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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

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m neither Brahmin nor IITian but am in the immediately adjacent category of Indians. Are many of these IIT alumni (and others as well) from India basically rednecks with engineering degrees? Probably yes. Does it mean your “learn the language” attitude is actually relevant to this discussion? Probably not. Guess who else tells me, a Tamil guy, to learn the language? The same IITians (Hindi is the most popular langu…

"Absolute belief" is something you inferred that wasn't there. Human nature is what it is. Bring enough of any group of people to another place, there will be cultural replacement. What about the self reflection of those who let themselves be underpaid and displace the local culture for a quick buck? It seems like you're being sanctimonious. The Bay Area can keep Man Jose, Sunnyvale, and the East bay. I avoid America…

> who let themselves be underpaid

So what should these people do instead? Stay where they are and get paid much less?

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

#142

>This is something torontonians have gotten over ages ago. Bad example. Canada is a globalist punching bag and their behaviour isn't indicative of a country that has grown but one that has merely submitted. I lived in Toronto for a couple of years and even at that point most of the people I met who were born and bred there were hauling ass out of the city to places like Barrie, Burlington or other provinces entirely.…

I'm an American in Western Canada and I'd agree with this. Absolutely nothing I couldn't get in the US, save for Nanaimo Bars and Letterkenny, and you can get both if you're in a border state like WA or ND. There are Tim Horton's in the US (and they suck these days anyway).

The culture is basically the generic pseudo-leftist stuff you get via pop culture. They love their virtue signaling here, but most of the talking points aren't anything you couldn't get in any big, US city; hang out in Boston, Seattle, or NYC and you'll get the same thing. For all of the progressive talk Alberta is Snow Texas, the Prairie Provinces line up pretty well with Indiana or Kansas, and Ontario has it's own mini-Trump in the surviving Ford brother making it to the Provincial-leadership level.

In exchange for healthcare you've got a housing and business climate that's basically owned by either 1) Big Oil / Big Gas / Big Mining, or 2) Foreign firms. Housing costs are insane -- Vancouver is the most unaffordable city in N. America since, unlike SF, salaries didn't keep up with housing, and it's basically a place for Chinese / Russian / Indian / Saudi citizens to park money to get it out of their respective countries.

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

#143
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because of the predominant "fuck it" attitude: don't learn the customs, don't speak the language, don't put down roots, and don't interact with locals [...] when you bring in a junior software engineer's extended family, you're getting a swath of average people too There isn't a huge amount of difference between what you're saying and what the previous president had to say on immigrants coming to the US - "when Mex…

Most of BLM/LGBTQLMONOP hipsters are still racist towards Indians and Asians because that's not even criticized.

Exactly, these comments would result in bans if they were about black people instead of south asians.

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

#144
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…

Thing is under the veil a lot of caste sentiment is around. There is much closing the ranks among upper castes even in well educated circles. Peoples surnames and colour of skin seems to matter in social interactions, and there is considerable 'them' and 'us' mentality.

Also upper castes continue to propagate caste names in naming children which acts as a badge to upper caste identity.

Important positions in both government and industry seems to be filled with people from the upper castes.

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

#146

I once was volunteering at an event. I was having a causal conversation with another guy and after a while he asked me my last name and decided to not indulge in any further conversation anymore. This is one of many instances I experienced. There is a paper about caste oppression. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3725938

Yes I heard that too. Like you can tell from the name, or the length of the name, something. I think if India gets rid of that part most Indians should be pretty happy...

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

#147

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 alar…

Non-brahmin here. First question asked by my every new brahmin acquaintance was my surname. I think there were more than just a few idiots.

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

#148

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…

Any set of people who choose to cooperate and work as a group will consistently dominate when in competition with people who act as individuals. It's less human nature and more the nature of any system with actors and competition, and unless you see sex going away the world will involve both. You can drop out of the race of life if you want, but I wouldn't count on others doing it anytime soon.

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

#149
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That sounds like an uncharitable interpretation of what HAF said, but I can't verify because they never link to the source statement and the article she points at is behind a paywall. Come to think of it this "Attribute quotes to people and then say 'read the (paywalled) article' when someone asks for context" strategy seems like a pretty good way to spread misinformation. Edit: Okay did some googling and found the s…

I see, thanks for digging. This would be like a court saying "violent conquest, and religious discrimination in the tax system, are inherent parts of Islam enshrined in the Quran", or "theocratic Zionism and the killing of gentiles are core parts of Judaism that are sanctioned in the Torah". In both cases, with a fundamentalist reading, you'd be right, but it's really up to Muslims and to Jews to interpret their own religions (and to interpret their way away from bad parts of their texts), not for the legal system to do. And it's kind of anti-Hindu to choose the most unsympathetic (to an American) reading of Hinduism to be the "official" one. It would be like saying that right-wing "Christian nationalism" is the "true" Christianity. The only people who would agree would be people outside Christianity who hate it, and the right wingers themselves.

And in the case of "Hinduism" this is extra complicated, because there is no central authority, and barely even a core "religion" in the manner of monotheisms. "Hinduism" barely exists (some people say it's just a word invented by the Britishers); it's a loose confederation of Shaivism, Vaishnavism, etc; it's amorphous. It's hard to say what is and isn't a "core belief". Whenever you try to grasp it, it will slip out of your hand.

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

#150
post #88

> "To fill those slots, universities sometimes offer seats to students with test scores below the cutoff point—though not as far below as is commonly assumed". General cutoff in 2015 ( my batch ) = 105 marks out of 360 Sc/st/marginalised group cutoff marks = 52.5 marks out of 360. Its literally cut to half and the author says its NOT as far below as is commonly assumed. There is still more to it. You would think that…

So you are unhappy because you couldn't get admission to a college. Now think about the unspeakable things millions of people from these backward classes had to endure for thousands of years. How much anger they must have felt. How much helplessness and self loathing they must have felt for not being able to do anything about it? Because they were told the God intended this life for them!

It's not about the income level. It's about the social injustice those people have endured for all these ages. These reservations are nothing but a minor apology from our society to these communities.

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