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My Caste

cs.toronto.edu

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Re: My Caste

#281

Post by LordShredda »

AlbertCory wrote: post #148
911e wrote: post #42

This caste problems continue in the US, instead of leaving behind such ridiculous biases it becomes a part of an US company… https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/googles-caste-bias-pr...

Since this is about Google, where I worked: > The Google spokesperson said that caste discrimination has “no place in our workplace and it’s prohibited in our policies.” I can testify that Ads was very heavily Indian, much more than the general employee percentages would predict. I don't know if it still is. Sridhar Ramaswamy ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sridhar_Ramaswamy ) probably had something to do with that.…

It is discrimination depending on why they were recommended. That's the hard part of stopping discrimination, it's never found until it's obvious

Re: My Caste

#282

Post by soligern »

fuzztester wrote: post #250
soligern wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It mostly doesn’t. Historically there have been lots of mass conversions to other religions the first one being Buddhism in 600BC. Buddhism came about primarily as a response to Hindu orthodoxy and the caste system.

>Buddhism came about primarily as a response to Hindu orthodoxy and the caste system. AFAIK, it did not. It came about from the Buddha's teachings, which were not about caste, but about suffering and its cessation via attaining nirvana (but I am not an expert on Buddhism; we only learned some about it in school). My guess is that, instead, later, many people may have converted to it, maybe some due to orthodoxy. I am…

I can go into great detail on the back and forth between Hinduism and Buddhism, mostly surviving as dueling literature for centuries. I would prefer you just look it up though.

Re: My Caste

#283

Post by haltingproblem »

The Prime Minister of India is an OBC and he got there through lifelong membership in the RSS a supposedly brahminical org. His competence as a politician and leader is unquestioned.

The President of India is a Tribal, which can roughly equate to the status of indigenous people the world over. Her speeches are legendary, especially the one where she presented the inequities of the Indian judicial system to the judges of the supreme court.

Meanwhile the darling of the left world over is the heir apparent of the opposition party, Rahul Gandhi, who is half brahmin-half Italian Catholic, but has no chance at the premiership.

What does one make of this?

Re: My Caste

#284

Post by WeylandYutani »

usr8new wrote: post #180
grad_ml wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Category : Cutoff Score for IIT ( out of 100) Common Rank List :90.7788642 (Brahmins, upper castes which Ycombinator hates) Gen-EWS:75.6229025 OBC-NCL:73.6114227 : Mr Kuldeep meel (based on his caste) SC:51.9776027 ST:37.2348772 PwD:0.0013527 I would say 73 is minuscule in comparison of 90. Kuldeep is a typical Kota kid, he is not someone coming out from rural India. I wish him best. Sad to see he stopped so low for…

[flagged]

Discrimination goes against article one of my country's Constitution. I don't need to know anything about caste just as I don't need to know that in some countries you can marry an 11 year old.

Re: My Caste

#285

Post by dang »

usr8new wrote: post #156
911e wrote: post #42

This caste problems continue in the US, instead of leaving behind such ridiculous biases it becomes a part of an US company… https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/googles-caste-bias-pr...

> Caste problems continue in the US The thread is filled with white progressives who know nothing about caste. There are what 2 cases of caste discrimination in US companies. In one of the cases (the famous Cisco) case was proven there was no discrimination. The professor who wrote this blog is literally a Jatt. A land owning caste & one of the most powerful castes in India. Any Indian reading this blog will know thi…

It sounds like you know something about this topic, but the way you've been posting about it is too inflammatory and flamebaity. Putting other people down for being ignorant isn't helpful; neither is calling names.

If you know more than others, that's great, but then the thing to do is to share some of what you know so the rest of us can learn.

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: My Caste

#286

Post by AlbertCory »

LordShredda wrote: post #281
AlbertCory wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since this is about Google, where I worked: > The Google spokesperson said that caste discrimination has “no place in our workplace and it’s prohibited in our policies.” I can testify that Ads was very heavily Indian, much more than the general employee percentages would predict. I don't know if it still is. Sridhar Ramaswamy ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sridhar_Ramaswamy ) probably had something to do with that.…

It is discrimination depending on why they were recommended. That's the hard part of stopping discrimination, it's never found until it's obvious

> depending on why they were recommended

so if the "why" is "I worked with this person" that's bad? Or not?

Re: My Caste

#287

Post by lucb1e »

soligern wrote: post #219
mikrl wrote: post #209

How do foreigners / non-Hindus fit into the caste system? Are there caste equivalent attitudes towards Arabs, Euros, East Asians and so on? Or from a different angle, Muslims, Christians, irreligious, etc. Or does the framework not apply to those outside of the Hindu community?

It mostly doesn’t. Historically there have been lots of mass conversions to other religions the first one being Buddhism in 600BC. Buddhism came about primarily as a response to Hindu orthodoxy and the caste system.

What does "doesn't" mean? Would I, random Dutch person of christianity or no religion as you will, be treated equal to the highest of castes or to an average one for example?

Re: My Caste

#288

Post by hayst4ck »

WesternWind wrote: post #155

It's always interesting when folks tell me that some form of discrimination based on categorical prejudice isn't that bad, or that they haven't seen it themselves. Personally I think the amount of discrimination should be zero, and that any level of categorical discrimination any person experiences is unacceptable. And that's not even getting into the systemic effects from past discrimination on family wealth.

> Personally I think the amount of discrimination should be zero

> any level of categorical discrimination any person experiences is unacceptable.

These two statements contradict.

Re: My Caste

#289

Post by michaelhoffman »

moralestapia wrote: post #229
michaelhoffman wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am faculty at University of Toronto. As part of the process of considering someone for tenure here, the university solicits six appraisals from relevant experts at other institutions. The candidate will not know who the referees are. Generally, the appraisals are positive; a negative appraisal may severely affect someone's tenure case. I don't see the concern in this post as one of widespread caste discrimination a…

Everyone carries some cultural/personal baggage, if that affects the outcome of some otherwise fair procedure it's a sad story but it's not the procedure's fault. >the university solicits six appraisals from relevant experts at other institutions If you think this could be improved, well, show us how.

It seems like you may be reading some things into my comment that I didn't write? I made no claims about the procedure being fair or unfair—I'm just describing what it is.

Re: My Caste

#290

Post by lucb1e »

anyonecancode wrote: post #58
cleandreams wrote: post #8

I had a student in my class who wrote about being from a "low caste" background. So when a friend hosted a woman from India on her podcast who said there was so caste discrimination in India I spoke up about this. The podcast guest said that the fact that anyone in the west mentioned caste discrimination, even within western tech companies, was an act of racism against Indian culture and reflected colonial judgements…

That's silly. Obviously all cultures have their own issues, and I'd say it's actually rather patronizing to pretend that non-Western cultures don't have their own dynamics of bias and discrimination. Having said that, as a cultural Westerner, I'd be very loathe to speak much on the topic of the Indian caste system, as while it's clearly a real thing, and I believe those Indians in America who say it is, I'm certain I…

> > I had a student in my class who wrote about being from a "low caste" background.

> as a cultural Westerner, I'd be very loathe to speak much on the topic of the Indian caste system, as [...] I'm certain I lack enough context and background to talk about it without it ending up being an exercise in projecting my own culture's dynamics onto theirs. It's the kind of conversation I think I probably need to do far more listening that talking in.

Depending on the length and depth of that student's essay, the person you're responding to may have done enough listening to at least raise the topic and hear an honest opinion rather than being shut down as colonialist prejudist for merely asking the question

At least, that's how it's written. Maybe they said a lot more, it's not like I was there, but I'm just going by the version that we can read here

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