Apple denouncing caste-based discrimination is an anomaly in Silicon Valley

Over 2-thirds of low caste Indian-Americans are discriminated against past upper degree Indian-Americans in Silicon Valley, according to a report by Equality Labs, an organization of Dalits in America. Dalits likewise written report hearing derogatory comments about Muslim job applicants at tech companies. These revelations accept recently surfaced in a California country lawsuit against Silicon Valley tech giant Cisco Systems.

Religious Discrimination:

Both degree and religious discrimination are rampant among Indian-Americans in Silicon Valley. Back in 2009, there was a religious discrimination lawsuit filed against Vigai, a South Indian restaurant in Silicon Valley. In the lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Courtroom, Abdul Rahuman, 44, and Nowsath Malik Shaw, 39, both of San Jose, declared they were harassed for being Muslim by Vaigai's two owners, a managing director and a summit chef — a violation of the Off-white Employment and Housing Act, according to a written report in the San Jose Mercury News.

According to the complaint, eating place personnel regularly used ethnic slurs such as "Thulakkan," a pejorative term for Muslims in Sri Lankan Tamil dialect, to harass the two Muslim cooks. Also according to the complaint, eating place staff were encouraged to call the plaintiffs by names such as "Rajan" or "Nagraj" nether the pretext of not wanting to upset customers who might end patronizing the restaurant if they heard the men referred to by their Muslim names.

Modi in Silicon Valley

The complaint likewise stated that the plaintiffs were forced to participate in a religious anniversary despite telling the owners it was against their Islamic beliefs. The complaint alleged that the eating place owners insisted on their participation and proceeded to smear a powder on their foreheads, making the religious marking known as a "tilak."

Upper Caste Silicon Valley

"Ascendant castes who pride themselves as being but of merit have merely converted their caste capital letter into positions of power throughout the Silicon Valley," says Thenmozhi Soundarajan of Equality Labs. Vast majority of Indian-Americans in Silicon Valley support India'southward Islamophobic Prime number MInister Narendra Modi. Modi held a huge rally at a large venue in Silicon Valley where he received a rousing welcome in 2015.

Caste vs Race in America:

Contrary to The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Bigotry (ICERD) that includes discrimination based on caste, most Indian-Americans contend that race is non caste . Dating back to 1969, the ICERD convention has been ratified past 173 countries, including India. California's lawsuit reinforces that caste is race. It will at present arrive harder for companies to ignore caste bigotry. While the US has no specific constabulary against the Indian degree organization, the California Department of Off-white Employment and Housing has filed the lawsuit against Cisco using a department of America's historic Ceremonious Rights Act which bars race-based discrimination. Here is an excerpt of an commodity published in TheWire.in on the lawsuit recently:

"In Oct 2016, two colleagues informed John Doe, a principal engineer at Cisco, that his supervisor, Sundar Iyer, had told them that he (Doe) was from the "Scheduled Castes" and had made it to the Indian Plant of Technology via affirmative action. "Iyer was aware of Doe'southward degree because they attended IIT at the same time," said the case. The adjust says that, when confronted by Doe, Iyer denied having disclosed his caste. In November 2016, Doe contacted Cisco's Hour over the thing. Within a week of doing so, Iyer reportedly informed Doe he was taking abroad Doe's role as atomic number 82 on 2 technologies. Iyer also removed squad members from a third engineering science that Doe was working on and reduced his role to that of an independent correspondent and he was isolated from his colleagues, the lawsuit says. In December 2016, Doe filed a written complaint with Hour on the matter."

Summary:

Caste discrimination is rampant among Indian-Americans and NRIs (Non-resident Indians) in Silicon Valley with 67% of low degree Indians reporting being victims of such discrimination in workplace. Muslims too face employment discrimination in some of the workplaces dominated past Indian managers. California state has filed a lawsuit against Silicon Valley tech giant Cisco Systems alleging caste discrimination.