Latest news with #IsabelWilkerson
Indian Express
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Bangalore University row and the struggle to combat caste discrimination on campuses
Written by Bharat Rathod Isabel Wilkerson's framing, 'Caste is the bones, race the skin,' captures precisely a fundamental social reality of Indian society. Recent allegations of caste discrimination at Bangalore University are not new to Indian universities. Studies and official reports have unequivocally established that caste-based discrimination and the exclusion of caste-oppressed people are institutionalised across the higher education system. It is more rampant in elite institutions such as the IITs and IIMs. Caste apologists argue that this is an isolated incident and cannot be portrayed as systemic in nature. The Indian higher education system (which is mandated to prevent caste discrimination), too, denies that it is an institutional problem. But the higher education system in India has been a den of caste-based hierarchies and systemic exclusion. Historically, it has been dominated by dominant caste groups; and therefore, casteist values and practices are an integral part of the system. Dominant caste individuals often treat higher education as their bastion. Many also perceive the quota policy as an antithesis to their caste privilege and a challenge to their dominance over cultural capital. Oppressed caste individuals are perceived and treated as outsiders, undeserving, and non-meritocratic. The underrepresentation of oppressed caste faculty in IITs and IIMs clearly indicates how dominant caste individuals, both consciously and unconsciously, practise exclusionary tactics and undermine quota policies. In my research on Dalit students, interlocutors narrated their experiences pertaining to dominant narratives surrounding the quota policy and stereotypes about its beneficiaries. Some of these dominant narratives, which are casteist remarks and slurs, include: 'We are not responsible for caste discrimination, why should we (dominant castes) pay for historical injustice?' 'Why is caste identity a criterion for reservation? Why not a reservation for economic status?' 'It is reverse discrimination against the general category.' 'Caste is a matter of the past, why is reservation being provided to caste oppressed people?' 'Quota students are non-meritocratic, they are dull or weak students, they do not want to compete, they can access admission with low grades, reservation compromises quality by providing admission to undeserving candidates.' And so on. Conveniently, individuals from dominant castes frequently champion meritocracy, effectively sidestepping constitutional safeguards like quota policies. This stance either deliberately or unknowingly downplays the reality that their caste-based advantages are inherited, not achieved, bundled with the significant cultural and financial resources inherent to their privileged social position. For the past two decades, Indian higher education has been witnessing a demographic shift. On the one hand, a significant number of oppressed caste students are entering higher education, which has significantly changed student demographics. However, the faculty and administration are still largely made up of historically dominant-caste individuals, creating a sociocultural divide. Moreover, oppressed caste students have been developing a counter-narrative to the status quo and to dominant caste culture within institutional spaces. Both these phenomena trigger exclusionary practices and reveal a feudal psyche often hidden behind a modern outlook and sophisticated language. The most pressing question now is how to find effective solutions and interventions to address caste discrimination on campuses. Unfortunately, Indian higher education has yet to develop an effective policy framework to prevent caste-based discrimination. This failure stems from a fundamental reluctance to acknowledge caste as an institutional problem. Without this crucial recognition, it is impossible to develop a robust research framework, foster scholarly engagement, or provide adequate institutional support to caste-oppressed people. Even though the current socio-political climate is not conducive to caste/anti-caste scholarship and activism, scholars and activists have been engaged in challenging the status quo and building a scholarly narrative to define, describe, and discuss caste/anti-caste issues in India and abroad. Recently, caste and anti-caste topics have emerged as academic phenomena outside India, specifically in Europe and North America. I see this as a positive development that offers a great opportunity for scholars and students to internationalise anti-caste research, build transnational solidarity with other oppressed groups, develop new theoretical frameworks and interdisciplinary research, and ensure that caste becomes part of academic discourse and research. The writer is Assistant Director, Office of Inclusion & Engagement, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Chicago Tribune
04-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Maggie Mulqueen: What does summer mean for my family and me? The beach — and books.
My love for the beach and for reading go as far back as I can remember, and luckily for me, these two loves exist in harmony. Reading at the beach is one of my deepest pleasures. A beach bag without a book would feel as sacrilegious as one without sunblock. To this day, the beach is one place where you still see a majority of people reading books since the glare of the sun makes electronics difficult. Growing up on Long Island, I went to the beach year-round along with weekly visits to my local library. As a young girl, I participated in the summer read-a-thons hosted by the library to encourage literacy. The reward for my efforts was a gift certificate for an ice cream cone at the local Baskin-Robbins. Summers during high school, I worked at the library in the daytime and waitressed at the beach at night. The rhythm of the ocean and the words on a page transported me across time and space and expanded my horizons. When I was looking at colleges, my need for water and a library remained paramount. I landed at Northwestern University with a view of Lake Michigan from the library stacks. On warm, sunny days, I took my books to the beach to study. When I met my husband, I wondered if he could blend harmoniously with my earlier loves and find pleasure in a day of sand, sun and reading. Happily, growing up on the north shore of Boston and spending summers on Cape Cod, he, too, shared a long history of going to the beach, book in hand. Once we had children, the weight of the beach bag increased. More towels, more sunblock and more books joined the pails and shovels as we set off on our beach vacations. Eventually, pails and shovels were replaced by footballs and Frisbees, but the beach bag was still the repository for books, one for each of us. Our three sons are now grown and live in various locations. Time together is hard to come by, and a family summer vacation is no longer guaranteed. With this natural evolution, I lamented the loss of shared experiences and struggled to think of how we could stay connected. Upon reflection, I recognized that the love for beach and books ran deep among us all, and so 'The Family Summer Read' was born. The rules are simple. Starting with the oldest member of our family — me — once a year, a book is selected and copies sent to each person by Memorial Day with the expectation it will be read by Labor Day, the traditional bookends of summer. We set a day and time to meet on Zoom in September to discuss that year's selection. Throughout the summer, texts are sent with photos of people reading and updates on how far into the book they are. Competition runs strong in our family, so there is an underlying urge to be the first one to finish. My initial selection was 'The Warmth of Other Suns' by Isabel Wilkerson, a hefty choice for a beach bag. The next year, my husband chose 'Walking with the Wind,' a memoir by John Lewis with Mike D'Orso, another sizable selection. By the time it was our youngest son's chance to pick, he rebelled and opted for a paperback fantasy, 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' by Scott Lynch. 'This,' he declared, 'is a summer read.' I admit it made for much easier trips to the beach than the previous tomes we had chosen, and it was a delight to be taken out of the darkness of our world for a brief time. We are now at year nine of 'The Family Summer Read,' and we have welcomed a new member. Over time, we hope to be joined by others who are willing to pay the price of admission to our family, a love for books and the beach. Volunteering to carry the beach bag doesn't hurt either. Maggie Mulqueen is a psychologist who has written for outlets such as CNN Opinion, NBC NewsThink and The Boston Globe.
