Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 633 posts

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#401

Post by rpiguy »

As an American I never really understood how bad the caste system was until I went to an Indian restaurant and arrived a few minutes before it opened for dinner.

The owner, an Indian gentlemen, invited me into the restaurant rather than making me wait until it opened. He was exceedingly polite and even offered me a complimentary cup of tea while I waited for the restaurant to open.

Then he barked something in an Indian language (I would presume Hindi but I don't know there are a lot of languages spoken in India) and a small man who looked older than he probably is came out of the kitchen with the tea for us.

He would not look us in the eye. He had only a few teeth.

I didn't realize until after I left the restaurant that the Indian family who owned the restaurant probably brought their lower caste servants from India with them to labor at the restaurant.

The whole thing made me feel terrible and I haven't been back to the restaurant since.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#403

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #397
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on who is doing the definition. The British system has a lot more to do with who mommy and daddy are, than what the sheepskin says. It's pretty hard for people raised in the US to understand it. We keep looking at it through our lens, and we have a relatively young, egalitarian, culture that started when our continent was used as an overflow for the prison system. A lot of folks in the UK try to get ahead by…

Yes but Class discrimination is no where as brutal as Caste discrimination is - you don't get honour killings for marrying the wrong person. Don't take this the wrong way this is your white privilege showing

YGBSM. Are you sure that you want this post to stay up?

EDIT: I removed the quote of your insult, and simply flagged your post. Let's be adults, here. I'll probably remove this post before the two hours are up.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#404

Post by hungry_haibt »

walt0 wrote: post #99

I live and work in India and I would like to throw more light on this. Me and my friends like to joke around that you will never get your dues, either pay raise or promotions unless you have the last names jain, gupta, sharma, verma. I had a guy on my team who was very capable but did not have the right last name, he was being harassed for promotions for 4-5 years. On the other hand the manager class was entirely "ja…

Another anecdote, my previous manager has one of those last names. He was hiring for a position and screening the resumes. He would send them to me for initial phone screen. After a while, I saw a pattern, all the candidates he chose to move forward with had same last names.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#405

Post by AndyMcConachie »

walt0 wrote: post #276
walt0 wrote: post #99

I live and work in India and I would like to throw more light on this. Me and my friends like to joke around that you will never get your dues, either pay raise or promotions unless you have the last names jain, gupta, sharma, verma. I had a guy on my team who was very capable but did not have the right last name, he was being harassed for promotions for 4-5 years. On the other hand the manager class was entirely "ja…

The reason I joined the private sector instead of the government sector, is that these issues are much much worse in the government sector. I was brainwashed to belive that merit will be valued in the private sector by the HR department and the managers. Which its not in the few places I have worked at. I'm not even low-caste but still faced these issues. My dad worked for the government for 30 years and he was not p…

One thing I've noticed with regards to discrimination at a couple I have worked is the treatment of mediocrity. At one American software shop I worked at early in my career I would see mediocre African American employees catch shit for being mediocre, but mediocre white people would not. So basically if you were not white you needed to be a stellar performer.

No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, and most of us are somewhere on the scale between great and crap. My partner and I joke about this concept of the mediocre white man, and how their workplace is dominated by these mediocre white men. Whereas if you're a woman, or if you're not white, you're not allowed to be mediocre. You gotta be great.

There are essentially two separate sets of measurements; one for white men and one for everyone else. And I notice this as a white man.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#406

Post by throwaway781341 »

sumedh wrote: post #398
throwaway781341 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

may be the reason why you are getting this feeling is that racist instinct. and no, I'm not unhappy for the said reason. If you read my comment properly, I was pointing out the fact that mentioning only one side of the story, because one fell victim to the caste system, on a forum like HN is wrong as it provides very different picture. Most of the people reading this have no clue what it's like. Be responsible.

Why are you using a throwaway account, are you ashamed to admit that upper castes in India have subjugated lower castes or are you just ashamed that everyone else on HN now knows about India's dirty laundry? Shame is good, it will help you change.

thanks

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#407

Post by throwaway781341 »

idontcare634 wrote: post #175

As a former employee of Cisco and having been in the Silicon Valley for 10+ years, I can say that I have witnessed extreme casteism and nepotism in Cisco. There was a saying I heard a few years back that one of the criteria to get hired in one of the Cisco guaranteed acquisition spinoffs is that you wear a thread (called Janeu - worn by high caste Hindus over their shoulder and hidden inside shirt). If there is one c…

If anyone interested in knowing more about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#408

Post by eitally »

walt0 wrote: post #99

I live and work in India and I would like to throw more light on this. Me and my friends like to joke around that you will never get your dues, either pay raise or promotions unless you have the last names jain, gupta, sharma, verma. I had a guy on my team who was very capable but did not have the right last name, he was being harassed for promotions for 4-5 years. On the other hand the manager class was entirely "ja…

I saw the same kind of discrimination in an Indian office I used to manage part of (that is to say, a fair number of the staff functionally reported to me but all the local management and HR decisions happened in India). It was interesting, though: the office was in Chennai and they essentially banned even interviewing anyone from outside Tamil Nadu, no matter how qualified. Perhaps someone from Andhra Pradesh or Kerala got in every now and then, but no one from farther afield.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#409

Post by throwaway781341 »

sumedh wrote: post #306
saagarjha wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I understand, you’re supposed to wear that thread in a way that would keep it hidden when wearing normal work attire. If that’s so, how would others know you had one? Would you secretly flash them at each other like a gang symbol?

I have seen some Indians when they are peeing they will first pull the thread over their ears and then pee, after they wash their hands they will put back the thread under their shirt.

that thread is bit long to carry and comes in between when you sit to take a dump in Indian style (squatting style). Hence it's suggested to put it on left ear to keep it up.

Re: California accuses Cisco of job discrimination based on Indian employee's caste

#410

Post by person_of_color »

rpiguy wrote: post #401

As an American I never really understood how bad the caste system was until I went to an Indian restaurant and arrived a few minutes before it opened for dinner. The owner, an Indian gentlemen, invited me into the restaurant rather than making me wait until it opened. He was exceedingly polite and even offered me a complimentary cup of tea while I waited for the restaurant to open. Then he barked something in an Indi…

Report them.
Post reply on HN