Cisco, like all the tech giants, has dived headlong into DEI. However, these efforts - though well-intentioned - are overwhelmingly centered around the American experience of race - namely the black–white historical divide. This narrow focus has led to a dangerous blind spot.
Over the past decades, Cisco has hired large numbers of professionals from South Asia. These individuals bring with them great capabilities and strong work ethics. But they also bring deeply ingrained cultural hierarchies - especially caste.
When Westerners hear "caste", they often think only in terms of Varna - Brahmins, Dalits, and so on. But what truly governs social dynamics among many South Asians is Jati - a much more granular system akin to clan or kinship in the West. Layered beneath Jati are Gotra and Kula systems, which tie people into extended familial and regional identities.
Within Cisco, these caste-based biases are rarely named, yet painfully obvious to those affected - and to those with eyes to see.
Employees from so-called "lower" castes are routinely sidelined, given menial tasks, or denied mentorship and advancement. Meanwhile, those from dominant Jatis often promote and elevate one another, sometimes with little merit beyond shared background. The behavior is subtle but pervasive - driven by clannish loyalty and cultural conditioning. The Jati system is endogamous - so internal self-promotion and aggrandizement is quite normal.
The saddest part? Leadership appears completely unaware. DEI efforts continue to focus on traditional U.S. racial frameworks while deeply embedded casteism festers beneath the surface. This creates a two-tiered system: one that publicly champions fairness, while privately enabling exclusion.
Ironically, white Americans and Muslims are often left out of these caste dynamics altogether. The harshest discrimination tends to be intra-community - those seen as "lower" by their own peers bear the brunt.
On a few occasions, I've been so disturbed by the blatant nature of this bias that I've reached out directly to people I saw affected. Their responses are heartbreaking - resignation, exhaustion, and the quiet burden of generational marginalization. They've simply learned to endure.
Ignorance of caste doesn't make it disappear. A truly inclusive workplace demands that we name all forms of inequity - not just the ones we're most familiar with.
Transparency: I am Western-born, ethnically Indian, of a (so-called) high caste.