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Google’s caste-bias problem

newyorker.com

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Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#281

Post by dang »

woweoe wrote: post #136
armchairhacker wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my university I find that a lot of the Indian and Asian students like to group together and form their own groups. But they also have a big language barrier: they don’t speak English well and in their groups they always communicate natively. They also have a culture barrier as well, combined with the language barrier this makes them seem awkward. So I don’t blame them.

Quoted post unavailable.

Nationalistic/racial/whatever flamewar will get you banned here. No more of this, please.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#282

Post by AuthorizedHelp »

dang wrote: post #280
AuthorizedHelp wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? This is a very real subject. Have you worked at a FANG company and been to any lunch room?

Note that word 'repeatedly'. I banned you not because of one comment but because of your account history, which was clearly breaking the site guidelines. This has zero to do with demographics at companies or any of the other topics you've been breaking HN's rules about.

I literally just reviewed my history. I am not peddling a narrative or attacking anyone or breaking site rules. This is a very real tech world problem. Your attacks on silencing people who are critical of your racial group are landing you in the realm of direct corporate abuse and I am filing a complaint within the company. People like you don't deserve to be a professional.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#283

Post by pictureofabear »

hadlock wrote: post #163
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I'm saying a group of relatives from India methodically only hire eachother and use vicious politics to climb the ladder in american corporations. I watched it occur over a decade and still see the hiring updates on LinkedIn, "I am proud to announce we have hired XYZ from other big corp as the new head of data and governance."

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…

This is only common and normal in corrupt countries.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#284

Post by pictureofabear »

Tryk wrote: post #184
nojito wrote: post #84

As a US born individual with immigrant parents, I had NO idea how many times I got scoped for my caste. It’s quite amazing how routine simple questions have ulterior motives behind them. Now that I am a more senior in my career, I’ve made it my mission to always call it out when it happens. I hope others start doing it as well.

What kinds of questions would people ask to scope out your caste?

What's your last name? Where did you grow up? What did you parents do for a living?

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#285

Post by pictureofabear »

bsedlm wrote: post #75

fact is we live in a tiered society. no matter how many times we repeat to ourselves that "we are all equal" (before the law). as I see it, such phrases are a goal, an intention, more than they are a reality. we need to keep working perpetually in pursuit of such an ideal goal, but just pretending we do not live in a caste (or tiered) society does not really do anything to achieve this goal. this is the my point: to…

This is not true of traditional American families. In many traditional American families you will have some people that are widely successful and many others that are not. Yes, there are the elites, they are a different class for sure, but the middle and lower classes of American society are not tiered in the way a caste system is. In a caste system, your family is your destiny. Confusing the two is dangerous because it normalizes the caste system, a system that is very economically damaging to a country.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#286

Post by pictureofabear »

pc86 wrote: post #67

We need to stop calling this a "caste-bias problem" and call it what it is: racism. Just because they're not a distinct ethnicity doesn't mean it's not racism, and the people looking down on others because of their caste are no different than the white guy yelling the n word in traffic. Neither should be tolerated, and if you find yourself working with one, they should be fired. It is antithetical to an open society.

caste-bias is a subset of racism.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#287

Post by pictureofabear »

AcerbicZero wrote: post #28

I'm pretty sure the modern world has a Caste problem - Meritocracy and castes just don't go together and it's pretty obvious to me which of those two I'd prefer for myself.

No, castes are primarily a phenomenon from the Indian subcontinent and surrounding areas. It is becoming a larger problem in the world due to Indian emigration.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#289

Post by _9xrb »

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.

Where do you draw the line? White Gentiles are the majority population of this country, yet dramatically underrepresented in the Ivy League. White Jewish students of comparable ability are roughly 1,000% more likely to be enrolled at Harvard and the rest of the Ivies.

Does their representation matter to you? How about South Asian students versus Chinese, or (perhaps most concerningly) wealthy Nigerian immigrants versus poorer African-American descendants of slavery? The former often benefit from affirmative action aimed at the latter.

Re: Google’s caste-bias problem

#290

Post by jquery »

anonymoushn wrote: post #278
jquery wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filipinos do not have the same history in the USA as Black Americans. If there is an anti-Filipino bias then I’m all for correcting it. Are Filipinos disproportionately filling our prison system? Were their ancestors enslaved? Do they have social networks where nobody in their entire network has gone to college? Are you really trying to grapple with the problem here, or is it as simple to you as “we should never take…

> Filipinos do not have the same history in the USA as Black Americans. If there is an anti-Filipino bias then I’m all for correcting it. Are Filipinos disproportionately filling our prison system? Were their ancestors enslaved? Do they have social networks where nobody in their entire network has gone to college? I thought we were talking about why racial quotas for Asian people were good, not some other topic. Fili…

It seems I got bait and switched somewhere in this comment chain. It started with Asians and somehow we're talking about Filipinos. I will go back to my original statement and repeat it:

Asians don’t have a representation issue in education.

If you think representation doesn't matter, that we live in a pure meritocracy, that only grades and tests scores matter, then attempts to fix injustice will seem silly to you. The smallest minority is the individual, so if you insist on breaking down racial-subcategories enough, you will always find "winners" and "losers" in attempts to redress injustice.

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