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Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

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Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it extends beyond Indian folks. I once worked at a company where, Manufacturing engineers were overwhelmingly Vietnamese. Safety staff was Chinese, Engineering was mostly white, and the machine shop was entirely Hispanic. In each case the manager of the department was of the aforementioned race. There was also a son of a bitch who was an aggressive baptist. He though I was a baptist because I had dated a bapt…

It really doesnt to the same degree. People claiming otherwise are trying to hide a very real problem

Thank you for your useless comment. Nobody is trying to "hide a very real problem."

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I freely believe that the caste system of the host country carries over to the United States, Until relatively recently, the United States has always had a very strong strictly enforced caste system, even written into law, still the case in some Southern states. Some people were even allowed to buy and sell other types of people! As we can see some people are still allowed to kill certain types of other people with…

That's... not even a little bit true.

?

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#553
post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many Poor muslims just as many poor Indian are now getting electricity, subsidised toilets, zero balance bank accounts, direct benefits transfer for the first time under BJP rule. Many muslim women are for the first time are freed from triple talaq. Their life is certainly far better than the muslims in Pakistan, so much so that many parts of Pakistan are revolting and claiming to want to reunite with India. Whatever…

Jesus christ, it's 2022 and you're legitimately arguing that BJP is helpful towards Muslims.

+1 someone saying BJP is helping muslims has to be from another planet. Lol

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#554
post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand where you are coming from. I am not lower-class and may have my biases, but unlike Siddhant in the story, I got my first bicycle (a second hand) at the age of 23 to commute within college campus while doing my masters. So I have definitely not lived in some urban bubble, away from the grassroot issues in the country. I am not denying the discrimination in the industry. It is the magnitude that I have my…

This is equivalent to a really poor white person saying "nah man, them blacks don't have it any harder."

I knew someone would say that.

Caste issues are much more complex in my view. Feel free to disagree.

Imagine having two friends, one dirt poor and another fairly rich (but comes from a lower caste). Both appears in an entrance exams for the engineering degree. The poor score 99% but fails to make it but the rich dude who score 70% makes it to the college. He gets caste reservation.

One may say that reservation is is off topic but is it really? It is a lifelong reminder of who you are, to both the friends.

The poor friend who somehow makes it to the Silicon Valley, is often reminded of his caste privileges.

The rich lower caste friend, gets discriminated for his caste and economic privileges that others find undeserving.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#555
post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is equivalent to a really poor white person saying "nah man, them blacks don't have it any harder."

I knew someone would say that. Caste issues are much more complex in my view. Feel free to disagree. Imagine having two friends, one dirt poor and another fairly rich (but comes from a lower caste). Both appears in an entrance exams for the engineering degree. The poor score 99% but fails to make it but the rich dude who score 70% makes it to the college. He gets caste reservation. One may say that reservation is is…

People are so obsessed over this mythos of the "more deserving" person being pushed down cuz he's white/upper cast/ and yet if you still look at most people in power, it's still that same fucking dominant group in charge, just maybe not AS dominant as before.

There was a reddit thread that went super viral right after the SuperBowl (with zero data) about "demographics of people in the tv ads vs US demographics", and everyone was obsessing over how black people were vastly overrepresented versus their demographics... and STILL white people were also over-represented.

Don't kid yourself that just because you hear (or even experience) anecdotes of people belonging to the dominant group being "discriminated" against that it's the norm.

Simple - go try applying for jobs with a white-sounding versus a black-sounding name and see what happens.

And btw, this is literally what CRT is, and actual experts and academics have shown over and over and over again that the political systems are tilted against the non-dominant groups, even with the boogeyman of affirmative action.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we please stop conflating casteism as racism? While both equally horrible, one is not same as the other. One can possibly hide their caste. But a person cant change their racial phenotypes.

How can I hide me caste without changing my last name?

No post body was provided.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are directing your moral outrage at the wrong person.

I confused you with the OP. Unfortunately, I cannot edit my comment. Apologies for that. Going back to the original comment- I was making it clear that nobody needs to pat someone on the back to figure out if they are brahmins - you can tell from the last names. I dont really know the castes of my friends except Brahmins, because they keep informing me. 1. Tamil brahmins - any domestic post on Facebook has a referenc…

> Of course, there must be brahmins amongst my friends where I don't know about their caste. But the only friends who have brought up their caste voluntarily were brahmins.

Yes, this is called selection bias. In what context did your friends talk about their caste?

I'm still not sure what you suggest about people's last names. This is not unique, it's also true for the last names of all sorts of people who have faced discrimination or discriminated against others - "white" people can be eg. Jewish, Irish, Italian, Anglo, German etc and there are names common to each of those groups.

Asking people to change their names is quite a heavy lift and impractical - I know some parts of India have historically made it easy for people to drop their last names and move to a system similar to Iceland where each generation uses the their parents' names as their last name.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what would you say if we keep reservation as such and make caste self declared?

That would be impractical. And the results of this cannot be perceived now. But I believe that more communities will seek to be the "lower castes" because there will be benefits. And, as more and more people will be in the SCs, the benefits will not mean anything anymore becasue everyone will get equal opportunities. And I am not talking purely speculatively. There were mass movements of certain communities for them…

People are too proud of their caste. If they are asked to self assign a reservation eligible caste, they won't do it. The general caste people will never do it and the constant attacks on reservation will dim down.

Making one's cast included in OBC doesn't matter much.

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