We all know slashdot is biased at best and...... (Score 1)

outright racist as worst. A person (usually non U.S) has to spend just a few days on the site to realize this. Usually most of us ignore and sometimes even enjoy such discussions and take the site for what it is and don't normally have the time or inclination to argue against this bias. The low quality and intelligence of the posters is a final deterrent.

As I have some time at hand today, I would like to point out to the very small minority of rational readers here that while slashdot considers it acceptable to play a scaremonger with articles ranging from tongue-in-cheek criticism to being of an outright inflamatory nature, it conviniently decides to reject a front page article from the most prominent Indian English daily The Times of India which concerns slashdot itself and shows an unpleasant side of outsourcing.

This is interesting as even the most biased party would atleast pretend to be non-prejudiced by publishing the front-page opinion of the most important newspaper of the country which is at the very center of this whole debate, while agreeing to publish irrelevant information from trivial sources.

The submitted article was this (reproduced below): Indian techie alleges racial abuse

Indian techie alleges racial abuse
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA [ Sunday, December 11, 2005 12:53:48 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
To hear the full blast of invective against outsourcing, offshoring and other aspects of job migration from the United States, stop by at Slashdot.org . An online forum for nerds and nerdy natterings, it teems with angry young men writing under nom de guerres such as AnonymousCoward and TempestData, sgt_doom and pubjames. Many of them are obviously American, but you can see the odd Indian signature locked in verbal combat with a flaming Yankee. On the day Bill Gates announced that Microsoft would be hiring another 3,000 people in India and investing some $1.7 billion (a lot of it towards opening outlets to sell MS products and making more money), nerdy narcissists were out in strength. "Why worry about H1B visas when you can just buy India?" sneered someone writing under the pseudonym Heck. "So, what's the Indian equivalent to H1B?" asked someone called Hmmm. "More companies going to India? Well, I guess I am going down to McDonald's to pick up some applications -- anybody want me to pick them one up as well?" King Vance lamented. "From experience of remote call centres, you'll get more sense out of what a dog says," related SatanicPuppy. "I find they speak English quite well," retorted someone. "In fact, they often speak English better than the ebonified English you get at times from some of the support folks based in NYC." "Microsoft Curry XP coming soon! And it's damn hot!" mocked someone else. "Khidkiyaan2006," bragged another, evidently Indian. It was corrosive sometimes, nasty occasionally, but mostly it was good collegiate fun. Some of the more poisonous posts sullied the many intelligent observations made on both sides of the debate, but it was a welcome letting off of steam in a largely anonymous online forum. Heck, online flamebait is better than real-life threats and violence, as Neelima Tirumalasetti will say. A Texas-based Indian techie who came to the US in 1998, Neelima wishes her tormentors had lit into her on Slashdot.org. Instead, some days after her company Caremark Inc began outsourcing work to India in early 2004, her team members began harassing her -- mocking her accent, excluding her from conversations, and essaying jokes and insults based on her race, ethnicity and national origin, according to an affidavit she filed in a Texas court. A co-worker ambushed her in the ladies room, she says, and called her a "brown-skinned b****" and a "dirty Indian". When she reported the harassment to the management, it first did not take cognisance of her complaint. She was divested from major responsibilities in a project. When she fell ill, she was accused of faking it even though she was pregnant and had a child through the duration of the crisis. One day, she was asked not to wear anklets (payals) to office because it disturbed co-workers. According to her affidavit, when she returned to work after leave, things got worse. "WHY DID YOU COME BACK? GO BACK TO YOUR DIRTY COUNTRY AND ROLL IN THE SHIT," someone had scribbled in a note left on the windshield of her car. "WE ARE GOING TO KILL YOU SOON. JUST LEAVE OR WE WILL GET YOU SOON." Much later, she says, Caremark acknowledged she had been harassed but sought to explain it saying it was the outcome of American workers harried by the outsourcing. Ironically, it was a case of Caremark Inc workers harassing one of their own, because Neelima was an American citizen as they were, albeit of a different race and ethnicity (she married another Indian techie who was already a citizen). Moreover, Caremark was outsourcing work to the most American of companies, IBM, albeit to its Indian office. "What they failed to realise was that we were all hurting, America was hurting," says Neelima. Among the 20 people that Caremark Inc 'let go' were two other Indians. Such downsizing because of outsourcing or offshoring is what brought Sona Shah to testify before the Congress. A double graduate with degrees in physics and mechanical engineering, Shah told lawmakers some months back that American workers (including Indian-Americans) were being eased out of work by companies parcelling out work to cheaper contractors who bring in less expensive foreign workers on H1B temporary guest worker visas or send the work out to places such as India. Still, Neelima's case was a rare instance of alleged harassment in a country that has by and large taken the job loss issue with equanimity amid a growing debate about the merits of globalisation. As one nerd pointed out on Slashdot, "The same forces that will drive US wages down, such as cheap labour in India, will drive the cost of goods in this country down as well (check Wal-Mart)." Cases of workplace discrimination in the US are relatively rare, not only because of such thoughtful debates in an open and free society, but also because the legal system offers avenues of redress. In fact, in one case in Silicon Valley, an American worker sued Sun Microsystems alleging that the company was replacing native-born Americans with younger and lower-paid workers from India brought in on temporary visas! Although a recent immigrant to this country, Neelima wasted little time in filing a complaint before the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), especially after she realised the protections she was afforded as an American citizen. "Many foreign workers hesitate to raise discrimination cases because they are under temporary work visas and are afraid of losing their status," says Neelima's attorney Barry Hersh. "Indians are also discriminated against because they are not as vocal or organised as other communities." From all accounts though, despite the murmur of resentment at the American workplace on account of job flight, there is no consistent pattern of workplace harassment or discrimination. Which makes Neelima Tirumalasetti's case that much starker and stronger.