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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

#571

Post by Frazo »

sg47 wrote: post #234
dang wrote: post #8

Past related threads. I think there have been others. How Big Tech Is Importing India’s Caste Legacy to Silicon Valley - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26435117 - March 2021 (195 comments) Caste discrimination in some of Silicon Valley's richest tech companies - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24952698 - Oct 2020 (322 comments) How India's ancient caste system is ruining lives in Silicon Valley - https://n…

Cisco is a hell hole that attracts a particular type of employee without talent who indulge in this type of discrimination blatantly. Narrow-minded Indians (I'm speaking as an Indian myself) who bring their Indian attitudes abroad. These types of Indians put others to shame. This is another side effect of doling out H1Bs and L1s without consideration for assimilation. I'm not sure if this is endemic to Indians though…

> Cisco is a hell hole that attracts a particular type of employee without talent who indulge in this type of discrimination blatantly.

I work for Cisco. Best place to work for, best salary in the market, the smartest people I've ever come across. Best work life balance.

I'm not Indian though, so maybe I'm not aware of all the details.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#572

Post by random314 »

mama123 wrote: post #565
random314 wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

When people refer to themselves as TamBram, they are just referring to their heritage. If you are offend by them carrying their tradition or culture that they have inherited for 100s of generation. How would you then think of Indians named John or Mohamed? You know that, these political religions spread almost exclusively through violence and colonisation. India is a strange country where it is ok to engage in hate a…

> You know that, these political religions spread almost exclusively through violence and colonisation.

This is again pseudo history peddled by the RSS. Another instance of Hindu exceptionalism. This is completely counter to actual history and is a lie propagated by the Indian right wing. You should talk to an actual historian instead of relying on WhatsApp forwards by RSS.

> You are perhaps engaging in the same kind of hate the Nazis spread of the jews.

Re: Godwin's law.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#573

Post by ausbah »

steveBK123 wrote: post #288
steveBK123 wrote: post #274

I think it serves as a good reminder that racism is a thing most all races do to other races or subgroups of their own race. In tech these days there's enough racial groups that you are as likely (or more, in my experience) to end up with blatantly racist behavior from minority groups who either only hire their own or explicitly do not hire specific minorities they dislike. I remember working at a bank where the port…

I'd also add - caste being a good proxy for class generally.. This fits with a saying I've seen thrown around about our modern times, which is basically that "Class is the only remaining non-taboo bias in American polite society". Living in a very blue city in a very blue state surrounded by highly educated, "social justice warrior" types .. you'd be surprised how quickly the same people who have every type of window…

I don't think this is that surprising, most Americans - even if they are empirically wealthy or poor - consider themselves "middle class". seems like an implicit bias?

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#574

Post by 908B64B197 »

Tsarbomb wrote: post #494
throwaway_dcnt wrote: post #11

The 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…

Jesus fucking Christ what a terrible take and highly illegal in most sane countries. I'm Serb, I've hired and worked with Croatians. I've had colleagues who were Lebanese and worked along side Israelis. I've had a Palestinian coworker report to a Jewish manager. I have seen an adjacent team's Japanese manager rely on their Chinese report as their right hand. Maybe it's because I live and work in Canada where there is…

> Maybe it's because I live and work in Canada where there is absolutely zero tolerance for this kind of garbage thinking.

You’ll be quite disappointed if you read about your new country’s history. Even the recent one (the last residential school where natives children were forced to attend and where children unmarked graves were found was closed in … 1998). Or about the province that tried to gain independence twice. Or what happened to the Metis people or the French speakers to the east..

Or just what happens when the dogma of multiculturalism takes over [0].

[0] https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2019/01/15/as-ndp-leader-j...

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#575

Post by diebeforei485 »

random314 wrote: post #561
diebeforei485 wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

The point is that no one apart from brahmins amongst my colleagues and friends bring up their caste. And absolutely no one asks fhem about their caste. In my managers case he brought up his own skin color in the presence of several reports and segued into his caste. And I have not asked anyone to change their name. All I did was refute the fake allegation against the Indian Christians patting the back of brahmins to…

You didn't answer my question - in what context did this people mention their caste?

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#576

Post by icelancer »

robinsoh wrote: post #570
icelancer wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay? That has nothing to do with my point. I am merely agreeing with the article's thrust that the Indian caste system probably carries over to the US, but despite that, discrimination on the basis of race for employment is strictly prohibitive due to protected class statuses.

> Okay? That has nothing to do with my point. I disagree. The phrasing you used implied that you believed the United States did not already have a caste system and that foreigners were bringing it to the US. This is factually incorrect since the US always had a very strict caste system pretty much from the inception of the nation only repealed recently, and even then still functionally present.

No it didn't imply that, because I have no idea what you are talking about. I am merely commenting on the caste system literally described in the article written and linked here about India.

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#577

Post by intrasight »

flat-pluto wrote: post #542
intrasight wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all in the context of the USA. My question is why would you be asked or, if asked, tell your caste?

Nobody would come out and ask your caste directly. Most often what tends to happen is they infer your caste based on your surname, or ask you innocent-seeming questions such as: where is your family from, what does your father do, are you vegetarian by birth, etc. The most roundabout way to determine one's caste that I have come across is inviting someone to swim. Brahmins, the upper-caste Hindus, traditionally wear…

So use a different name. Really.

As for the thread, I expect that you could buy one on ebay ;)

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#578

Post by robinsoh »

icelancer wrote: post #576
robinsoh wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Okay? That has nothing to do with my point. I disagree. The phrasing you used implied that you believed the United States did not already have a caste system and that foreigners were bringing it to the US. This is factually incorrect since the US always had a very strict caste system pretty much from the inception of the nation only repealed recently, and even then still functionally present.

No it didn't imply that, because I have no idea what you are talking about. I am merely commenting on the caste system literally described in the article written and linked here about India.

Then what exactly is implied by " Not sure what you want done there. I freely believe that the caste system of the host country carries over to the United States, but attempting to subvert that via "good" racist methods is not going to fly, especially if documented. ".

Not sure what you want done there? Aren't you implying that the US is a caste-free system with the there?

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#579

Post by sg47 »

Frazo wrote: post #571
sg47 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cisco is a hell hole that attracts a particular type of employee without talent who indulge in this type of discrimination blatantly. Narrow-minded Indians (I'm speaking as an Indian myself) who bring their Indian attitudes abroad. These types of Indians put others to shame. This is another side effect of doling out H1Bs and L1s without consideration for assimilation. I'm not sure if this is endemic to Indians though…

> Cisco is a hell hole that attracts a particular type of employee without talent who indulge in this type of discrimination blatantly. I work for Cisco. Best place to work for, best salary in the market, the smartest people I've ever come across. Best work life balance. I'm not Indian though, so maybe I'm not aware of all the details.

Lol @ best salary in the market and best place to work for

Re: Trapped in Silicon Valley’s hidden caste system

#580

Post by saagarjha »

random314 wrote: post #518
saagarjha wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker News is not a place for you to call people out for their "fake" stories, it's a place where you do your best to take comments in good faith. People have different experiences than you do, and yes, sometimes people will lie online. But that's no reason to immediately jump to accusations, and especially not here.

The fact that you responded to me and not to any of mama123 comments - a textbook case of what urban casteism looks like - tells me a lot about what an upper caste person's definition of good faith and bad faith is.

I picked the bottom of the thread as I skimmed by, which was capped by a clearly egregious comment. That doesn’t mean there weren’t others that were also bad. No idea why you think caste comes into the picture at all?
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