US software engineer defends Indians after racist claims go viral: 'They're all pretty sharp'

Anonymous X post sparks defence of Indian employees. (Image credit: Pexels)

• NY engineer defends Indian professionals against racist stereotypes online
• Citadel's John Freeman praises Indian colleagues as sharp and friendly
• Freeman says workplace stereotypes about Indians do not match his experience

Did our AI summary help?

A software engineer from New York defended Indian professionals against racist stereotypes that surfaced online. John Freeman, a software engineer at Citadel, said many of his teammates are Indians and “they’re all pretty sharp” and “super friendly”.

The remark was made in response to an anonymous X post share by an account named “Brotherhood”, which accused India of Incompetence and inconsideration. The post alleged that Indian employees of calling projects “super-urgent” even when they were not, and used intimidation and name-dropping in the workplace.

NY employee defends Indians

According to Freeman, his team includes several Indian professionals, and he said none of the stereotypes raised by the anonymous post matched his experience.

“Let's talk about Indian competence. My team lead is Indian. My boss is Indian. His boss, who hired both of us, is Indian,” wrote the Citadel employee.

Freeman also pointed out that even the CTO of Citadel is an Indian. Umesh Subramanian held the CTO role at the hedge fund for seven years before stepping down just three days ago.

“They're all pretty sharp! They know this business inside and out. They work well with others. Everyone is super friendly. They all speak English very well,” he said.

Freeman went on to say that the Brotherhood account may have fabricated the allegations that Indian employees categorise their own work as “P1” or super urgent.

“I've been here a year and never met an 'everything is P1 urgent priority' guy, of any race. My last boss at my last company was Indian, and he was pretty good too,” he said. “If everyone you run into at your company is incompetent, then maybe your company just hires incompetents.”

The post quickly went viral on social media, with several users commenting.

Let's talk about Indian competence. My team lead is Indian. My boss is Indian. His boss, who hired both of us, is Indian. His boss, the CTO, is Indian. They're all pretty sharp! They know this business inside and out. They work well with others. Everyone is super friendly. They… https://t.co/CjyrH60BXl

— John Freeman (@thejohnfreeman) January 31, 2026

One user wrote, “Good to see someone not hating Indians here for a change.”

Another X user commented, “The amount of hate spread here against Indians is absolutely out of control. Even if there is a genuine mistake which is across every ethnicity, it's always amplified when Indian or anything close to it. I wonder what the thinking of the people who do it.”

A third user said, “This is what reality looks like when you stop inventing stereotypes. Competent people get promoted, incompetent ones get loud on Twitter. If your whole worldview collapses because Indians keep running things well, that is a you problem, not an India problem.”