I'm not white and I don't feel guilty - nor should white people who aren't racist. My point is that white guilt and white racism are two sides of the same coin. The endless hunt for new forms of oppression which do not legally exist in America, such as the caste system, has the extremely undesirable effect of actually defining and codifying them into law here, even if that law is intended initially to protect some groups from discrimination. There does not need to be a law or a movement specifically privileging one type of discrimination over another, or affording special protection to one group over another. It creates a perverse incentive to define oneself in terms of oppression and forces one to be part of an oppressed group one doesn't necessarily identify with just because they have the same color skin. That box - brown people vs white people - is created and perpetuated by white people, even or especially those who think they're doing the world a service. They're not. You treat everyone equally. Speak up against anyone who doesn't. That's all you need to do. Not tell people that they're oppressed because of what you perceive or imagine their experience to be. I don't need your checkbox on the hiring form to get special dispensation, and I don't want it on the hiring form because it has zero to do with my ability.
> You treat everyone equally. Speak up against anyone who doesn't.
So... how do you square that with preventing a caste bias activist from speaking at Google? What Soundararajan does is quite literally speaking up against people who don't treat others equally.
I'm not in favor of preventing anyone from speaking. I started this by seconding parent's point that a lot of times it's better to move on with making a success of life and not know or not focus on the potential motivation of people who might be quietly discriminating against you.
FWIW, that wasn't the implication I got from this:
> So sure: Introduce new ways that people can feel like they've been discriminated against. That's the way it's done! More and more identity groups! Caste, why not? Hey, we can even celebrate it.
That sounded pretty unconditionally dismissive of the issue under discussion. I'm happy you've moderated your tone.
But this isn't "new" and isn't a "feeling". Caste-based discrimination is real among Indians. This is not even remotely new. And it's not a "feeling". It happens, and it's widespread.
> This white guilt
If you feel guilty, then maybe you should sit down and think about why. I'm a white dude. I don't feel guilty. I feel disappointed, though. Often outraged. But I personally haven't done anything to feel guilty about; I don't think that I am responsible for slavery in the US and hundreds of years of oppression, for example. But if I do do something to feel guilty about, I do my best to acknowledge my fault, and resolve to do better. I'm not sitting around all day wallowing in guilt over my privilege. That serves no one, and is just kinda stupid.
> where civil rights and equal rights were fought for, and won.
That's just not true. Civil rights and equal rights have been fought for over the span of centuries, certainly, but we're not done yet. That particular war is far from being over, and far from being won.