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The Indian caste system is Google's problem to solve? Let's talk about Google's caste system. There are at least two main castes at Google: The "Googlers" wh

The Indian caste system is Google's problem to solve? Let's talk about Google's caste system. There are at least two main castes at Google: The "Googlers" who get all the perks, and the support staff who do all the work and get far fewer perks. The upper caste gets meals, those nifty buses, medical care, etc. The lower caste does not get all those things (I think they get meals, but not in the same cafeteria) and they are specifically trained not to get familiar with the upper caste. In fact, they can get in trouble for fraternizing with the "real" Googlers. It's worth noting that the upper caste is made up mostly of white, Chinese, or Indian folks while the lower caste is mostly Mexican (in CA that means anyone from south of the border from Mexico to Chile and Argentina), Filipino, and some Arab people. (There are very few black people working at Google.) Google is progressive in the sense that they don't hate their servant class, but they are just as caste-conscious, if you will, as Indian culture.

jackling 4y ago
"support staff who do all the work and get far fewer perks", what do the support staff do? Are they also engineers, or are they the ones doing the non-product work at Google. Since you said they do all the work, I guess they're directly working on the products as well?
- carapace 4y ago
  They do all the physical work, janitor, maintenance, cooking, cleaning, etc. Everything that isn't sitting at a desk typing on a keyboard.
dsq 4y ago
I think what you are describing is class based rather than caste based. Caste is explicitly based on heredity and is unchangeable. The fact that the two classes are made up mostly of different ethnicities is probably caused by a confounding variable, such as different educational opportunities, as well as discrimination of course.
- carapace 4y ago
  > I think what you are describing is class based rather than caste based. Caste is explicitly based on heredity and is unchangeable. You're right, of course, and that's a valuable distinction to make. Anyone in one class at Google could move to the other and they would be accepted. > The fact that the two classes are made up mostly of different ethnicities is probably caused by a confounding variable, such as different educational opportunities, as well as discrimination of course. In California at least the racial component is pretty clearly due to history: The Spanish took CA from the Indians, and then we took it from the Spanish (and now the Latinos are gradually taking it back in a largely peaceful demographic transition.) Throughout the state, even in the most progressive enclaves, there's this racial/class system. (Come to think of it, would that count as a caste system?) To me the weird thing isn't that progressives don't want to hang out with "the help". That's hypocritical but unsurprising. The thing I find strange is when other nationalities/ethnicities come into the picture and they slot into the system in different classes.

jackling 4y ago

"support staff who do all the work and get far fewer perks", what do the support staff do? Are they also engineers, or are they the ones doing the non-product work at Google. Since you said they do all the work, I guess they're directly working on the products as well?

carapace 4y ago
They do all the physical work, janitor, maintenance, cooking, cleaning, etc. Everything that isn't sitting at a desk typing on a keyboard.

dsq 4y ago

I think what you are describing is class based rather than caste based. Caste is explicitly based on heredity and is unchangeable. The fact that the two classes are made up mostly of different ethnicities is probably caused by a confounding variable, such as different educational opportunities, as well as discrimination of course.

carapace 4y ago
> I think what you are describing is class based rather than caste based. Caste is explicitly based on heredity and is unchangeable. You're right, of course, and that's a valuable distinction to make. Anyone in one class at Google could move to the other and they would be accepted. > The fact that the two classes are made up mostly of different ethnicities is probably caused by a confounding variable, such as different educational opportunities, as well as discrimination of course. In California at least the racial component is pretty clearly due to history: The Spanish took CA from the Indians, and then we took it from the Spanish (and now the Latinos are gradually taking it back in a largely peaceful demographic transition.) Throughout the state, even in the most progressive enclaves, there's this racial/class system. (Come to think of it, would that count as a caste system?) To me the weird thing isn't that progressives don't want to hang out with "the help". That's hypocritical but unsurprising. The thing I find strange is when other nationalities/ethnicities come into the picture and they slot into the system in different classes.