Hacker News Reader

Comment by macintux | Hacker News Reader

This topic was heavily discussed just a day ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34876082

Idk, I’m indian and I’ve absolutely never encountered anything close to caste based discrimination in the US.

The thread seems to be a bunch of non-indian people (white dudes) talking about what they heard from “second hand” sources.

But whatever. Hopefully I won't have to start filing TPS reports on my caste.

I'm not saying discrimination doesn't happen. But there's literally dozens of factors that indians like to use to discriminate against each other (what language you speak - we don't all speak hindi, what state you're from, religion, gender, and a bunch others)

Half the time it's impossible to tell what caste someone is from. (Not the case for me - my last name gives it away - but again, I've never had someone discriminate against me based on my caste)

Do you live in Seattle? Literally the top comment from the linked thread is by someone in Seattle who says it's a big problem

Maybe it's only a problem in Seattle and not other cities in the US. Might be why Seattle is the first/only US city to implement such a policy

Being Indian is only half of it, if you live in Birmingham, Alabama you probably have no idea what it's like in Seattle, Washington

I am neither Indian nor live in Seattle so I can't and won't say in any direction, but it's important not to dismiss what others say they're experiencing out of hand just because you haven't experienced it

Yeah my guess is maybe they don't live in an area with a big population of people from India? I dunno!

I do...

One of the largest indian populations in the US.

This might be a shocker to you, but indians aren't just in Seattle.

Ah apologies. We maybe live in the same area (I am in #1 in the US I think by most accounts), so you might be my neighbor :)

And yes, not Seattle. I don't live in Seattle. I didn't mean offense. I just worked at a lot of companies with very diverse cultures, and not picking on Indian people, but I have experienced this "problem" (it is a problem but it wasn't a problem for me, so I dunno) several times.

Caste followers have a lot of undue social advantage over the oppressed groups (like in any other form of discrimination). Admitting that it exists would be the first step to giving up those undue privileges. It's perhaps that subconscious bias that leads them to 'caste denial'. People from most upper castes will swear that it doesn't exist outside of rural and uneducated areas of India. But ask someone from the lower (oppressed castes) and they will tell you the very many innocuous-looking ways in which caste based discrimination is meted out to them. Caste is never mentioned - but the treatment follows a predictable caste pattern. People in US are unlikely to hear these stories because a large population of Indians there are the wealthy privileged ones. So, these denials backed by anecdotal evidences should be taken with a lot of skepticism.

Maybe you are from a higher caste!

I'm not...

Also, my last name makes it extremely obvious what caste I'm from.

Not all of us Indians are Hindus and have some caste assigned to us.

Are you pro Lewis or pro Verstappen?

More relevant, what is your caste identity? Wondering if your position in the hierarchy may insulate from the reported experiences in Seattle

> More relevant, what is your caste identity? Wondering if your position in the hierarchy may insulate from the reported experiences in Seattle

I'm Vaishya

It's weird because I'm white and I have seen it happen lol!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com