5 ms·

Quite a few of the south asian coworkers I've talked to about caste discrimination say it doesn't exist in the US, but then also go on to say they come from a "

Quite a few of the south asian coworkers I've talked to about caste discrimination say it doesn't exist in the US, but then also go on to say they come from a "good caste", seems too frequent to be a coincidence. Is this related to the discrimination the article talks about? Some kind of dog whistle that "discrimination doesn't exist as long as you're part of the in group"?

yutijke 4y ago
Which company this at? Is this discussion of castes among other Indian coworkers? They gain nothing from Caste signalling to you. We should name and shame if a company doesn't act against discriminatory dog whistles. I drink, eat meat, eat beef and do not bear any caste specific signifiers on my person. No other Indian expat has tried to enquire about my caste or treated me differently because it's ambiguous. 99% of Indian immigrants are Upper or Middle castes. The reason for this has not been studied. But a few causal factors can be. - Wealth India is a poor country. Most Indians upper or Lower caste are poor by first world standards. But the few Indians who are rich tend to be more upper caste (Scholarly, Mercantile or Landowning castes). But this is also a bad explanation since most Indians who come to US for higher studies do so on a loan. - Culture Upper caste families even when dirt poor may have a higher emphasis on education which means they are overrepresented in employment based skilled immigration. Edit: Vegetarianism often gets bandied around as an upper caste but most Urban Indians eat meat regardless of caste. So, except for a few cases caste is very much ambiguous since a caste that's upper caste in Western UP may be lower caste in Eastern UP.
- redmaverick 4y ago
  >> and do not bear any caste specific signifiers on my person Your last name is the biggest caste specific signifier.
  - yutijke 4y ago
    Thanks for pointing this out. I can now ignore anything you say about caste since it shows you don't know anything about it. Most last names are used by multiple castes. Except for popular surnames like Iyer, Sharma or Agarwal the link between surname and Caste can be quite ambiguous. Given how regional some castes are, in Geographically mixed work places it's really hard to narrow down the caste via surname. What does a Punjabi know about the caste their Telugu coworker belongs to?
    - redmaverick 4y ago
      >> I can now ignore anything you say about caste since it shows you don't know anything about it. Basically, your mind is not capable of tolerating anything that goes against your worldview. The Telugu coworker will know about their fellow Telugu coworker's caste and can easily inform the Punjabi.
      - yutijke 4y ago
        That still doesn't solve the issue of surnames being an imperfect signal of caste. Many surnames are shared between castes. Plus there is no common naming system in India. In the same region within the same caste you can have - Surnames based on ancestral village - patronymic surname (Take name of father as your surname) - "Normal" surnames You have folks from my caste that follow each of these. How will you now find their caste from their Father's name in Delhi or Mumbai? It is not easy to narrow down on the caste of the person unless it's a common surname like Iyer, Iyengar, Agarwal, etc. And India has a hell lot of surnames across multiple regions. Even if I tried, I would fail to recognise the caste of a majority of my neighbours from my hometown. Forget my coworkers who come from all over the country. It would only work for families that have lived in the same village for multiple generations.

yutijke 4y ago

Which company this at? Is this discussion of castes among other Indian coworkers? They gain nothing from Caste signalling to you. We should name and shame if a company doesn't act against discriminatory dog whistles. I drink, eat meat, eat beef and do not bear any caste specific signifiers on my person. No other Indian expat has tried to enquire about my caste or treated me differently because it's ambiguous. 99% of Indian immigrants are Upper or Middle castes. The reason for this has not been studied. But a few causal factors can be. - Wealth India is a poor country. Most Indians upper or Lower caste are poor by first world standards. But the few Indians who are rich tend to be more upper caste (Scholarly, Mercantile or Landowning castes). But this is also a bad explanation since most Indians who come to US for higher studies do so on a loan. - Culture Upper caste families even when dirt poor may have a higher emphasis on education which means they are overrepresented in employment based skilled immigration. Edit: Vegetarianism often gets bandied around as an upper caste but most Urban Indians eat meat regardless of caste. So, except for a few cases caste is very much ambiguous since a caste that's upper caste in Western UP may be lower caste in Eastern UP.

redmaverick 4y ago
>> and do not bear any caste specific signifiers on my person Your last name is the biggest caste specific signifier.
- yutijke 4y ago
  Thanks for pointing this out. I can now ignore anything you say about caste since it shows you don't know anything about it. Most last names are used by multiple castes. Except for popular surnames like Iyer, Sharma or Agarwal the link between surname and Caste can be quite ambiguous. Given how regional some castes are, in Geographically mixed work places it's really hard to narrow down the caste via surname. What does a Punjabi know about the caste their Telugu coworker belongs to?
  - redmaverick 4y ago
    >> I can now ignore anything you say about caste since it shows you don't know anything about it. Basically, your mind is not capable of tolerating anything that goes against your worldview. The Telugu coworker will know about their fellow Telugu coworker's caste and can easily inform the Punjabi.
    - yutijke 4y ago
      That still doesn't solve the issue of surnames being an imperfect signal of caste. Many surnames are shared between castes. Plus there is no common naming system in India. In the same region within the same caste you can have - Surnames based on ancestral village - patronymic surname (Take name of father as your surname) - "Normal" surnames You have folks from my caste that follow each of these. How will you now find their caste from their Father's name in Delhi or Mumbai? It is not easy to narrow down on the caste of the person unless it's a common surname like Iyer, Iyengar, Agarwal, etc. And India has a hell lot of surnames across multiple regions. Even if I tried, I would fail to recognise the caste of a majority of my neighbours from my hometown. Forget my coworkers who come from all over the country. It would only work for families that have lived in the same village for multiple generations.