Understanding the Resilience of Caste: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Community Profiles on X (2407.02810v1)

Abstract: Despite decades of anti-caste efforts, sociocultural practices that marginalize lower-caste groups in India remain resilient and have even proliferated with the use of social media. This paper examines how groups engaged in caste-based discrimination leverage platform affordances of the social media site X (formerly Twitter) to circulate and reinforce caste ideologies. Our analysis builds upon previous HCI conceptualizations of online harms and safety to inform how to address caste-based othering. We offer theoretical and methodological suggestions for critical HCI research focused on studying the mechanisms of power along other social categories.