White Privilege Manifested within the Internet - Term Paper Example

? Race and the Internet This has unanimously been referred to as the internet age. This is because the internet today governs mostof our lives. The internet not only plays a role in the way that we interact with those around us, it also changes the way we view each other. Mostly it has been the case that the internet is seen as a medium. It is now the case that the internet is a perpetrator. We have moved much of our lives online. Even in a small office where co-workers sit only a few meters from one another, there is a growing preference to send an e-mail rather than just walk to the recipient and deliver the message in person. The fact that even talking has become a fringe activity is the biggest marker yet of how much we have moved our lives online. However, the entry of this new mode of communication has not changed some of the ways in which we relate to other people in real life. One of the areas of great interest is with regard to race relations. For a long time we have got used to the idea that whites are portrayed as superior to all other races. There are different constructs in society that help reinforce that stereotype. The internet is now one of the mediums through which white privilege is passed on. There are several ways in which white privilege is manifested with regard to the internet. This paper shall seek to, explore those ways. In addition to that, the paper shall explore some of the ways that have been tried out to bring a about a more level racial playing field on the internet. White privilege has been defined variously but the basic components of that definition remain the same. It has to do with access for instance and the rewards that one receives for belonging to the white race. Further still there is a component that that states that there is some power to affect norms and values as a result of someone being white. Finally there is an agreement that white privilege can either be manifested consciously or unconsciously. The first point of entry when discussing a topic of this nature is to look at the development stage with regards to new technologies and software. It is known by all technology enthusiasts and mere watchers of the industry that Silicon Valley in California is the technology capital of the world in many ways. This is an area where developers and geeks gather to try and discover the next big thing in the world of technology. Most internet startups are located in Silicon Valley. Above all, this is an affluent part of California (Nakamura 2002). Most of these young men and women it must be said are white. They develop technologies that are genuinely designed to help the rest of humanity. However, we all know that diversity is a theme of continuing importance in this age of globalization. The lack of diversity in such places where technologies are developed is the first stage at which tendencies that are racial in nature later come to dominate people of other races when they eventually make them to the internet. Racial diversity might not add anything tangible in the process of developing these technologies, but at the very least it gives the developers an alternative viewpoint of the technologies that hey are developing. After all they are going to be used by people of all races (Nakamura 2002). To further illustrate this point, think about the world famous owners and founders of all the big global internet and technology companies. The most eminent of them, the now deceased Steve Jobs, was white. The founder of Facebook, mark Zuckerberg is white also. The Amazon founder is white also. It therefore begs the question, why is racial equality or rather diversity not reflected in the development of the major internet and technology firms? This is because there is limited access for those who belong to other races. Why for instance would a black man be the president of the United States but there is not even one renowned black founder of any of the big global internet and technology firms? The answer is that there is a lack of access (Racism review). On the flipside, the less technical and less glamorous jobs of assembly are done by blacks and Latinos in the USA. There are even several companies that do their assembly in China and other places in the East. This clearly reflects the fact that there is a belief among the privileged elite that only the whites can do the jobs of development best. It might however point to something even more serious in the way each of these communities relates with the internet and technology. This brings us to the subject of Jamillah Kings study. The study is entitled ‘How Big Telecom Used Smartphones to Create a New Digital Divide’ (King 2011). Access with respect to the internet has several tentacles as we shall see in this paper. There is another form of access. This is the form of access that entails the kind of device that users depend on to access the internet across the different races. The main devices today are desktop computers, lap tops and even Smartphones. It is baffling that even in this case there are racial trends that seem to manifest themselves. This is according to a study by Jamillah King, already referred to above (King 2011). However, smartphones are the new fad. As we shall come to see, the black and Latino populations in the U.S are the main dependents upon smartphones as the main form of access to the internet. The incredible research that king conducted shows that people of coluor depend mostly on smartphones because of affordability. In her own words ‘It’s the most affordable way to get onto the information superhighway’. It does not end there however; there seem to be racial disparities in the type of mobile phone used by each of the races. Blacks are for instance said to prefer Android phones. The whites on the other hands are said to prefer iPhones. This is an important disparity. However, as the author points out again, cost is the main reason. Android phones are cheaper than the iPhones (King 2011). There is however a much more instructive reason behind the choice of device. On the face of it, this seems that it is merely a matter of cost. However, research has shown that low income settlements are not covered by broadband connections. This is certainly the case not only in the United States but everywhere across the world. Lack of broadband makes it necessary for the inhabitants of such settlements to find the next easiest mode of access to the internet. Investing in computers is not the first option however. Therefore there ends up being a huge racial divide in as far as access to the internet is concerned, at least with respect to the device used (King 2011). So far there has been a lot of attention paid to the unconscious ways in which white supremacy is manifested with regard to the internet. However there are more visible examples of racism on the internet today. One of the clearest manifestations is through cyber racism. There are several reasons why this form of racism has spawned despite the best efforts by regulators to rein it in. One of the reasons is that racist groups lack the oxygen of publicity that is offered by the mainstream media. The other reason is that the internet is a free global resource and therefore easy to access and hard to monitor. Some countries lack laws relating to the internet because it is still an evolving phenomenon (Kimmel & Ferber 2008). Covertly, white supremacy seeks to manifest itself in very shrewd ways. There is a realization even on the part of the racists that their cause is not supported by popular sentiment. Therefore they have to find alternative ways to air their grievances without being too obvious. One of those methods is hidden within the need for ‘free speech’. In many parts of the world today, freedom is defined by the extent to which the citizens can go against the positions of their governments without any penalties. The racists seek free speech so as to be able to utter their racial sentiments without punishment. This is coming under thorough scrutiny though. Several internet sites have been opened in the name of free speech but supporting racism (Australian Human Rights Commission). Another way in which the internet has been used to further racism has been the establishment of sites that are against ‘immigration’. These sites seem to be supporting what might be a noble cause and at the very least a valid debate. However, at the heart of them there is a lot of racism that is propagated. These sites operate with full knowledge of the regulators. They manage to fly under the radar because they do not associate themselves explicitly with any of the main schools of thought with regards to immigration. They merely oppose immigration on the grounds that that racial mixing is inappropriate and rarely cite any economic reasons for holding their positions (Australian Human Rights Commission). Another avenue on the internet for the propagation of racial stereotypes is the computer games. There are computer games for instance currently available on the internet called ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ and ‘shoot the nigga’. This is a very sensitive subject that is being handled with the least care by the developers of these games. Unfortunately, the developers of these games are also predominantly white. This means that there is an insensitivity that is inborn about the people of coloured races among the white race. This can only be eliminated when people from other races are allowed to interact with the developers in the course of developing their games. The main reason is that some racial issues might be unseen by the perpetrator even when they are obvious (Rothenberg 2008). Music is today a central motivation for many who use the internet. There are all sorts of people who wish to access the latest music and also find out about the already produced music from other people. This means that music is another arena through which white supremacy is propagated. There is music that is solely dedicated to the enforcement of the white people as the superior race. Such music is called by various names among them ‘Hatecore, Oi!, Volk Music and White Power Rock’. All this music is freely available on the internet and therefore spreads racism overtly over the internet (King 2011). This sort of music is important in many ways for those who create it. They might not necessarily be interested in profit but rather passing on a message of a very dangerous nature. Therefore they go to all extents to make sure that their music is available to those who might be interested. They also use this as a recruitment mechanism for those who wish to join their various groups. There are even internet radio stations that are solely dedicated to the broadcast of racially offensive material. These must be stopped because of the huge influence and reach that they exercise over their listeners (Australian Human Rights Commission). Another avenue on the internet where racist activity is witnessed is the interactive parts of the internet. They can either be chat rooms, e-mailing among others. These are used as informational tools for those who proscribe to racist ideology and behavior. They use these tools to organize and inform one another. The emails on one hand are private and therefore beyond the reach of the authorities most jurisdictions. They are also tedious to monitor because several of them are sent at any given time. They are however very effective for the organizers because they maintain the secretive nature of the correspondences that they keep (Rothenberg 2008). Chat rooms are the other avenue. These are open to the authorities. The correspondence that goes on in chat rooms is assumed to be of a very constructive nature; however, this is not always the case. The discourse in chat rooms is therefore bound to be tainted by racist ideology in the name of constructive discussion. This is one of the areas where white supremacist ideology is most manifested. The contributors use fictitious names in a good number of the cases. They know how to manipulate technology so that they are not accessible by the authorities. They need to be monitored closely therefore (Nakamura 2011). On the whole, the internet and race are two concepts that are yet to be reconciled to the liking of any of the groups involved. There has been a change in the way the internet is used as a result of the infiltration of racial tendencies. Most of those tendencies seem to reinforce the position of the white people as they look down upon the people from other races. This is not accidental however. It seems to be a very deliberate process that originates from the development of internet based technologies. This is where the whites seem to take centre stage as the people from other races are relegated to the menial duties in the course of developing these technologies. On the internet, these inequalities seem to be replicated too. They come in the form of cyber bullying and other covert means. There are even sites that are dedicated to the propagation of the primacy of the white race. All these are still in operation in the name of freedom of speech or other constitutional provisions. There must be a hard look at the internet and try to align it with the changing views on race. Works cited Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. London: Routledge, 2002.Print. Article by Jessie titled ‘Race, Racism & the Internet: 10 Things Sociologists Should Be Researching’. Retrieved from http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2010/08/20/race-racism-interne-10-things/ Nakamura, Lisa. Race after the Internet. London: Routledge, 2011.Print. King, Jamillah. How Big Telecom Used Smartphones to Create a New Digital Divide. Retrieved from http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/12/the_new_digital_divide_two_separate_but_unequal_internets.html Kimmel, Michael. & Ferber, Abby. Privilege: A reader. London: Westview Press, 2009. Print. Rothenberg, Paul. Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism. New York: Worth publishers, 2008. Print. Article named ‘Examples of racist material on the internet’ by the Australian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved from http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/examples-racist-material-internet Read More