Racism In The Digital World

Joshua Anderson
Cyber Racism
February 23, 2010
Instructor Roby

In the reading Cyber Racism, the interaction of people in the digital world of the internet is thoroughly examined. The digital world opens up another channel for people across the globe to connect with each other and communicate across networks that would normally be separated by physical distance. Even though internet interaction is not face to face as one would be in the real world, it still produces the same things that normal people deal with in society. Issues tackled in American history such as racism and blatant white supremacy movements surface themselves again online meeting little resistance. With this said it is clear in this reading that the elements of race,
The most obvious as in the civil rights movement of the 60’s, race is more difficult to think about when analyzing the problem it presents in the digital world. The reason, as Daniels points out in the reading, is because when first putting race into perspective online, one would think race does not exist. There is no face to face interaction in most cases, and usually race only comes into existence in the physical form. At first glance this is true, but as Daniels points out the internet presents a chance for race to be identified. For example, the reading goes onto say that internet “screen names signify racial identity in general. Screen names are chosen to signify national identity and racial ideology as well as racial and gender identity.” This is not harmful until this identity is used to institute racism online, from one participant to another. Like mentioned before, screen names do not only reveal race, but it may also give way to gender, which also can help construct a system of stratification. In this example of identity being presented through screen names, a particular person on the worldwide web can be placed and categorized by what there screen name reads even before engaging in
In the reading Cyber Racism, the audience is presented a white supremacy based web site called Stormfront.org, which is a haven for people who support this movement, or want to learn more about this group. So before reading Daniels writing, one is already expecting that this site degrades African-Americans and is critical of the actions and reforms mad by the Civil Rights movement. As shown though, this is only the surface of the topics included in this white supremacist site. Just as in the print-only era, white- male dominance is an important aspect of the movement, making females more inferior to males and thus stratifying the white supremacist group within by gender. This is exemplified when Daniels, goes to explain how Stormfront.org has its own “ladies-only” site. Daniels then goes on to explain that mixed sites that is when women and men are part of the same discussion boards, women are at a disadvantage just as they are in society today. This is hard to believe because online there are no physical barriers to participate in discussions. From analyzing this reading, the problem is not women themselves; it’s the social norms of society on a global perspective. Anywhere in the world the norm is usually that men dominate society in patriarchal communities. This norm translates itself into the digital world of the internet, and is apparent here in this example from