
Ask HN: There is caste system in the Silicon Valley? - cplusplushacker
People from India keep on follow to the caste system in the Silicon Valley? Suppose developer is from higher caste than CTO. Or even CTO is outcaste. Is it possible?
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cauterized
Virtually nobody in the US would be able to distinguish members of different
Indian castes. And we don't have castes of our own here. (One can argue that
to a degree race in the US operates a bit like a caste system. And even the
most egalitarian people tend to have subconscious biases. But most people
denounce the idea of giving people different opportunities based on their
ethnic background.)

So the only sort of software team that would have roles linked to caste would
be one built by an immigrant (or maybe the child of immigrants) of high caste
from India. Which is a tiny fraction of the software teams in this country.

It is possible that families who were of higher caste back in India tend to
have a head start in terms of savings and education when they arrive in the
US, but once they get here that wealth and education are the only advantages
they keep. Which is not to say they are small advantages. But Americans don't
recognize caste.

Most US companies would hire a CEO whose family in India was outcaste. And
they would do so simply because even if they knew about castes and knew this
person's standing among them (which is highly unlikely), Americans don't care
one bit about what caste you came from in another country. They only care
whether you're the most capable person to do the job.

There is arguably a certain amount of classism in Silicon Valley based on
wealth and upbringing. And studies recently have shown that class mobility
here is worse than it used to be and worse than in other developed countries.
But we don't have rigid classes in this country. Americans pride themselves on
being egalitarian, even if they don't always live up to that ideal.

That said, you'll notice that (for instance) African-American CTOs are
vanishingly rare despite African Americans representing about 15% of the
country's population. If we really want to be egalitarian, we should be asking
ourselves harder why that is and how to fix the underlying inequalities that
cause it.

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afarrell
Growing up in America, my understanding was that it was incredibly rude to ask
an Indian immigrant what his/her caste was and that a person born in America
of Indian descent would be even more offended and likely not know the answer.
I may be wrong, but I suspect my perception is shared by most non-Indian
Americans.

Consequently, I don't see how an explicit caste system would carry over.

America's class system is much more implicit and based on social cues and
habits of the sort talked about here:
[http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/550-trash-
food](http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/550-trash-food). Also
Race... which is far too complex a topic to be summarised here. As a mixed-
race person who is light-skinned enough to that people think I'm
Mediterranian, I still find it confusing despite many years of paying
attention.

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UK-AL
The US class system is basically based on wealth rather than castes.

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nnn1234
I believe this is a generational issue. I have seen this sort of behaviour in
people who like corporate 9-5 jobs or who have been politicking their way
around a company. I would say if the team is predominantly first generation
immigrant then there might be this issue. I have seen this come up in social
contexts and not professional ones. If you are in that sort of space, leave
that team now

~~~
nnn1234
A bit of context, I am an immigrant from India

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pizza
[https://medium.com/tech-diversity-files/privilege-and-
inequa...](https://medium.com/tech-diversity-files/privilege-and-inequality-
in-silicon-valley-92d455b66860#.mfk3q91fn)

People get uncomfortable when talking about class in America, which leads to
little discussion about addressing real problems

