcoming Canada’s. immigration policy.

Even if you don’t think it, you are absolutely a disgusting racist and an inveterate xenophobe.

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

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There isn't a magic or easy answer. It is what it is. I mean, sure there is, people just don't want to fix it for various reasons. For example, reform the H1B and Green Card processes. Make the H1B an actual path to a green card and citizenship which most people seem to want nowadays. Cap H1Bs per nation (so there's a clear concise path to citizenship if you're in the US) rather than Green Cards or increase the Gree…

Capping H1Bs per nation is an effective cut since Indians dominate the program. The solution is actually to clear the EB Green Card backlog with a one time allocation to all backlogged applicants followed by removing the per country cap.

[deleted]

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

#133
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

To defend the "bad guy" for a second: In fairness to the HAF here, that "quote" is not a quote at all, but an uncharitable paraphrasing. If you're going to quote that "summary", it'd be best to also include a direct quote from the HAF along with it, so you appear fairer. Otherwise people will feel tricked and dismiss your argument.

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

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They setup an entire heroin network of Domino's like franchises spanning the US. Starting in LA, ultimately spreading all over the country by the early 2000s. 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. > In two years, from 1995 to 1997, Boise’s minor market had a half-dozen crews selling hero…

Did you miss the entire parallel plot in that book about Purdue Pharma lying to pill mill doctors to get pain patients hooked on their "nonaddictive" opioid product? The Sackler family created the demand that those "enterprising" Mexicans fulfilled.

Of course not. I think the Sackler family should be drawn and quartered. Notice I mentioned Oxy addicts.

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

#135
Indian immigrant to US here (non IIT, but Brahmin). Although I personally haven't seen or noticed casteism in the Indian community here or back in India for that matter. Although there were just a few idiots ... but it could very well have been my brahmin privilege or perhaps my urban upbringing. I did notice a bit of persecution complex within Brahmins about "reservations" (India's affirmative action). But more alarmingly, nowadays anti-Muslim feelings are widespread and it's distressing to see that even in my immediate family.

To my fellow Indian-Americans : we need to be adults and stop being so defensive about anything critical about our community. While we can be justifiably be proud of our community's success, but also need to be aware that we are also eminently capable of folly, and alert to some of the disturbing undercurrents in our community. I feel we absolutely need to take these charges seriously, just as we would sexism or racism in America.

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

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fucked-up system that perpetuates fetishization of a "golden Willy Wonka ticket" in order to mint underpaid workers on a leash. I've seen such tech workers make 3-10% of equivalent native salaries, and live in appalling group housing conditions to save money. (TCS, anyone?) There isn't a magic or easy answer. It is what it is.

>There isn't a magic or easy answer. It is what it is. I mean, sure there is, people just don't want to fix it for various reasons. For example, reform the H1B and Green Card processes. Make the H1B an actual path to a green card and citizenship which most people seem to want nowadays. Cap H1Bs per nation (so there's a clear concise path to citizenship if you're in the US) rather than Green Cards or increase the Gree…

Capping visas based on country of birth, is literally racism.

Don’t be a racist.

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

#137

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?

I have a bunch of points and I am not sure if they answer your question completely,

The reason caste still exists as an issue in India, is because 1. It is bought up every now and then, during elections or by the media to add fuel to an already burning issue. 2. It is used as an excuse to flout laws or treat a fellow human being as trash and maintain superiority over them. 3. Lack of education or a general lack of interest in knowledge which leads to people believing what they are told rather then trying to understand what is. (could be more reasons as well which I am not be aware of)

Indians who are brought up in an environment where there is constant mixing of cultures, castes or religions typically do not bother about which caste or religion the person sitting next to them or having lunch with them. Like children of expats studying in the same school, places where political or economic situations bring/force people to exist together like labour camps in the middle east or communism dominated towns in Kerala.

The above group cannot/do not act on this issue because any concern raised over division by caste is immediately countered with whataboutism or alienation(even being disowned by family), which forces most educated Indians to go with the flow rather than oppose it. There are even outliers in this group that profit out of the divide like those who influence the first point stated above.

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

#138
post #87

Who's worked with Brahmin IITians, raise a paw? :paw emoji here: I hope the Valley absorbs all of the world's horrible tech sociological antipatterns because I ejected from that heap. Transient gold miners descended on the place where I grew up, treated it disposably, and failed to make any effort to integrate because they're just visiting to make their coin. Sunnyvale Costco is like an airport in Burma (okay, Myanma…

Funny how no one says the same about people from France or Australia..

Or black people, any criticism of black people would be met with outrage. So much hypocrisy.

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

#140
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "problematic" here? Is it like "sin?" Or maybe "shameful?" How should I read that?

Not acceptable within that person’s value system and virtues, which they’re signaling by calling it problematic. It’s an appeal to an imaginary Problematic Idea Authority that maintains a list of what people aren’t allowed to believe. When the commentary you dislike isn’t an exact fit for something readily indictable on the list, find something close that is on the list (bonus points if it involves a controversial fi…

> Read it again. That’s precisely what happened, followed by clicking the person’s profile to move on to fundamentally shaming the person rather than the problematic idea.

If this was about the groups in his profile, it wouldn't be acceptable. The only reason his comment is acceptable is because he is picking on an easy target.

Post reply on HN