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Google’s caste-bias problem

newyorker.com

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Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#261

Post by anonymoushn »

jquery wrote: post #259
anonymoushn wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No downvotes, but I haven't yet figured out why racial quotas for Jews were bad and racial quotas for Asians are good.

Asians don’t have a representation issue in education. When Jews were being discriminated against they were nowhere near a majority of the student population or squeezing out the representation of other groups. If you don’t think representation matters then all of this will seem very silly to you.

Filipinos are hugely underrepresented in elite US schools, and we are using racial quotas to make the problem worse.

> When Jews were being discriminated against they were nowhere near a majority of the student population or squeezing out the representation of other groups.

So like, it wasn't okay to discriminate against Jews because there weren't that many of them in absolute terms, but it's ok to discriminate against Filipinos? There are about twice as many Jews as Filipinos in the US, by the way.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#262

Post by anonymoushn »

akdor1154 wrote: post #258
anonymoushn wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No downvotes, but I haven't yet figured out why racial quotas for Jews were bad and racial quotas for Asians are good.

Because one is 'at least' and one is 'at most'?

They're both 'at most.'

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#263

Post by dsq »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #37
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saw this at American Express. In many cases, VPs and Directors were actually cousins or even siblings. This was a decade ago. Fast forward to now, and they are at the top of many NYC banks running IT divisions, the same group that worked together so many years ago. Theres an invisible network in many large corporations and none of the jobs are available to employees of those corporations

It seems like you are describing the norm. The prime advice for everyone is networking, networking, networking, isn’t it? And it’s not what you know, but who you know. Going to the right schools to be able to make the right friends, etc.

At some point there’s a line between networking and overt nepotism, which is what’s being described as being crossed here.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#264

Post by dsq »

carapace wrote: post #159

The Indian caste system is Google's problem to solve? Let's talk about Google's caste system. There are at least two main castes at Google: The "Googlers" who get all the perks, and the support staff who do all the work and get far fewer perks. The upper caste gets meals, those nifty buses, medical care, etc. The lower caste does not get all those things (I think they get meals, but not in the same cafeteria) and the…

I think what you are describing is class based rather than caste based. Caste is explicitly based on heredity and is unchangeable. The fact that the two classes are made up mostly of different ethnicities is probably caused by a confounding variable, such as different educational opportunities, as well as discrimination of course.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#265

Post by anovikov »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #127
xbar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they are employees of American companies and they deserve the same opportunities as every other employee.

Better wording, thank you. This includes all workers as not all workers are citizens.

But discrimination comes from people, not companies. Also, indeed, why not work in places where there are no other Indians? It's not like with black people: no one who's not from India may have a slightest idea of a caste to discriminate based on it. AND it will also mean making more money.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#267

Post by benwad »

Ferrotin wrote: post #244
jquery wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, what Indians are doing is not unique to them. Americans discriminate against black people, notoriously so. I’m sure the Indians who support these caste systems would merely say it’s meritocracy in action, same as all the whites/asians opposing any governmental rule that tries to level the playing field for black people in America. (This comment will of course be downvoted heavily and/or flagged)

Quoted post unavailable.

...and when you don't 'control' for an irrelevant number, it's the other way around.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#269

Post by known »

yedava wrote: post #201
Aunche wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I said, their only example of caste discrimination at Google is "denial of caste discrimination" and "coded conversation", which is very much subjective. A Hindu can make the same case that "denial that caste is used as a dog whistle for Hindu discrimination" or "accusing Hindus who are opposed to a caste talk as being bigoted" as forms of Hindu discrimination.

From the article: > when you’ve got people who are caste privileged and caste oppressed, the people who are caste oppressed start to be given inferior assignments, get treated differently, left out of meetings, which are certainly things that I heard from Google employees within the company. > Asking things like “What’s your last name? I’m not familiar with it.” Then, when the manager hears that last name, they’re, l…

No post body was provided.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#270

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

ceres wrote: post #189
hadlock wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very common/normal. My last company got eaten in a merger (acquisition) most of the senior leadership from the old company, are now at a competing company. They did not all end up there by random chance. Network network network. It's self reinforcing, because those people know who will get the job done, and make them look good doing it. It's often better to hire a known good person, rather than roll the dice…

What you and the parent are describing are two different things. The parent is talking about ethnic nepotism which isn’t just “network network network”.

It is if you're not talented — these people are here, commenting now, that think solely "meeting people" and convincing them to give you things is enough of a life skill to go off of.
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