Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

941–950 of 1001 posts

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#941

Post by monkeycantype »

boruto wrote: post #936
monkeycantype wrote: post #802

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Two employees hired via an Indian recruiting firm were not paid wages they were legally entitled to, that my company was paying for, and threatened with cancellation of their visas and legal action in India if they reported the underpayment. In one case my colleague agreed to pay back his last three months wages when he quit to the recruiting firm, not to my company that had already paid the wages. He wasn’t con…

None of this is remotely anything related to caste

I disagree, the people being exploited are being exploited by other Indians, there is a power dynamic which may not purely be about caste membership, but is related to a group of managers who understand power, and other groups of workers who don’t understand or don’t want to risk standing up for their legal rights, and in ever case that I was aware of the managers were ‘higher’ caste and the workers were ‘lower’ caste than the managers. But, I’ll let others continue the conversation from here.

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#942

Post by known »

puranjay wrote: post #497
whoevercares wrote: post #190

I observed it multiple times during CS graduate school. An Indian high caste classmate refused to let his roommate sleep in the same bedroom. The higher caste guy told us that his roommate is of lower caste. The other poor guy ended up very obedient and sleep in the couch for 2 years. They have a group of high caste guys and talk sht about a few fellow low caste guys in the class Eye opening.

High caste people in India will often find ways to casually mention their caste in conversation, sometimes within minutes of meeting someone new. Its reflexive - like subtly turning your wrist to show off a new watch. And I have no data to corroborate this, but I've felt caste chauvinism increase in the last few years.

No post body was provided.

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#943

Post by known »

sreevisakh wrote: post #698
eternalban wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

! This was in US? What school was this?

"If Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem." - Dr. B R Ambedkar said this in 1916 [1]. The surprising incident in US was predicted more than a century ago. For more context, Dr. B R Ambedkar was the main architect of the constitution of India. He also formulated the affirmative action for Dalit representation, called the reservation system. He was one of the so called Dali…

No post body was provided.

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#944

Post by candid1 »

Lower and upper caste divisions are made by government for reservation. Mostly they use them as vote bank.

50-60% of seats in govt. are reserved for so called lower castes defined by govt. Along with promotions. 50-60% of college seats are again reserved. The law is extremely favorable to lower caste.

Now discrimination is everywhere in India. It is in the blood of everyone including both lower and upper caste. Once the lower caste reach higher status, they discriminate against others. Even many caste with in lower caste discriminate among themselves. Similarly, castes within upper caste discriminate among themselves. Both castes discriminate against citizens of other counties. Infact, discrimination is everywhere. Even among lower caste. Even among upper caste. Even towards each other.

There are particularly some castes in India like Brahmins in Tamil Nadu. Choudhary in Andhra. They show extreme favoritism. Once they are in a company, they only recruit or promote only their caste. One should not think this favoritism as discrimination. Because they show this against other castes too including upper caste.

Now, at least in this corporate companies. Many people find respite that this has not infiltrated in them. Any start of this conversation within corporate world itself should be looked with suspicion.

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#945

Post by PestoDiRucola »

deelly wrote: post #410
zajio1am wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why people (specifically immigrants in other countries) just do not change their last name to ones associated with higher caste?

As far as I know (from some coworkers) they do. But last name is only the first step/flag in identifying to which caste person belongs. Sorry, I don't remember exact details, but there some additional steps like special clothes I think?

Can't you wear the special clothes without belonging to the specific caste?

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#946

Post by ddingus »

thelit wrote: post #312
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #5

A good read for some additional context on caste discrimination in the American tech industry: https://www.wired.com/story/trapped-in-silicon-valleys-hidde...

As a Dalit myself, I wrote a Dalit 101 for non Indian audience. https://thelit.substack.com/p/dalit-101

Thank you. I know almost nothing about all this.

Like all unjust discrimination, this one triggers on things one has no control over. Doing that to others is completely unacceptable.

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#947

Post by rooterrrr »

LambdaComplex wrote: post #762
JCharante wrote: post #713

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what you eat etc This may sound uneducated, but do Indians in the US only eat Indian food? How would someone know if you rotate through different cuisines every day?

Apparently (from a cursory Google search) it seems that members of some castes (the higher ones, apparently? maybe just the highest?) are typically vegetarian.

'Vegetarian' diet in according to Indian system the regular vegetarian diet+ dairy. They drink milk and may consume other dairy products like curd and ghee. Some Brahmins do not eat garlic and onion.

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#948

Post by india_usa »

nix9000 wrote: post #596
india_usa wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is 70% affirmitive action. If you are a Dalit with 50% mark you will get admission to a medical seat and you will be a cardiac surgeon, but if a brahmin girl gets 99% she will not get admission and will be a clerk. Go figure the Indian system. This is why you see thousands of Brahmins in Silicon valley as they are kicked out or disgusted with Indian political system of favoring lower castes. USA benefited immen…

>If you are a Dalit with 50% mark you will get admission to a medical seat and you will be a cardiac surgeon, but if a brahmin girl gets 99% she will not get admission and will be a clerk. Is it possible for someone with a 50% GPA to finish a cardiac surgery training program in India? Or is that a gross exaggeration?

This is indeed true, 50% mark is not exactly like 50% GPA but affirmitive action in India is so f*ed up. I know very bright people kicked out and come to USA for BS in reputed colleges. This is reason, India not able to progress as fast as China or USA

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#949

Post by india_usa »

u801e wrote: post #938
rramadass wrote: post #768

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. Americans have no idea of what caste-based discrimination looks like and hence merely use it to foist their own prejudices (i.e. "they terk err jerbs") onto the Indian community. Indians have such diversity amongst themselves (North vs. South, State vs. State, Linguistic, Religious etc.) that anything can be used as a bone of contention (real or imagined). The first thing to realize is that people with gri…

> Americans have no idea of what caste-based discrimination looks like > [...] > Hence i think Google did the right thing in cancelling this talk. It seems to me that this talk could have been an opportunity for Americans to learn about caste discrimination and what it looks like.

The speaker is very lopsided and is not accurate. It will give a very much one sided distorted message. Great google listended to its employees and canceled. Will any company invite a fae right or far left activist to talk on campus.

Google is a technology company, not a liberal or conservative think tank. Let us get back to tech talks!

Re: Google cancelled a talk on caste bias

#950

Post by india_usa »

rajup wrote: post #656
devnonymous wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that there are other 'cues' as well that casteists use to identify your caste, such as the food you eat (veg/non-veg), the social rituals/ceremonies or religious practices you engage in. In fact, you'd see enough Brahmins (in the US!) wear the scared thread[1] and embrace the entire identity of being at the 'top' of the caste system that knowing that you are a non-brahmin is sufficient for them to treat you as a…

Wrong, I wear the thread the same reason a Sikh wears a turban or a Muslim woman wears a niqab/burka. Wearing a sacred thread has about as much relation to condoning/accepting caste discrimination as wearing a niqab has to terrorism, but these kinds of bigoted ignorant comments are exactly why Google was right in not allowing the talk to happen.

No post body was provided.
Post reply on HN