This week in class we talked about race and racial comments
in blogging and on the internet. In
Andre Brock’s piece Life on the wire:
deconstructing race on the internet, he argues that race is important in
understanding web content and how it’s produced, that it is about social
economic status and class.
In class we talked about how unmediated conversations on the
internet seem to have more profanity and direct insults based on race than in
conversations that have a gate keeper.
Though I am a big supporter of our right to freedom of speech, when it
comes to being unnecessarily nasty, mean, and racist I think it is better to
have a gatekeeper. You can easily speak
your mind and express your point without having to use racial slurs, homophobic
phrases, and profanity. In my opinion these
things make you sound unintelligent and make your point trivial in comparison
to the negative remarks added. A poll
done by the Associated Press found that 4 out of 10 people ages 14-24 are “cool”
with discrimination on the internet as long as the person adds that they were “just
kidding”. Granted that means 60% are not
okay with discrimination, however, it does leave lots of room for improvement. It’s harder to change an adults mind once
they are engrained in a certain way of expressing themselves. That is why I believe it is paramount that we
teach our children that this type of behavior is not acceptable.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/11/20/no-saying-just-kidding-doesnt-make-your-racist-internet-slur-ok/
I agree with your post Emily, and having experience with being a forum moderator, I think I can say that in some ways it is good to have a gatekeeper in order to "keep the peace." Some people go on the internet only to exploit the concept of anonymity so that they can cause headaches with other people (by using profanity and such), and can interrupt the flow of serious conversations that may be happening.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you guys brought up the topic of anonymity. I actually focused my first paper for class on the internet comments that users were leaving when they found out that Amandla Stenberg, an African-American girl, was playing the role of Rue for Hunger Games.
ReplyDeleteThese comments were NOT nice, with online users posting things such as, "I can't believe Rue is black!" This reveals the idea that the online community is building a space where covert racism is no longer necessary because people can now explicitly say racist things while being anonymous.
In my final paper I will actually explore the themes of anonymity, and how evidently racism is no longer solely "color-blind" but rather overt in these online spaces.
I also agree with your post. I feel like when you are going to post an opinionated comment on a blog you have to be extra careful how you word things or else someone can misinterpret it and start a feud. I think mediators should be set in place to monitor comments, but maybe have more than one mediator to avoid bias so that one person is not just deleting everything that goes against what they believe in. There is always going to be that one jerky or ignorant person that makes a rude comment on a controversial subject, and I think it's better if we just ignore them and only post things that add to the idea or content of the original blog idea.
ReplyDelete