"with an offer package that totaled almost $450,000."
Sounds like he went from the bottom 1% to the top 1%. That's impressive.
Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
211–220 of 592 posts
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#212I am an indian & have been in valley for last couple of decades. anecdotally speaking between me and my friends I have never heard of the caste based discrimination until that cisco case. so much so that people would bring it up at gatherings etc. Also in case anyone is wondering, I do not belong to the upper caste and most of my friends like me are not (not dalits either). btw in my experience internet dating & marr…
To quote a saying popularized by Donald Rumsfield: "The absence of evidence is not th evidence of absence". I - a male - haven't heard of any stories of sexual harassment or assault in my social circle (or at the office), but that doesn't mean it's not happening.
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm Indian born with British nationality and I look Indian. It doesn't bother me if people ask me where I'm from - I am often curious about where others are from. It does, however, start to slightly grate if upon me responding with "I'm British", I am quizzed further with "But... where are you really from?" I hear this less nowadays, but it used to be common enough to "slightly grate", particularly from older, Caucas…
>"where are you from" Based on the fact that you took some (minor) offense to the followup questions, I'm assuming you're middle-class or higher? I've spent a decent chunk of my adult life living in working class, high-immigrant areas (Noble Park and Sunshine, to any other Melbournians - both actually really nice places). What struck me as interesting is that in these environments, probing about one's ethnicity is no…
It's a fairly common observation that there's more middle class racism than working class racism.
Working class racism certainly exists and can be very nasty, but it's not endemic and casual in the way it can be among the middle classes.
One possible explanation is that the working classes know they're at the bottom of the heap, while the middle classes are much more finely tuned to differentiation markers of all kinds.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/07/white-...
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#214The reason for my current user name here at hn was this exact form of racism. It is the first post I made when I created this throwaway. I was assured that my experience was unique and not widespread. I am both sad and happy to see this, sad because it exists, happy because it is getting some attention here at HN. I would like to take this opportunity to point out that everyone of us needs to be vigilant about this t…
You're okay working with people so bigoted that you have to hide them away from certain parts of their job because they might fuck it up with their bigotry? Why are they still employed? How can you be okay with coworkers that can't be expected to treat everyone in the company with a certain level of respect?
Do you believe that's just the way "they" are? Is that the way you are?
Remind me never to apply for a job at your company. JFC.
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is a tendency in the West to view all minorities as somehow being the same. Is there? While my experience comes from living in a cosmopolitan border town, it is hard to imagine anyone seriously lumping Asians in with Africans, short of the outright rascists raging against "immigrants"
But what you will absolutely find is people for example lumping Asian people together, whether theyre from Japan, China, Korea, etc.
Huh, most people do not have time and patience to learn all the differences unless they absolutely have to. Back in northern India anyone from southern state is just South indian , no knowledge about Telugu, Kannadiga, Tamil, Malayali and so on.
Similarly in south India I wouldn't be surprised if a typical local think all North Indians are same butter chicken/paneer eating assholes.
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#216So it's not really Silicon Valley's caste system, it's India's caste system, which rears its ugly head in SV because there are so many 1st gen Indian workers.
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or almost like a white man hiring another white man?
This in itself is an incredibly racist statement. It is like saying "an asian hiring another asian" while completely ignoring any sub-groups. "White men" are more diverse than you think and have only in modern times put things like hibernophobia behind us.
No post body was provided.
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fellow outsider here. Got curious and did some searching; would love to hear from some real Indian folks to confirm or deny this line of reasoning. As non-Indians, it seems we exist outside the system, which could be ambiguously interpreted to either have no connotation at all, or to exist at the bottom of the social strata. [1] Anecdotally, the kind of treatment you'll get in practice depends a lot more on your race…
So, assuming there is a hierarchy and Indian are not better than all other races, it seems the conclusion must be all societies have some kind of caste system, it's just we don't see it since we don't look for that sort of thing?
Prior to becoming hereditary, the caste system was employment based, so yes, in a sense every society has had some sort of caste system as someone responsible for say, cleaning shoes, was probably looked down upon in most societies compared to say, a king.
However, the key point of difference is that it was more deeply ingrained in Indian society and was made into a rather rigid hereditary system. While in other places the child of a shoe cleaner might end up marrying a trader or might end up working as a trader himself, doing so would have faced more resistance from society in India. This can still occasionally be seen in villages and sometimes even towns and cities, where individuals from different castes want to get married but are murdered instead, either by the community or even their own families.
This effectively forced those in 'lower' jobs like cleaning drains into that position for generations, inflicting a lot more unjust suffering upon them.
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#219Also, this is the reason students in their board exams (+2 / Twelfth-grade tests) were forbidden from writing their last name in the answer sheets. Teachers in India openly discriminated against students from other castes/jatis/varnas by giving them lower marks. Not just caste but discrimination based on the state-of-origin/language are often committed by identifying your group based on your last name. There are ofte…
"Teachers in India openly discriminated against students from other castes/jatis/varnas by giving them lower marks."
This is a very bold statement and also looks like you are generalizing the whole Teachers strata. I have not seen or experienced a single such incident during my school/college years.
Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system
#220The reason for my current user name here at hn was this exact form of racism. It is the first post I made when I created this throwaway. I was assured that my experience was unique and not widespread. I am both sad and happy to see this, sad because it exists, happy because it is getting some attention here at HN. I would like to take this opportunity to point out that everyone of us needs to be vigilant about this t…
I'm sorry, but can you please elaborate a bit more on Greeks and Turks? I happen to be Greek and have worked with 2 Turkish colleagues without any issues. On top of that, during my many travels across Europe, Turks (along with other Balkan nationalities) are by far the most welcoming people I meet once they learn that I come from Greece and I befriended a few of them. Do you have any different experiences to share?
I'm Greek as well, and now that you mention it, Turks were indeed the people I tended to have very good relationships at work with. They are especially welcoming, at least the ones I've worked with.