From: sram@seas.gwu.edu (Siddharth R. Ram)
Subject: Re: RACISM
Organization: George Washington University
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 13:47:18 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.053701.8214@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu> baindur@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Satyen G Baindur) writes:
>In article <1992Nov18.223314.22221@midway.uchicago.edu> moh2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>>Two things...
>>
For 
>example, there is an interview with a white store owner who said that 
>people did not want to shop at her store any more because there were some 
>Indian-owned stores on the same block. So now she resented the Indians. 
>Note, of course, that while her resentment is economic, the reaction of her 
>erstwhile customers is completely racist, and in the final analysis, it is 
>her customers' racism which hurts her, but she hates the Indians for being 
>there. Also, she thinks (wrongly) that the Indian store-owners got interest 
>free loans from the Small Business Adminstration ! 
>At the professional/educational level, it seems to me, in the future, one 
>would have to watch out also for racism from other minority groups, and 
>be really sensitive about how one treats and is perceived to treat them. 
>In s.c.as.am someone had recently posted a description of how, in her 
>company, she thought that Indians always seemed to prefer Indian 
>candidates for a job, while the Chinese always seemed to prefer Chinese.
>No white person is directly involved here, but the end result is a racist 
>scheme of things. As Indians come to be widely perceived as a distinct
>minority ethnic group in the American context, I would be at least as 
>concerned about racism from other minority communities as I would about 
>racism from the majority. 
I think Satyen raises an important point here. However, what I have
observed while working in the US in a Co. (lets call it X Inc.) which
deals with the state of the art in communication engineering
(and is owned by an asian-indian)
reveals a counter point to the observation made by Satyen.
a.It is unbelievably difficult to find an american with the
sort of technical qualifications that we require (typically,
at least a masters in EE/CS). Resultantly, most of the
americans employed at X have lesser qualifications than 
the minorities (asian-indian, oriental) who thrive here. Talking
to one of them revealed that most of them are not really interested
in a masters since a bachelors is quite enuf to land them a decent job.
(in this persons opinion)
b. Most of the minorities here are much better qualified than thier
american counterpart. Not just that, I think we have some
of the "cream" of indian graduates working here, IIT'ians
etc some of whom i would not hesitate to classify as brilliant
(modesty forces me here to state that yours truly is excluded ;-) )
c. Growth and renumeration at X is stricly dependant on ones
on job performance, and contribution to the improvement of products/services.
Minorities clearly outperform thier american counterparts in this,
given thier better qualifications and calibre.
d. This results in a perception that the Co. is somehow slanted
toward the minority, resulting in a some acrimony between the
two groups, which I feel is wholly unjustified. 
e. The number of minorities in the Co. tends to increase
in geometric progression because they tend to know a lot
of people in thier community who have the desired background that
X needs. Hence, hiring one means that he/she will be able to recommend
2 others who will recommened 2 apiece ...... (which remind me of 
an incident - I was at this party and this stranger walks up to me and
says - say you look like an indian. Are you a doctor or an engineer ? :-> 
When I admitted that I was an engineer, he further asked -oh, Computer Science
or Electrical Engineer ? 
f. as the % of minorities increase, the division grows between the groups to
the extent that the X. is willing to go the extra distance to find americans
who have to background it needs.
g. Conclusion: I feel that X treats its employees equitibly, and the perception
of minority discrimination is unjustified. This, of course is not a rule but
it show a parallel to  Satyens post.

Siddharth

Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.asian-indian