The Dalit of American Higher Education: The Social "Untouchables"

By CCAP. In the traditional Indian caste system, certain individuals were so low they were not even classified; they were the “untouchables,” now called the dalit. Although strictly against Indian law, recent news reports say these people often are forced to do horrible tasks to this day, such as removing human excrement from latrines by their bare hands.
The academic dalit in America — the collegiate underclass — consists of two groups. Among the faculty, they are the adjuncts, persons with high teaching loads, low pay, minimal or no office space, and no job security. Although not latrine workers, they are the closest thing academic America has to that. Among the students, the “untouchables” are those students who do not make it through the system, the dropouts. More...