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Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

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Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#101

I just posted this comment with a new account to check how easily hearsay influences people's opinions with no backing, whatsoever. I hope this thread will stay up as a reminder to stay civil and not get carried away by clouded judgement.

How is this discrimination manifested? How do these managers know your country of origin?

Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#102
post #54

How to fight back when you see this happening at line management level, but not yet proliferated to upper management? Indian product owner taking mostly to Indian peer developers, bypassing normal communication channels. Indians being friendly with each other and stone cold with the rest. Indians bringing Indian jokes to the table, with no outsider hoping to understand these. Indians bonding to go to Indian restauran…

> Indians bringing Indian jokes to the table, with no outsider hoping to understand these. Indians bonding to go to Indian restaurants during lunch break, so now most of the colleagues follow suit, how to stop it all? Are you seriously asking how to "fight back" on Indians going to restaurants and joking with each other? As an Indian in a flyover state who has been routinely excluded from golfing events, and had my d…

I'm not sure what your point is. "You can't talk about your problem because I have a problem as well" seems to be all you're saying.

A better question would be how to prevent people from excluding each other based on group membership.

Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#103
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the entire premise of DEI initiatives. It's yet another "an eye for an eye".

This is a delusional and hateful lie.

You could perhaps assume idealism in 2020. Four years later it is clear that DEI is used as a wedge to displace those you do not like and replace them with unskilled believers.

Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a casual observer, their culture seems to include considerable classism; to the degree that 'where are you from?' appears to be an extremely common and loaded question [saved for the locals] . I only recognize it because it exists in mine, not a judgement.

Don't tiptoe around the topic. By class you mean caste. As a white guy who has worked in tech for 25+ years and has made many Indian friends, I continue to be astounded by how fixated many (obviously not all) of them are on caste. In particular, how much time and effort gets spent trying to suss out each others' caste by asking questions like you noted. Every time we get a new Indian team member and the existing ones…

Can't tiptoe around words I don't know :P I did say 'casual observer'! Thank you for sharing, reading to do. Seems related to my frustrations as a low-born but now well-made American.

edit: I say 'seems' here lightly; a system is conveniently reinforced by depriving participants words and the ability (or even desire) to identify. Time and time again the gut feeling is a well-established thing.

Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#105
post #63
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classism exists basically everywhere. The most obvious example is the country bumpkin, he's gonna have a hard time impressing a metropolitan.

I’m not talking about classism (or racism), but about xenophobia.

What do you think the difference is between those?

Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#106
post #50

My guess would be that a lot of non-Indians at these companies are rejected on the basis of "vibes"; which is slightly different from racism as I explain below, although it probably ends up having the same net effect as overt racism. As an Indian, I've observed that collectivism and subservience towards authority figures are taught as virtues; this obviously makes it quite easy for employers to extract unreasonable d…

>collectivism and subservience towards authority figures are taught as virtues Remind me to never fly on a plane piloted by an Indian flight crew. (Protip: If you can't stand up to your captain, your plane is going down.)

> Remind me to never fly on a plane piloted by an Indian flight crew.

(Protip: If you can't stand up to your captain, your plane is going down.)

Not sure if you're joking, but this is actually cited as one of the reasons behind one crash.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Express_Flight_134...

Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#107
post #81
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's telling that we're quick to ascribe anything bad to "human nature" while balking at the notion that anything positive might also be human nature. Greed and exploitation? Yes, absolutely, human nature, nothing you can do about it. Racism? Totally human nature, just look at this random animal species. Cooperation, trust, hospitality? No, those must be unique virtues expressed only by the pure of heart or the naive…

Before there was race there were tribes. Which goes back to the very roots of humanity.

With respect, it can be hard to see the nuance in this if you're from the US (a country that is so racist even the government openly practices it, but sanctimonious enough to pretend it is instead free).

Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and I'd expect that treatment as a white person working/living in India, and I would adapt to fit in with local customs / culture or else leave. But they are in the US, working for a US company - why is it somehow acceptable when you are a foreigner to create these isolated professional enclaves that exclude the "native" population? (A group of people casually getting together is totally different to someone's…

> Yeah, and I'd expect that treatment as a white person working/living in India, and I would adapt to fit in with local customs / culture. But they are in the US, working for a US company - why is it somehow acceptable when you are a foreigner to create these isolated professional enclaves that exclude the "native" population? Non-Hispanic white Americans are not native to the US, and I don't see a reasonable basis f…

The dominant culture of Google and Microsoft when they were founded was [...]. Now they have Indian CEOs and companies like Cognizant bring in H1B visas from India.

There is nothing organic about that.

Personally I have no experience with Indian co-workers, but I do know that Black and Hispanic people do not exclude whites at all. I have only great experiences with them.

Re: Cognizant found guilty of discriminating against non-Indian employees

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Indians bringing Indian jokes to the table, with no outsider hoping to understand these. Indians bonding to go to Indian restaurants during lunch break, so now most of the colleagues follow suit, how to stop it all? Are you seriously asking how to "fight back" on Indians going to restaurants and joking with each other? As an Indian in a flyover state who has been routinely excluded from golfing events, and had my d…

Yeah, and I'd expect that treatment as a white person working/living in India, and I would adapt to fit in with local customs / culture or else leave. But they are in the US, working for a US company - why is it somehow acceptable when you are a foreigner to create these isolated professional enclaves that exclude the "native" population? (A group of people casually getting together is totally different to someone's…

Thats a typical western mentality. If you do it then it is a problem but if I do the same thing it is somehow justifiable!
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