Reply #46: Indian DUer to the rescue!

[ZombieNixon]

I'm a second generation Indian-American (as in my parents came here straight from India). My family belong the Brahmin caste, which in practical terms means that all my ancestors were either priests or lawyers (go figure). As a family, we're very liberal, so my grandparents, though they have gone through all the caste intitation rights (most notably the uppanayanam, like the Hindu version of the Bar Mitzvah), they rather routinely associate with "lower" castes. Their attitude is one of "even though we get perks, the caste system is bullshit."

Historically speaking, the caste system was in fact a measure of one's skin color, though after 3000 years in the tropics, even a Norwegian would turn brown, so it's no longer a good gauge of caste. This is witnessed by my family's great variety of skin color:

Father's father: fairly dark
Father's mother: pink and white
Father: fairly dark
Mother's father: fairly dark, but not as much as my dad
Mother's mother: so dark she wore black as a teenager in order to make her skin look lighter until her mother told her to snap out of it.
Mother: kind of dark, though much lighter than Dad
Moi: slightly darker than Mom

Why do untouchables clean up the dead? Why do Mexican guest workers pick grapes in the hot sun for pennies a day? It's the job no one else wants to do.

For some Indians, yes, dalit's are lower than dirt. I think those people are no better than men who beat their wives; they're the scum of the Earth,

But to suggest that all Indians are racist because of some outdated religious order is like suggesting that all Christians are racists because KKK members are all Protestant.

Caste discrimination is far more prevalent in rural villages where traditional priests have much more power than the government. In the cities, society is far more integrated.