Abstract
This paper explores the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in exacerbating social polarization in India and the United States. The paper aims to examine the role of ICT in shaping public opinion and group convictions about the reservation policy in India and the policy of affirmative action in the U.S. The proliferation of ICT platforms has meant the widening of spaces of social articulation across gender, race, religion, and castes whereby supporters and critics of these policies represent their claims and contestations. This widening creates concomitant insulation in “echo chambers” where exposure to content consistent with individual and group opinions reinforces existing beliefs, attitudes, and the resulting behavior. In both India and the U.S., the ideological systems and social values of dominant races and castes tend to dominate the multiple ICT platforms sowing further (mis)trust in the state-sponsored development policies aimed at educating and empowering subjugated groups such as Blacks in the U.S. and Dalits (ex-untouchables) in India. The paper argues that ICT mediated ideas of equality and justice fail to recognize centuries of racial and caste oppression and based on the content analysis of the data, a reparations policy in both nations that works towards the democratization of virtual spaces to represent the voices of the voiceless is one of the best remedies.
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Notes
- 1.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, accessed November 17, 2020 https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964
- 2.
IM Diversity, “Affirmative Action is Great for White Women. So Why Do They Hate It?,” accessed November 17, 2020 https://imdiversity.com/diversity-news/affirmative-action-is-great-for-white-women-so-why-do-they-hate-it/
- 3.
Zachary Bleeme, “The impact of Proposition209 and access-oriented UC admissions policies on underrepresented UC applications, enrollment, and long-run student outcomes” accessed November 17, 2020 https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/uc-affirmative-action.pdf
- 4.
B.P. Mandal, the chairmanship of backward class commission recommended for 27% reservations for OBC in education and employment in India. OBC comes under the shudra varna who have deprived of economic, educational and employment opportunities for ages.
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Turner, KC.N., Gundemeda, N., Sultana, S. (2022). (De)polarizing ICT Debates of Reservations and Affirmative Action Policy: A Plea for Reparations in India and the U.S.. In: Qureshi, I., Bhatt, B., Gupta, S., Tiwari, A.A. (eds) Causes and Symptoms of Socio-Cultural Polarization. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5268-4_6
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