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Something I've always wondered about, people here might be able to help. If brown skinned Indians aren't discriminated against in tech, why are brown skinned

Something I've always wondered about, people here might be able to help. If brown skinned Indians aren't discriminated against in tech, why are brown skinned Mexicans (apparently) discriminated against? Does such skin color based discrimination really exist in the Valley? Given their relative population size in the USA, Indians seem to be well(or even over) represented in the software industry as VCs, founders, employees etc. As are Chinese for that matter. Are Chinese discriminated against in tech? How can someone in software discriminate against Mexicans/South Americans, but not (East) Indians (if said discrimination is supposed to be primarily based on skin color)? Mexicans and Indians are often mistaken for each other. I've had Mexican Americans start conversations in Spanish with me. Is there any evidence of race based (vs gender based , or even age based) discrimination in the tech industry? I've never encountered it (due disclosure: Indian, have lived in the USA, was never discriminated against or made to feel unwelcome). Genuine question. Thanks in advance

dnautics 13y ago
IIRC the former? CEO of AMD was an illegal immigrant from Mexico before he became a brilliant engineer.
nl 13y ago
In Australia, Indians are discriminated against in tech, whereas Chinese aren't. I wrote a long comment speculating why this could be, but I don't have enough evidence to support my ideas. I think it comes down to reputation. In SV, Indian developers have a very, very good reputation which is made very visible by some stars in the programming and VC fields. I suspect the lack of those visible success stories affects other ethnic groups negatively.
- orclev 13y ago
  Funnily enough it's almost the opposite in the rest of the USA. Indians in general have a very bad rep in tech because of the cheap offshore tech companies and the tons of low wage H1B tech workers that certain headhunting shops flock around. I've certainly seen some very senior and talented Indians in Tech, but you're more likely to run into the untalented hacks than one of the relatively rare talented ones. I've very rarely met an Indian programmer that wasn't either very good or very bad. To a certain extent you get the same thing no matter the race, but the strange duality of Indians (they're almost all either really really good or really really bad) makes it particularly stand out in their case.
kaitai 13y ago
Don't think of discrimination as an active force of evil. Think of discrimination as a byproduct of personal recommendations, networking, and hiring people based on fit.
byroot 13y ago
Why does it have to be a discrimination ? I'm no US resident so my observations can be incorrect, but it seems to me that working in tech require some pretty high level education, which is, especially in the US, only available to upper classes. I don't know for Indians, but Mexican people are usually poor. Same for women vs men. In western culture at least, computer / tech is not appealing to most women. It's pictured as a geek / nerd thing. Do you know a lot of men interested by midwifing ? (sorry for the stereotype) No, because in our culture it's a women thing. I'm not saying it's a good thing, nor that there is no discrimination at all, but IHMO it's more a consequence than a root cause of the lack of women in tech.
calibraxis 13y ago
Once, Irish-Americans could be considered even lower than African-Americans people in the racial hierarchy. They were not white; nor I recall were Italian-Americans. I vaguely recall reading Irish-descended critics pointing out how they were backstabbing others to gain white privilege. There's a book, "How the Irish Became White". I haven't read it and therefore can't offer a recommendation, but there's definitely literature out there. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Ignatiev http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Ignatiev) The racial system is a form of warfare and social conditioning. Various alliances shift for political ends.

dnautics 13y ago

IIRC the former? CEO of AMD was an illegal immigrant from Mexico before he became a brilliant engineer.

nl 13y ago

In Australia, Indians are discriminated against in tech, whereas Chinese aren't. I wrote a long comment speculating why this could be, but I don't have enough evidence to support my ideas. I think it comes down to reputation. In SV, Indian developers have a very, very good reputation which is made very visible by some stars in the programming and VC fields. I suspect the lack of those visible success stories affects other ethnic groups negatively.

orclev 13y ago
Funnily enough it's almost the opposite in the rest of the USA. Indians in general have a very bad rep in tech because of the cheap offshore tech companies and the tons of low wage H1B tech workers that certain headhunting shops flock around. I've certainly seen some very senior and talented Indians in Tech, but you're more likely to run into the untalented hacks than one of the relatively rare talented ones. I've very rarely met an Indian programmer that wasn't either very good or very bad. To a certain extent you get the same thing no matter the race, but the strange duality of Indians (they're almost all either really really good or really really bad) makes it particularly stand out in their case.

kaitai 13y ago

Don't think of discrimination as an active force of evil. Think of discrimination as a byproduct of personal recommendations, networking, and hiring people based on fit.

byroot 13y ago

Why does it have to be a discrimination ? I'm no US resident so my observations can be incorrect, but it seems to me that working in tech require some pretty high level education, which is, especially in the US, only available to upper classes. I don't know for Indians, but Mexican people are usually poor. Same for women vs men. In western culture at least, computer / tech is not appealing to most women. It's pictured as a geek / nerd thing. Do you know a lot of men interested by midwifing ? (sorry for the stereotype) No, because in our culture it's a women thing. I'm not saying it's a good thing, nor that there is no discrimination at all, but IHMO it's more a consequence than a root cause of the lack of women in tech.

calibraxis 13y ago

Once, Irish-Americans could be considered even lower than African-Americans people in the racial hierarchy. They were not white; nor I recall were Italian-Americans. I vaguely recall reading Irish-descended critics pointing out how they were backstabbing others to gain white privilege. There's a book, "How the Irish Became White". I haven't read it and therefore can't offer a recommendation, but there's definitely literature out there. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Ignatiev http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Ignatiev) The racial system is a form of warfare and social conditioning. Various alliances shift for political ends.