Comment by belltaco | Hacker News Reader

Comment by belltaco | Hacker News Reader

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Lets say someone from the EU who's never been to the US keeps telling you, an American, "Don't go outdoors or you might be a victim of a mass shooting like I see in the news almost every day", and you say "that doesn't reflect the reality here", and they say "Isn't very convincing to say the least".

How can I or anyone prove a negative? I can only offer my life experiences as a non-high caste Indian whose both sides of the family eat meat, that caste never ever comes up with any of my Indian coworkers, managers, friends or family. Nor has anyone ever mentioned to me that they experienced issues because of their caste. In rural India and among older folks caste is more important, but in America it's pretty rare for people to care about caste. Any discrimination must be dealt with, but I don't like the generalization on HN than Indians are casteist.

> "Don't go outdoors or you might be a victim of a mass shooting like I see in the news almost every day", and you say "that doesn't reflect the reality here"

The initial example I gave was this: "caste discrimination exists". The response I see is "oh no that isn't real".

That's like someone saying "mass shootings occur in the USA" and me saying "oh no those aren't real"

A white American could say "racism is a thing of the past or is an issue somewhere else, because I don't experience it on a day to day basis". That's what your reply makes me think of

> How can I or anyone prove a negative? I can only offer my life experiences

You're trying to use your own experience to speak on someone else's behalf with respect to discrimination that you've admitted to never experiencing. Even trying to prove a negative in this context is missing the point entirely

Then is it fair to say that caste discrimination in India is akin to mass shootings in the US? In that they happen, but not a big deal for the rest of the society? Otherwise, something would have happened by now.

> Any discrimination must be dealt with, but I don't like the generalization on HN than Indians are casteist.

You get it. This is exactly the fear I have -- that clueless Americans will use an "Indians are casteist" excuse to justify not hiring us to management or positions of power.

There are already "keep it in India" comments on these threads that are going unmoderated, which would be totally unacceptable in any other context.

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