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Comment by 40acres | Hacker News Reader

How would a non Indian person even tell? Is it really all in the last name? I've worked with a fair amount of Indian folks with a wide variety of names - how would you even go about determining someone's caste? Based on this article it sounds like most people who end up in Big Tech will be upper caste.

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It’s done through seemingly simple questions.

Usually dealing with what city they are from, what city are your parents from, are you vegetarian, are you having dessert?

I've never experienced or seen the thread searching. Larger person grabs your shoulder to see if the thread is there. But that wouldn't surprise me at all.

This is interesting. I believe vegetarianism is higher caste but dessert is a tricky one.

Thats bs.. none of those questions tells you anything caste related

From my name and city origin you can determine my family's caste.

Anecdotal at best. No way this can be generalized.

Of course it is. Why is why I (and many others) changed their names to hide it.

For an outside observer, what's the significance of dessert here?

What does dessert have to do with it? I have never heard about that.

Well most people that immigrate not trough the south border or diversity visa are usually middle class or up in their country of origin.

The easiest way to get to live in the US is to have money.

The southern border is the new ellis island trough which the great unwashed can enter.

Assuming caste maps to socioeconomic status, the situation is the same for Indians and non Indians around the world.

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