Internet Racism

In today’s society, announcing one’s aversion towards people different from them is the fastest way receive ridicule. In general, society has progressed to a point where being xenophobic, racist, and sexist is socially unacceptable. Despite this progress, society still suffers from the effects of racism, xenophobia, and sexism. Why is that? The answer has to do with the fact that while explicit expressions of these behaviors are seen as unacceptable, implicit associations still permeate our society. These associations lead to implicit bias. Implicit bias is readily becoming the most pervasive form of bias in our society. It contributes to both micro and macro-level inequalities, and raising awareness of implicit bias is crucial in order to suppress its effects on society. This paper will start with a discussion of what implicit bias is. This will be followed by a discussion of the effects of implicit bias. It will conclude with a discussion of how implicit bias can be combatted.

Social Media is a form of communication in which a person shares information, personal ideas, and thoughts online. The foundation of social media began in 1997 when the first social media site Six Degrees was developed. Since 1997, social media has become an iconic name and has become part of this generation's conversation. There are over 100 million people using social media to gain access to the digital world, with over 20 social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram (Milanovic 1). Roughly 80 percent of teens and 20 percent of adults use social media daily and almost half of the users were bullied or criticized for a single comment. Comments that include discrimination, sexism, or political beliefs can be retweeted to thousands in a matter of hours. “Accusations go viral, globally, within hours, and instead of having dozens of angry voices baying for your blood, you have tens of thousands” (Haley 1). Although social media has made it easier to communicate these sites, make it easier to be critical or prejudiced to others online instead of face-to-face.

Microaggressions have been further generalized under a category of racism identified as aversive racism, where discriminating parties tend to find security by associating with those similar to them, thus marginalizing other parties. While working with his colleagues, Sue further categorized microaggressions into three different divisions: microassaults, microinsult, and microinvalidation. This further categorization has let those guilty of using microaggressions how they have the negative effect that they do.

In the article “Racial Microagressions in Everyday Life”, Derald Wing Sue and his colleagues highlight racial microagressions that occur in a therapeutic relationship. As defined in the article, microagressions are brief verbal, behavioral, or environmental actions that convey hostility, derogatory, or negativity towards a certain group of people. Microagressions can be subtle such as assuming an Asian American or Latin American is foreign born. It can also be obvious such as specifically going to an Asian person in a group of black and white students for help with a math or science problem. These actions can occur with or without intention of the person portraying the microagression.

You may not know any bigots, you think “I don’t hate black people, so I’m not racist”, but you benefit from racism. There are certain privileges and opportunities you have that you do not even realize because you have not been deprived in certain ways. Racism, institutional and otherwise, does not always manifest itself in a way that makes it readily identifiable to onlookers, victims, or perpetrators; it is not always the outward aggression typically associated with being a hate crime. Racial microaggressions are a type of perceived racism. They are more subtle and ambiguous than the more hostile or overt expressions of racism, such as racial discrimination (CITE). Microaggressions are everyday verbal, visual, or environmental

In past century, optimists have predicted the post racial utopian after new technology brought in virtual lives online, however, in “ Inequality: Can Social Media Resolve Social Divisions?” Social media scholar Danah Boyd argues that social media has not erase the social or racial divisions that are deeply rooted in our physical schools and communities, on contrary, it extends offline social divisions including racism and bigotry virtually online. Boyd develops her idea by in-depth interviewing numerous teenagers with different racial and social backgrounds and analyzing various sources regarding social networks and their effect on teens lives. She shows concern and frustration towards the fact that race-based dynamics of

Part of the presentation that described what implicit racial bias is, how it is measured, and how it influences everyday interactions. All participants viewed this presentation but only intervention group participants were provided with strategies and group sessions aimed to help minimize implicit racial bias.

This essay intends to argue that implicit racial prejudice can be reduced through the use of interventions that seek to promote familiarity and recognition of implicit racial prejudice. The first part will detail the factors that contribute to implicit racial prejudice specifically, identity, stereotyping and

Racism and dissemination based on hatred and racial superiority were pressing social problem prior to the emergence of the information age and digital communications. Long before the internet entered our homes racist groups made use of other communication tools including the telephone networks as far back as the 1970s. However the advancement of the digital communication age has added a new dimension to this problem by providing individuals in organizations modern and powerful means to support racism in xenophobia. The Internet is becoming our main means of communication creating a unique set of challenges and communication barriers particularly when it comes to the proliferation of extremist and racist material. The internet functions as a dangerous facilitator for various racist messages, and the proliferation of racist material will continue with the increased usage of the internet.

Derald Wing Sue and his team of fellow psychologists at Columbia University are at the forefront of the burgeoning field of racial microaggressions. Their research focuses on reviewing and analyzing empirical and experiential evidence to form and propose a taxonomy to classify racial microaggressions. Dr. Sue and his team derived a substantial portion of empirical evidence from the social psychological literature on previous studies about aversive racism. They also collected personal narratives from a diverse sample of psychologists as experiential evidence. Creating an adequate system of classification applicable to a variety of social situations would catalyze the progress of research efforts.

Racism online, or cyber racism is racism in the cyber or online world. Racism is discrimination other races believing that their race in superior. This is a form of cyberbullying and violates the Federal Racial Discrimination act 1975, which prohibits racial hatred. Over 40% of the racial hatred in Australia is related to cyber racism. If you see racism comments on any website, you can report it to the Australian Human Rights Commission, The Australian Communication and Media Authority or in extreme cases such as threatening violence, the police at 131444 (not 000). Keep 000 for emergencies. They will review the issue and make the necessary actions. On some websites, you can report it. You can report Youtube videos, report abuse on Facebook

The Internet provides arguably the biggest audience of any one medium because there are very few limits to its reach. Therefore then, the Internet has provided a uniquely rapid and almost irreversible way of becoming what some call “Internet famous”. Often, this attention is without the subject’s conscious consent and more than likely comes with consequences in the form of comments from millions of faceless online critics. The availability of becoming an online critic has created a kind of social ownership of deciding which stories Internet users like and dislike. Public awareness, however, of this availability goes far beyond hitting a “like” button. Go on any social media or online news outlet that allows comments and you will find an array of colorful, unabashed and personally attacking comments. The anonymity of online commenting has been evaluated to lead online users to be brasher and even hateful because there is no immediate consequence for their

Nowadays with all the new media and technologies, it seems like that we are living in the future. A future without racial and gender struggles. A common belief about the new media is that we will become truly equal with the help of new media, but some people still do racist and sexist things in new media. As Lisa Nakamura states in her essay that “Racism and sexism have continue to flourish on the internet, and indeed to some extents have even come to define it , despite our supposedly ‘post racial’ historical moment” (81), I believe that new media is not the solution of the issues of race ,gender and sexuality, but reinforcement of the ideologies behind those problems.

As stated in “Politics and Ethics in Social Media”, “…The use of such media is now intrinsic to contemporary political, social and identity forming processes…” The second perspective provided in this same chapter is “culture of prejudice” which “refers to the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture. We grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism and prejudice…” (237). It would be difficult to determine the magnitude of influence these labels and terms have had on our sociological imagination.

With the ability to hide behind a screen, the issue of race and people being racist is far more common than it is in reality. Where in real life racists are still active but are more subtle, people on the internet know no boundaries. Someone can say whatever they what without any fear of backlash physically. On the internet, everyone has the freedom to express what they think, but some take this to extremes. Where some want to speak racists thoughts, others choose to change their identities. While including race change in the changing of their personal identities on the internet, people use this tactic as a way to cyberbully others. People find it easier to say things online that they would want to say in person. With the popularity of social