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An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

politico.com

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Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#171

Post by yumraj »

ramraj07 wrote: post #43

If I have to count the number of times someone senior to me or some colleague has judged me or severed ties with me because of my caste, it will be 8-10. All in the United States. If anything it’s far worse here than when I grew up in India. I’m not of the “lowest caste” as it’s perceived but by looks I am often mistaken to be a Brahmin, one of the highest ones. So my fellow Brahmins get offended when I’m not strictl…

Did you ever analyze if this was purely due to your caste or if it was due to you being perceived (real or not I don’t know) as someone who is from the reserved category and hence benefited from reservation in college admission.

I don’t give a shit about caste, never have, and for most part can’t tell based on last names, but I’ll be honest that even after decades I still feel a little raw about reservation.

And therein lies the rub, as in will it or not, these legislations lead to people being unfairly sued for caste discrimination upon not getting a job due to lack of capability.

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#172

Post by Supermancho »

jessicas_rabbit wrote: post #143
Supermancho wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to divorce the concept from the specific issue. It's not ridiculous, on it's face. It's one aspect of history, that seems to hold true. The concept of a belief being promoted by enshrining it in writing, is not a truth, but a matter of circumstance. eg Any religious writings.

This is a perfect example of why we should always consider the specific issue, as opposed to latching onto general concepts. Religious writings’ sole purpose is to establish & promote a belief system, based on subjective values. Anti-discrimination laws’ sole purpose is to dissolve the practice of belief systems that objectively cause interpersonal harm. These are conceptual opposites in many ways. But if I generaliz…

> This is a perfect example of why we should always consider the specific issue, as opposed to latching onto general concepts.

You call it a "general concept", I saw it's a common understanding of reality. Hyperbole is used to poison further discussion.

eg I generalize the concept “writing makes ideas immortal”

Within your own post, there is misattributed hyperbole (sometimes called uncharitable discussion). Someone asked a question, I answered and all kinds of random assumptions were made about it. Good luck with whatever.

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#173

Post by flangola7 »

wwtrv wrote: post #160
vitalurk wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

White supremacy is not protected speech.

I'm pretty sure it is protected under the first amendment, especially as long as you don't actively advocate direct violence etc.

Not in the workplace it isn't. If you allow employees to openly use racial slurs and supremacist ideology in the office the courts will happily throw the book at you when someone files a discrimination complaint.

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#174

Post by wwtrv »

onetimeusename wrote: post #113
grayhatter wrote: post #13

As someone completely ignorant in this cultural phenomenon, given it seems to be hurting some people what are the arguments for not banning it as discrimination? (I was hoping to read at least one in the article, but perhaps I'm blind?)

I don't have an opinion on caste discrimination itself. I have a good friend who is Brahmin and doesn't really care about caste I think so I know some things about it. But that person is not religious. Religious Hindus may have stronger preferences where caste seems like it is a part of the religion. For example, my understanding is Hindu priests are generally Brahmin. Although some sects disagree that priests need t…

What does banning caste based discrimination with affirmative action?

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#175

Post by Philpax »

ScoobleDoodle wrote: post #163
eklavya wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how educated people behave this way. I have seen this in illiterates but modern educated people behaving this way is absolutely mind boggling.

What do you mean by “behave this way”? I have no idea what in particular you’re referring to. It could be parent. Or something in grand parent and you’re supporting parent.

Pretty sure they're referring to the act of caste discrimination.

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#176

Post by nabakin »

eklavya wrote: post #71
ramraj07 wrote: post #43

If I have to count the number of times someone senior to me or some colleague has judged me or severed ties with me because of my caste, it will be 8-10. All in the United States. If anything it’s far worse here than when I grew up in India. I’m not of the “lowest caste” as it’s perceived but by looks I am often mistaken to be a Brahmin, one of the highest ones. So my fellow Brahmins get offended when I’m not strictl…

I am sorry you have had such a bad luck with your company. All the education in the world can't teach basic human decency. You can probably take some solace in the fact that I have not seen any such behaviour in the Indian tech scene so far. Maybe give it a shot and come here (trade a different set of problems). It must be an absolutely horrible of a mix in the US for this to be 8:10.

Stop downvoting this person, you will make their comment disappear and it's not warranted. They are simply sharing their personal experience and are looking to understand the person they are replying to.

And because I know people will wonder: no, I am not Indian and know very little about caste so you can rest assured this isn't a biased response.

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#177

Post by Simulacra »

I think caste discrimination does exist, and I've heard of colleagues from South Asia talk about discrimination based on the darkness of their skin from their countrymen. But caste is a broad term and .. could be stretched to apply to a lot of people. A person with a pronounced Boston accent who is fired might say that he was discriminated against because of his caste as a Bostonian. That's way simplified but ...where there is a law there will be lawyers..

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#178

Post by [deleted] »

edgarvaldes wrote: post #44

As an outsider: Is there going to be people that now will openly admit they are low caste in an effort to be a protected class? That's the only reason I see as to why some people are against the proposal: people will start talking more and more about caste in a country and a culture where this does not exist.

[deleted]

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#179

Post by eklavya »

ScoobleDoodle wrote: post #163
eklavya wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how educated people behave this way. I have seen this in illiterates but modern educated people behaving this way is absolutely mind boggling.

What do you mean by “behave this way”? I have no idea what in particular you’re referring to. It could be parent. Or something in grand parent and you’re supporting parent.

If you think the comment was made in good faith with good intentions ;) and you read my reply above, it should be pretty obvious that I am talking about educated people discriminating on the basis of caste.

Re: An effort to ban caste discrimination in California has touched a nerve

#180

Post by consilient »

mutant_glofish wrote: post #92
whimsicalism wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but your effort to conflate protected categories and aff am seems completely wrong to me.

To me, it seems that they are very closely related.

They're not. Most protected classes are things like "race" or "marital status" - not "black" or "married". (Age is an exception here, at least federally: young people are not protected.)
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