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Comment by markdown | Hacker News Reader

Yes, everyone fights to be backward in India and every other year a community is added to the OBC (Other Backward Communities) list. So eventually once all communities are backward, we will once again in the future have equal opportunity.

Many people get out of India to escape this nonsense. Sad to see USA follow the backward path.

Wait, are you saying that it'll be better for US to copy India's caste system?

Let me guess which caste you think you'll end up.

I think they're saying that India's affirmative action against the caste system is a good idea, not the caste system itself. For a while now, people from the lower castes have gotten preferential treatment when applying to universities, and it seems to have reduced some of the stronger stereotypes against the lower castes. However, I'm not sure it translates well to the case of racism in the US.

Some positive discrimination can somtimes be beneficial, but doing it based on racial group is just asking for problems.

How does it even work practically? What stops an Asian American from saying they are African American?

When the name on the application is John Nguyen instead of Lamar Johnson it's pretty easy to tell.

So you're African American if your dad is African American and your mom is Asian American, but Asian American if it's the other way around?

When it comes to "an Asian American saying they're African American" or whatever, yes the name of the applicant (and therefore the race of the parent whose last name they have) would probably affect their ability to get away with claiming they're a different race.

What? Even if you believe there is such a thing as human races, how would having a African American parent not make you African American?

Dividing humans into different races just an insane concept that has no place in the 21st century.

These aren't the divisions I would make, I was specifically referring to your question in the parent post about an Asian simply claiming to be black to bypass discrimination. I was pointing out that other factors, such as names, would be used whenever possible to still be able to discriminate against even those who tried to hide or falsify their race.

I am not arguing that such discrimination or racial categories are valid.

But there must be some less arbitrary way to apply this discrimination? If there's no clear definition how are they falsifying their race? An Asian American could claim their ancestors came from Africa and they would not be wrong...

Other countries have official recognized minorities which you get from your parents, or use the birth nationality of your (grand)parents.

> Affirmative action is crucial in a multicultural society. India has done it for decades.

Good thing India's only been a multicultural society for decades.

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