Net Neutrality| From Net Neutrality to Net Equality

Abstract

I argue that the conceptual foundations for net neutrality assume a race neutrality that obfuscates the daily experiences of racial discrimination and the institutional dynamics of structural racism. I begin this study with an assessment of the race-neutral conceptual foundations of net neutrality reasoning, and then discuss how Critical Race Theory (CRT) has challenged these race-neutral frameworks. Drawing from CRT, I locate the ways in which legal and economic structures of discrimination have historically inhibited people of color from gaining access to employment, ownership, and decision-making power in the media and telecommunications sectors. I conclude with thoughts on how CRT can inform media policy scholarship to challenge race-neutral thinking and develop conceptual foundations for supporting what advocacy groups representing people of color have called “net equality.”