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Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

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Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#161

Also, this is the reason students in their board exams (+2 / Twelfth-grade tests) were forbidden from writing their last name in the answer sheets. Teachers in India openly discriminated against students from other castes/jatis/varnas by giving them lower marks. Not just caste but discrimination based on the state-of-origin/language are often committed by identifying your group based on your last name. There are ofte…

This is BS. You don't write your name at all, just your student id number.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#162
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Indian born with British nationality and I look Indian. It doesn't bother me if people ask me where I'm from - I am often curious about where others are from. It does, however, start to slightly grate if upon me responding with "I'm British", I am quizzed further with "But... where are you really from?" I hear this less nowadays, but it used to be common enough to "slightly grate", particularly from older, Caucas…

>"where are you from" Based on the fact that you took some (minor) offense to the followup questions, I'm assuming you're middle-class or higher? I've spent a decent chunk of my adult life living in working class, high-immigrant areas (Noble Park and Sunshine, to any other Melbournians - both actually really nice places). What struck me as interesting is that in these environments, probing about one's ethnicity is no…

I moved from Australia to the US and I agree. It was small talk as a kid in Australia (where 30% of residents are born overseas), and it's a no-no in the US.

Possibly I was offending some folks in Australia.. in 2022, as a white man without Mediterranean roots, I'd probably not say your username out loud in either country :)

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#164
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If interviewing is considered a normal job function, isn't not allowing certain people to interview certain people a violation of EEO laws by discriminating based on a protected class(national origin)? Unless you have some specific knowledge that an employee just can't handle people of nationality X, I would be very hesitant to institute OP's advice, at least in the US.

Probably not? I know plenty of tech companies that make sure female applicants get interviewed by at least one female engineer during the hiring process. They have a good faith belief this reduces discrimination rather than increasing it. Of course, it could stray into discriminatory territory if you're doing something dumb - like sending all minority applicants to a hardass interviewer who rejects everyone; or givin…

I have been the token woman interviewing a woman and also joined teams where the only other woman interviewed me. It always struck me more as "look, we have one and she's not mouthing 'get out' so we're a good employer".

Usually once I join the one other woman leaves and the cycle repeats.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#165
It was in the early 2000s outside of the valley. A coworker was basically held in indentured servitude by a family of a higher caste. They dropped him off at work every day, berating him the whole way there. We hired a lawyer, got all of his contracts thrown out, and hired him directly.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s the kind of method religions/cults/political parties use to indoctrinate This kind of language ("cult" and "indoctrinate") is a conversation-stopper and does nothing to help anyone. If it's so easy to prove the idea is false, could you do that instead of using baseless invectives?

>This kind of language Same can be said for current usage of "privilege" and "equity".

In some contexts, yes, but there was nothing in the OP's use of "privilege" that attempted to silence any further discussion.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#167

If my fellow Indians are fostering this sort of hatred even after coming to US then we definitely haven't changed (and also, I am not shocked like others here).

> If my fellow Indians are fostering this sort of hatred even after coming to US

Caste is like religion if you are brainwashed when you are kid, its almost impossible to let go even if you change countries. Hopefully the kids of these immigrants who grow up in the host country will not have the same hatred.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> privilege is invisible to those who have it. Just think about that This is not true (very easy to prove it’s false) and I’d question the intent of who taught you this - it’s the kind of method religions/cults/political parties use to indoctrinate.

> it’s the kind of method religions/cults/political parties use to indoctrinate This kind of language ("cult" and "indoctrinate") is a conversation-stopper and does nothing to help anyone. If it's so easy to prove the idea is false, could you do that instead of using baseless invectives?

It's trivial to prove that it's false. Have you never heard a white person talk about white privilege?

Ironically, some of the responses saying it's true that privilege invisible to those who have it are demonstrating otherwise. For instance, this [1] response who wrote that they weren't aware of their privilege "until I saw and lived it for myself". If privilege were invisible to those that have it, they wouldn't have been able to see it.

Actually ask around, and the overwhelming majority of people are cognizant that coming from a stable family is a privilege relative to coming from a dysfunctional family. Or coming from a wealthy family is a privilege relative to coming from an impoverished one.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30521552

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#169
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has rather different connotations in Britain. As far as I understand it from Americans I know, quite a few people in the US have a fascination with where their, and others', ancestors came from, so it could be a fairly innocuous question. Pretty much any American I know would happily rattle off an answer of 'oh, I'm half Irish, a quarter French, and a quarter Spanish' or something similar. Here in the UK, even tho…

"Where are you from" means the same in the US (source: moved from UK to US 25 years ago). Someone who is interested in your ethnic background would ask "what's your your heritage" or perhaps "what are you?". "Where are you from?" is always going to mean Where did you personally physically come from.

Thank you for the clarification :)

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#170

The reason for my current user name here at hn was this exact form of racism. It is the first post I made when I created this throwaway. I was assured that my experience was unique and not widespread. I am both sad and happy to see this, sad because it exists, happy because it is getting some attention here at HN. I would like to take this opportunity to point out that everyone of us needs to be vigilant about this t…

In all of the interviews I've conducted there have been 2 interviewers to 1 interviewee because everyone has biases and people remember things differently according to those biases.

The biases don't even have to involve people to throw off the results. They could be against the usage of a particular API, for example, which I find insane, but I've seen it happen.

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