Thursday, December 10, 2009

Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet

A person’s race is a very important part of a person’s live. Race is the way in which a person identifies themselves with others. The virtual world, by which I mean online video games, chat rooms, social network sites and other communities online should be a place where individuals can feel comfortable being themselves. However, there are great amounts of people who do not input their race because they believe that other individuals will not approve of them.

In Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet by Lisa Nakamura, Asian-American, African-American and Latino users decided to exclude their “real life” race in their descriptions. I believe that these individuals should not be afraid of posting what they are. They should be proud of their race and not care if immature people on the Internet are going to judge them. These groups of people already get judged in the real world. They should be able to be themselves in the virtual world.

As an American-Mexican woman I have learned to value my roots and I have learned to appreciate and respect other cultures. I am proud of what I am and I do not exclude my race in the virtual world because I want people to know who and what I am. I do not want the “Default Whiteness” to be on my social network site. I think that people need to mature and begin to embrace every different culture that exists. When this happens the virtual world will be accepting and so will the real world. However, I don’t see this taking place in my lifetime, but I hope that I am wrong.

I know that I did not speak very much in class but I really enjoyed this class. Air is now one of my favorite novels. I literally could not stop reading the book. I would always read ahead because I found the book too interesting to stop reading! Thank you for everything!

Claudia Andrade

9 comments:

  1. I agree that no one should fear the reactions of others to their true identities, but this can be incredibly difficult for people to come to terms with. Being proud of who you are is something some people find difficult to achieve, as uncertainty and fear are constant antagonizers.

    The internet at least provides us with a first step, making us feel more private and secure in our efforts of self-expression. It is, therefore, interesting but not unforeseen that so much racism and other prejudice still shows up in many online contexts. People that troll are a main example of instigators of such prejudice and exhibit behavior they are sometimes afraid to show in the real world. So while the internet is a theoretical haven for people to experience true equality, it will also remain a similar haven for those who do not believe in true inequality. It's a very big problem, and one even theoretical online civil rights movements of the future might not solve.

    Utopianists might argue that, over time, as breeding becomes more mixed, humans will eventually coalesce into a singular race. Consider what the internet would be like then!

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  2. I think that probably the main reason people want to hide their racial identity lies further than just conformity. It also lies in their expectations to behave certain ways as members of this or that race or group. Thus, no offense to anyone here, if someone would want to act in wild or "free" or "liberated" ways online, he would often, and there have been cases like this, choose his avatar as a modern black person, with long dreads, a chain across his neck, and other articles of clothing and/or bodily characteristics associated with the Gangsta fashion of behavior.

    Similarly, if someone wanted to show himself as being highly educated to the point of ignoring much else, some people will, in the modern games and graphical instant messaging programs like IMVU, make themselves a typically "Asian" person, even though the user may himself be white, or of African heritage, or any other ethnicity.

    Thus, at least now, it seems that fewer people are going for the default whiteness and instead are taking on the facades of the ethnicities whose stereotypes they relate to the most. This is also, detractive to society, because this type of behavior furthers the stereotypes. This is in fact, somewhat similar to the image of the "Trucker who poses as a young Asian woman," except that this is done on a much more massive scale now, and can and usually does cause more damage than isolated cases.

    So, in the end, I do agree that people shouldn't be afraid of their ethnicities and racial backgrounds for any reason whatsoever. Both hiding it because of "embarrassment" or the desire to connect with other types of people are unacceptable, and serve to harm both the person and the group that he/she uses for his own ends. Stereotypes are something that is almost always negative, but, alas, humans are too often pulled to do the negative things, rather than stand up for what is good and right. Thus, probably while the internet exists, while people exist, stereotypes are going to remain a very powerful and painful issue, for many people all across the world.

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  3. I do agree with your sentiments that people should not be afraid to take pride in their race and that everyone should be tolerant of diversity. However, we live in a world that has not been quite so perfect in regards to racial tolerance. The racism present today has roots from yesterday. Although I do believe that blatant racism has diminished quite a bit, i think that racism is still prevalent, but has to be concealed and less obvious.

    In regards to race online, the Internet may serve as shield for victims of racism to enjoy equality. The internet provides an alternative world for users to get away from the cruelty in the real world. People should never be discouraged of their roots, but leaving race anonymous online allows everyone to feel equal. Perhaps this same feat can one day be accomplished in the real world. It would be beautiful if we could delete the word race from everyone's minds and look at every being as equal humans. I'm not suggesting deleting culture, rather deleting race.

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  4. I completely agree with Claudia that people should be proud of their race/ethnicity as opposed to hiding who they are in shame. But sometimes people do not hide their identity simply because they are embarrassed by their own race/ethnicity. Instead, their(minorities') under-representation on the Internet is culpable for the lack of ethnicity-displaying among forums or other online communities. In other words, the problem of default whiteness is not that minorities do not wish to show the color of their skin, but rather, the avatar menu does not include the option for users to choose their skin color. Of course, this lack of choices on the avatar menu concerns issues surrounding age, gender, and even sexuality as well. As a result, users (especially the sensitive ones) would feel an indirect discrimination against their identity. And though, without supportive evidence, it is hard to say whether users thus become ashamed of their identity; all in all, the default-whiteness phenomenon is actually a direct consequence of the Internet's lack of representation of the minorities.

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  5. I am Huiling, btw.
    Oops... "by the way*" :P

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  6. I agree with Kevin that the Internet can serve as a sort of escape for victims of race discrimination. But I wonder, is this really the solution? Is it right to hide out on the Internet, not revealing what race you are, really the solution to racial discrimination as a social problem? It seems to me like sometimes the argument is "people don't know what race you are, so there is no discrimination" which I think is false. The premise and the conclusion don't agree with each other. It's not that there is NO discrimination on the internet, but rather that people CAN'T discriminate because users are unaware of each other's races. If that's the case, then the Internet isn't some kind of ideal place where discrimination disappears.

    Also, the fact that a user is free to choose what race he/she is isn't the same as "no race". If there were truly no race on the internet, then it wouldn't even be an option in some form you have to fill in, because it won't matter. To me, the fact that people can choose their race in some ways aggravates the problem. Instead of showing society that whatever race they truly are is great, some people choose to lie about what race they are by choosing a, for the lack of a better word, "superior" race. This, in the long run, clearly only serves to reinforce society's discrimination.

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  7. I agree with Akihiro that the Internet is a place where discrimination lurks but that it cannot be used against you if you do not give out your race. However, at least for me, I've seen more discrimination against people's age rather than their race. Especially since in most games you never put in your race. As for social networking sites, generally people cannot see your profile unless you become friends with them. Those are the only two I can speak for, though, because I've never been into chat rooms or anything else of that nature.

    While there is racism on the Internet, I think it is more of just no one knows what your race is. I know that if you have a headset and you sound like you are five years old, then you are going to be made fun of. I believe that it is more likely to be made fun of for your age rather than anything else on the Internet, which is not much better than having racist commends said about you. Either way, the Internet is by no means a perfect getaway from the negativity of life. If anything, it only furthers that negativity because people can "hide" behind their computer screens and poke fun at you without having to worry about any consequences.

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  8. I agree with your thoughts on race and diversity. The world is a slowly expanding and further diversifying. It takes time for certain things to be considered acceptable in society. True, people need to be more mature and value each person as a unique individual, however, it is not expected that it can come about immediately. Every person should do his or her part in standing up and being confident of their race. A person’s race is part of his or her identity. Every single one of us on this planet is different. Even identical twins are different. People need to embrace themselves and not shy away from fear of trying to conform.

    If a person does not embrace his or her uniqueness, then he or she might as well be cloned. With multiple people walking around acting like the original, no one would care about that original individual anymore. That person might as well have been a robot or nonexistent.

    -Brittany Judoprasetjo

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  9. I agree with many of the sentiments expressed above about being proud of your culture and identity. However, I also feel that another positive aspect of the internet today is that there is room for experimentation. For example, a heterosexual person could try changing his status to that of a homosexual, to see what it'd be like and experience possible prejudices for sexual identities. Additionally, a gender confused individual could try creating two profiles - one as a male and one as a female - to see which one is more comfortable. I know that this might seem like a form of deception or lying, but it would probably be quite helpful to many people out there.

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