Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system • Hacker News Board

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#491

Post by fouc » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 3:23 PM UTC

sanmon3186 wrote: post #372

dang wrote: post #8

Past related threads. I think there have been others. How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26435117 - March 2021 (195 comments) Caste discrimination in some of Silicon Valley's richest tech companies - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24952698 - Oct 2020 (322 comments) How India's ancient caste system is ruining lives in Silicon Valley - https://n…

Every time such articles pop-up, I wonder what rock am I living under. In 22 years of experience (Half in US/UK and rest in India) in eight global organizations, not even a single time I heard or witnessed any cast based biases. What we regularly see is region/lingustic biases. Cast based discrimination exist in India, but in my experience the issue is overblown in the knowledge industry.

It's spelled "caste" not "cast"

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#492

Post by doingtheiroming » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 3:24 PM UTC

InfiniteRand wrote: post #472

stavros wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Greek as well, and now that you mention it, Turks were indeed the people I tended to have very good relationships at work with. They are especially welcoming, at least the ones I've worked with.

Countries with long intertangled histories often have a lot of cultural similarities as well as deep national grudges. If you remove the people from the national grudges, they tend to get along.

The borek spanakopita wars are eternal. And don’t get the Bulgarians started on Banitza.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#493

Post by shukantpal » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 3:29 PM UTC

mushyhammer wrote: post #302

icelancer wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> One thing I recommend to my hiring managers is to not allow people from frictioned backgrounds to manage and interview people from the other side. What? This is racist in and of itself and would be blatantly illegal for any number of reasons. Also the problem is not necessarily limited to Pakistani and Indians. It's Indians and Indians. Not sure what you want done there. I freely believe that the caste system of t…

> attempting to subvert that via "good" racist methods is not going to fly, especially if documented. It would because it did and it does: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Steelworkers_v._Weber

Looks like you didn’t get the point from OP.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#494

Post by Tsarbomb » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 3:39 PM UTC

throwaway_dcnt wrote: post #11

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…

Jesus fucking Christ what a terrible take and highly illegal in most sane countries.

I'm Serb, I've hired and worked with Croatians. I've had colleagues who were Lebanese and worked along side Israelis. I've had a Palestinian coworker report to a Jewish manager. I have seen an adjacent team's Japanese manager rely on their Chinese report as their right hand.

Maybe it's because I live and work in Canada where there is absolutely zero tolerance for this kind of garbage thinking.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#495

Post by asmy » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 3:42 PM UTC

thowaway_2mar wrote: post #231

random314 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In India dalits are about 20%. In Silicon valley, I would be surprised if they are more than 2%. India is like 3 different countries when sliced by caste. The highest castes are about as privileged as the typical Chinese. The middle are at sub saharan Africa levels. The bottom 25% constitute probably the most deprived population in the world. Better off than the Rohingyas but not by too much. "Jay Bhim" is a great mo…

^ typical Chinese Is it not racist?

I don't know how you see it as racist. He meant they have the same material standards as the average Chinese person (from the PRC)

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#496

Post by stavros » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 3:49 PM UTC

InfiniteRand wrote: post #472

stavros wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Greek as well, and now that you mention it, Turks were indeed the people I tended to have very good relationships at work with. They are especially welcoming, at least the ones I've worked with.

Countries with long intertangled histories often have a lot of cultural similarities as well as deep national grudges. If you remove the people from the national grudges, they tend to get along.

Yeah, we've been living with the Turks for centuries so we're pretty similar. Much, much more similar than, say, to the English.

Though, yes, all the food is Greek and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#497

Post by diebeforei485 » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 4:06 PM UTC

random314 wrote: post #424

diebeforei485 wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Virtually all Brahmins proudly advertise their caste Nonsense. > and their caste is also obvious from their last name What exactly do you suggest be done about this?

I am calling you out for your fake story of Christians trying to figure out who is a brahmin by patting their backs. It is completely unnecessary as you can tell who is a brahmin from the last name. You just made up a fake story to play victim and transfer blame to Christians here and in several other comments. It is a well known fact that the primary form of caste discrimination occurs against lower castes by upper…

I think you are directing your moral outrage at the wrong person.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#498

Post by commandlinefan » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 4:06 PM UTC

robinsoh wrote: post #411

icelancer wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> One thing I recommend to my hiring managers is to not allow people from frictioned backgrounds to manage and interview people from the other side. What? This is racist in and of itself and would be blatantly illegal for any number of reasons. Also the problem is not necessarily limited to Pakistani and Indians. It's Indians and Indians. Not sure what you want done there. I freely believe that the caste system of t…

> I freely believe that the caste system of the host country carries over to the United States, Until relatively recently, the United States has always had a very strong strictly enforced caste system, even written into law, still the case in some Southern states. Some people were even allowed to buy and sell other types of people! As we can see some people are still allowed to kill certain types of other people with…

That's... not even a little bit true.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#499

Post by perfecthjrjth » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 4:12 PM UTC

random314 wrote: post #190

Ambedkar was an intellectual giant who wrote the Indian constitution. Glad to see him profiled here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar Jurist economist academic politician social reformer anthropologist writer

The reality is otherwise. It was drafted by a bureaucrat called BN Rau. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._N._Rau

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#500

Post by commandlinefan » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 4:14 PM UTC

zxienin wrote: post #67

I am from “upper caste”. My experience might not be commonly heard perspective. In 10th grade of schooling, my parents changed my lastname to avoid that folks figure out the caste. Due to affirmative action (aka reservation) on steroids, upper caste were losing opportunities. My parents wanted to avoid that I lose out on selection, promotions.., where subjective discretion was involved. I do not recall ever seeing ca…

> upper caste were losing opportunities

I wondered about that right away - is any of this just sour grapes from lower caste folks taking it out on higher caste folks now that they're in an environment where the playing field is suddenly level?