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Comment by encryptluks2 | Hacker News Reader

Isn't racism based on race or ethnic groups. Caste bias can be like a white person judging another white person because one grew up in the Bronx while the other is from New Jersey. That is not racism but classism maybe mixed in with some religious discrimination.

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I disagree. Normal classism can be overcome to a much greater degree than Caste. An upper class person may have 4 working class grandparents. A person with 4 lower caste grandparents will never be an upper caste, just like someone with 4 black grandparents will not be seen as white.

The caste system has been enforced strictly enough to even have an imprint on the DNA:

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/Caste-system-has-l...

In other words, casts differ from each other in ways that are similar to how Jews differ from other Europeans. And I would definitely label anti-Semitism as racism, even if it is usually difficult to identify a Jew by appearance.

Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste has a really good overview of the caste system in India and how it’s very distinct from class issues.

You're missing the cultural insight needed to understand caste. For example, two people from New Jersey may tolerate each other even if one of their ancestors are from other places. Castes on the other hand, carries on from generation to generation. It's extremely hard to get rid of the caste label you're born with. Another factor is the level of discrimination involved. Caste is widely used to judge academic and professional proficiencies. It's extremely hard for lower caste people to rise up even if they work hard. They get denied and often demotivated in public. It gets much worse within India. Lower caste people are kept away from good residential areas, many commercial establishments and even village wells.

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