Hacker News Reader

Comment by shazzy | Hacker News Reader

I am British born, with Trinidadian and Guyanese parents. I've had a very similar experience, not just in tech but throughout all areas of my life. I look Indian, but culturally it's very different.

Everyone always (perhaps South Asians more commonly) asks where I'm from. I say I'm British. They ask "no, really". I say Trinidadian and Guyanese heritage. They say "you look like you are from India, your family must be from India". It does get a bit tiresome.

The only time it actually _really_ annoys me is when I have to fill out forms with ethnicity. There is never Asian-Caribbean, but always Black-Caribbean, so I always feel that I am never being represented.

View on HN

Out of curiosity, what kind of forms ask for your ethnicity? Maybe it's because I'm living in Europe, but I've never been asked for that in my entire life, and if I would, I would find it very strange ..

In the US, governmental departments and large employers frequently ask for ethnicity on all sorts of forms to help the organization ensure that it is meeting its DEI goals.

It's very common in the U.S. It's ostensibly done to gather evidence of discrimination. Most government forms require it, and large employers are required to report the racial/ethnic makeup of their staff to the government, along with gender, past military service, and persons with disabilities. California recently added a requirement for VCs to ask the founders they fund their sexual orientation.

People have written entire books on the politics behind how the government comes up with the sometimes-illogical categories into which folks are divided.

See e.g. https://reason.com/volokh/2023/03/25/my-comment-on-the-ombs-... for discussion on the "hispanic" designation.

I used to work with a carpenter from Trinidad. This was in the southern US, and at an employer where I was probably the only college educated person. I recall them as being very professional but able to socialize easily with everyone else, and they were also insanely good at chess.

I've had a near identical experience, every ethnicity form is makes me feel like I'm lying a little.

Despite externally-incited ethnic conflict, Guyana was a comparatively post-tribal melting pot of cultures and social classes. e.g. kids stack-ranked nationally into peer-group schools around age 10, based on standardized test. Outside Guyana:

  Are you from India?
    West Indies | South America | Guyana
  Where are your parents from?
    A couple hundred years ago, my ancestors left India
  Oh <disappointed>
    [every time: wait, what if I had said yes? nevermind]

It has become so exhausting doing this dialogue tree with Indian folks - particularly true for the older population. it's their opener for small talk...

Born Canadian with Jamaican and Guyanese parents. Identical experience.

I don’t fit in their boxes so generally I go with “prefer not to say”.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com