Ethnic and Race Formation and the Internet
Stephanie Luu
Soc 0835, Sec 002
Yuichi Moroi
November 9, 2010
Ethnic/Race Identity Formation and the Internet Throughout the course of American history, immigration from around the world has been occurring. The result from the different people emigrating from such varying parts of the human race creates the diversity in American society. As different ethnicities come into America, racial discrimination and stereotypes are created. Ethnic identity starts to become an issue where immigration, sexuality, religion, politics, and social change begin to shape how race and ethnicity are constructed and perceived in the American culture. In contemporary society, the internet serves as an additional element of the construction and shaping of these social identities. People are capable of using online networks and databases to learn about different cultures. By pressing a few buttons and clicking search, information is instantly displayed and questions can be immediately answered. The concern of the matter lies behind the authentication of the content; information posted on the web does not have to be validated by academic scholars to be published. Knowing the criteria for assessing web pages, the obtaining of misleading information can be avoided. Stereotypes generally occur among races that appear to differ from one’s own. It happens as a result of a person’s subconscious mind to group and generalize a person by their descriptions and physical attributes. These classifications can be positive or negative, which creates an issue with the construction of social identities of different racial and ethnic groups. Being that the first groups to arrive to America can be generally stereotyped as “white”, people of other descents are known to be minorities. Some of these groups include black people, Hispanic people, Indian people, Asian people, and more. The focus of this paper will be on those of Chinese descent; in particular, the stereotypes of Chinese
Soc 0835, Sec 002
Yuichi Moroi
November 9, 2010
Ethnic/Race Identity Formation and the Internet Throughout the course of American history, immigration from around the world has been occurring. The result from the different people emigrating from such varying parts of the human race creates the diversity in American society. As different ethnicities come into America, racial discrimination and stereotypes are created. Ethnic identity starts to become an issue where immigration, sexuality, religion, politics, and social change begin to shape how race and ethnicity are constructed and perceived in the American culture. In contemporary society, the internet serves as an additional element of the construction and shaping of these social identities. People are capable of using online networks and databases to learn about different cultures. By pressing a few buttons and clicking search, information is instantly displayed and questions can be immediately answered. The concern of the matter lies behind the authentication of the content; information posted on the web does not have to be validated by academic scholars to be published. Knowing the criteria for assessing web pages, the obtaining of misleading information can be avoided. Stereotypes generally occur among races that appear to differ from one’s own. It happens as a result of a person’s subconscious mind to group and generalize a person by their descriptions and physical attributes. These classifications can be positive or negative, which creates an issue with the construction of social identities of different racial and ethnic groups. Being that the first groups to arrive to America can be generally stereotyped as “white”, people of other descents are known to be minorities. Some of these groups include black people, Hispanic people, Indian people, Asian people, and more. The focus of this paper will be on those of Chinese descent; in particular, the stereotypes of Chinese
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