Lessons Learned from Comparing the Application of Constitutional Law and Anti-Discrimination Law to African Americans in the U.S. and Dalits in India in the Context of Higher Education

Authors

Kevin D. Brown, Indiana University Maurer School of LawFollow
Vinay Sitapati

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Publication Citation

24 Harvard Blackletter Law Journal 3 (2008)

Abstract

In this Article the authors will compare the development of constitutional law and federal anti-discrimination law in the context of higher education of African-Americans in the U.S. and Dalits in India. Both groups suffer from oppression and discrimination based upon a hereditary trait and related to their integration into mainstream society; neither group is completely isolated from the majority population responsible for the discrimination; and African-Americans and Dalits approximate similar percentages of their country's population. Based upon the 2000 census, African-Americans constitute 12.7% of the American populations, and, according to the 1991 Census Report of India, Dalits make up 16.5% of the Indian population. Yet, although African-Americans have been victims of hereditary racial oppression in the U.S. for almost 400 years, Dalits have suffered oppression for 3,500 years and counting.

Recommended Citation

Brown, Kevin D. and Sitapati, Vinay, "Lessons Learned from Comparing the Application of Constitutional Law and Anti-Discrimination Law to African Americans in the U.S. and Dalits in India in the Context of Higher Education" (2008). Articles by Maurer Faculty. 44.
https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub/44