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Comment by quantummkv | Hacker News Reader

A better way to allegorize the Indian caste system would be the racism in USA. No one in urban centers or in the new generations is racist against black people. Go to the folks from the older generations and in the hinterlands and you will find that racism still exists somewhat.

A similar trend is present in India. The new kids in urban centers don't care about caste. The old people in the villages and hinterlands? They do somewhat.

And then you always have the politicians on every side of the spectrum who artificially inflate caste and race issues for their own gains.

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> No one in urban centers or in the new generations is racist against black people.

I'm sorry but this is just wrong, and you can prove it to yourself by reading the news any day.

Well it looks like mistyped that. I meant the majority of the people. You always have some people with other views.

I was talking to a friend about their nephew, who has said some racist comments, but I think that is moreso the exception that proves the rule.

Racism is not a binary thing. There are always low levels of racism, and they exist in urban centers most certainly in large numbers. I would say the vast majority of people are racist to some degree, in that they hold inescapable prejudice inside. It’s in our society and almost impossible to have it not at least subtlety enter ones consciousness.

That view is hard to square with studies showing that resumes with black-sounding names get fewer callbacks.

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/mar/15/...

You are completely wrong. I have lived my entire life in Delhi and I can tell you that there is rampant caste discrimination in urban India. I can cite many anecdotes but usually the denial of discrimination, which your comment does, is in itself an indicator of bias.

Oh really not that long-ago in the UK we had high caste member of our team say that they could not socialise with us in at particular venue as that would make him unclean.

There is also a lot of evidence of caste discrimination in the UK otherwise why was caste discrimination added to the protected groups in the UK, I know one of the MP's involved

I came across this a while back as well, (UK also), somebody I worked with began a relationship with a girl from a higher caste and it caused all sorts of trouble.

> No one in urban centers or in the new generations is racist against black people.

Excuse me?

Why should it be allegorized?

The whole point of the article, and her book, is to bring the caste system and its consequences into light. Allegorizing it would wash away all the specific issues she is trying to raise!

What? Caste and racism are different issues with a common goal (subjugation) and have considerable legs. I would vouch there is a visible resurgence in both. Narrowing to an India-US narrative, caste ideology is constantly imported into the US under the auspices of various Regional Groups. This is visible in the informal societal groups that are formed as well as some official groups that are formed. See the tail end of her interview [1] about Telugu Immigration Groups which are segmented along caste lines (and her request for membership).

I would not mind seeing an AMA from someone in a lower caste in India, someone from a lower caste in US, and someone from an upper caste in the US.

[1] https://scroll.in/video/862235/video-how-do-they-say-there-i...

> The new kids in urban centers don't care about caste.

Oh yes they do, maybe less than before, but its still present. To native, +-cast membership is usually very obvious.

When you are born into privilege, and you are told whole childhood that you are entitled to it and those less fortunate 'deserved' it by their actions in previous lives, it's hard thing to give it up, and say 'no, I deserve less'.

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