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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIndia's engineers have thrived in Silicon Valley. So has its caste system.
Whenever Benjamin Kaila, a database administrator who immigrated from India to the United States in 1999, applies for a job at a U.S. tech company, he prays that there are no other Indians during the in-person interview. Thats because Kaila is a Dalit, or member of the lowest-ranked castes within Indias system of social hierarchy, formerly referred to as untouchables.
Silicon Valleys diversity issues are well documented: Its still dominated by White and Asian men, and Black and Latino workers remain underrepresented. But for years, as debates about meritocracy raged on, the tech industrys reliance on Indian engineers allowed another type of discrimination to fester. And Dalit engineers like Kaila say U.S. employers arent equipped to address it.
In more than 100 job interviews for contract work over the past 20 years, Kaila said he got only one job offer when another Indian interviewed him in person. When members of the interview panel have been Indian, Kaila says, he has faced personal questions that seem to be used to suss out whether hes a member of an upper caste, like most of the Indians working in the tech industry.
They dont bring up caste, but they can easily identify us, Kaila says, rattling off all of the ways he can be outed as potentially being Dalit, including the fact that he has darker skin.
The legacy of discrimination from the Indian caste system is rarely discussed as a factor in Silicon Valleys persistent diversity problems. Decades of tech industry labor practices, such as recruiting candidates from a small cohort of top schools or relying on the H-1B visa system for highly skilled workers, have shaped the racial demographics of its technical workforce. Despite that fact, Dalit engineers and advocates say that tech companies dont understand caste bias and have not explicitly prohibited caste-based discrimination.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/27/indian-caste-bias-silicon-valley/
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,811 posts)The Silicon Valley companies should stomp down hard on that stuff.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Apparently, caste discrimination is not illegal, since it is neither religious nor racial discrimination, strictly speaking.
Assembling a project team with Asians is a minefield of caste, racial, linguistic, class, religious and historical antagonisms that the typical US manager is oblivious of.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,811 posts)education on this topic.
no_hypocrisy
(46,010 posts)Calling The Equal Opportunity Act!
This BS can come to a screeching halt tomorrow.
ck4829
(35,037 posts)"aren't equipped", that sounds like someone is making excuses to me.
Hekate
(90,527 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,304 posts)no surprise.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)I have seen this targeted at any women of color too in the tech field..
ornotna
(10,791 posts)Amishman
(5,553 posts)I've also seen Indian managers also pressure against hiring anyone outside the acceptable caste structure - including discrimination against non-Indians.
hvn_nbr_2
(6,485 posts)Nothing as blatant as that but what I saw was between the highest caste and the second highest.