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Comment by hairband | Hacker News Reader

Quoting from the article:

> Years ago, these invitations to go swimming with American friends and neighbors were a sign of acceptance. But now the same invitations for his fellow Indians felt like a trap to out him as a Dalit.

Not trying to defend casteism or anything, and Maybe I understood it wrong, but this makes it seem like if Indian guys are inviting him for swim then it must be ascertain his caste, but if Americans do it then its a sign of friendship. This makes it seem like its more in his head.

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I think you misunderstood. The point is that it's not in his head - he knows his Indian colleagues are trying to figure out his caste. Non-Indians don't have a caste so he knows it's safe in that situation.

Thats what I am having trouble understanding. how does he know? Unless you take into account the context of them being Indian and his experience in India, they won't be able to tell whether its to figure out his caste, or just to have fun.

Have you ever been discriminated against? And on a consistent and ongoing basis? When people are after you all the time, you start to learn the warning signals.

I understand the mental stress of having people after you all the time, but that doesn't mean that all the people are after you all the time. In this case they may have extended a genuine invitation. And given the historic context, it may have led to him feel like it was a casteist action, that doesn't make his colleagues casteist.

It’s true that they may have extended him a genuine invitation. It’s also true that he may have overthought it. But that is kind of the point of the story, no?

After you endure enough discrimination and persecution, your trust in others are eroded. You start to irrationally question the motives of others. Eventually you lash out preemptively because you’re afraid.

This is why discrimination and oppression is bad. It tears at the fabric of society.

"felt like" Of course, you'll never know for sure if they meant to find out your caste. That's the point. If they wanted to be explicit about their objective, they could've asked for their caste.

Thats what I am trying to say. You can never be sure, and it is only when you attach the context of them being Indian and his experience in India as a "lower caste" person that you arrive at this conclusion that the invitation must be extended to figure out his caste.

And that makes it a very bad anecdote for an article like that, and in general weakens the point the article is trying to make.

I am very suspicious of this claim of being invited to swim by an bunch of Indian guys. Swimming is very uncommon as a sport or a skill unless you are from a wealthy Urban family in which case you are deracinated and westernized. The whole NPR story sounds like imagined slights or straight up confabulations.

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