Stephanie Owens ENG 201-123 Social Media and White Privilege Social Media has changed the world, and while that might seem like a particularly bold statement it holds steadfast. Social Media’s original intent was to connect groups of students together, essentially an online ‘club’ for University students. Now it has exploded into a space where we are now connected globally and have access to unlimited resources on a scale never seen before. There is a worn out, but accurate, quote in the Spiderman franchise to accurately describe Social Media- “With great power comes great responsibility”. Has Social Media spawned a platform for those with white privilege to voice and spew bigotry and racism unchecked? Social Media allows people to feel …show more content…
A common excuse given on social media is that ‘I’m colorblind, I don’t see race.’, for a white person that is easy to say, but for a person of color who cannot escape the color of their skin it is degrading to even suggest. Caucasians can elect to bypass their race, they are considered the social norm and are never questioned about their skin color, and appear everywhere, whereas a person of color is an outsider. Confronting racism on social media is key, more and more young people are spending much more time on social media outlets. If we, as a society, continue to allow racists to control social media, the next generation of young people will suffer the same outcome as their parents. It cannot be healthy for a teenager of color to be subjected to constant racism for hours a day. Change can start by simply engaging and rallying with people of color. If someone of privilege sees a person of color being harassed on social media, it is important to advocate for them and call out the user doing the harassing behavior. It is crucial, not to talk ‘over’ the person of color, but to just back-up the user and help defend them. Another key point in ending racism on social media is the continued efforts of educating our youths about their privilege. We as a society continue to make social equality improvements with each generation, and now is not the time to let up. Starting education in elementary school could potentially change the social landscape, as children will be mindful of their privilege and could make a conscious effort to help their fellow classmates of color. It starts with making the future brighter for all of our children, and that future starts
Due to economy reasons upper class male citizens is the main priority to social media. White men are often seen as the main consumers for the simple reason that they have a higher purchasing power than women or any other group of people in the United States. To many Americans that thought is often normal yet, when looked upon further it’s seen as a system of beliefs that appear normal and natural but they actually reinforce the superiority of certain people, practice and beliefs known as Hegemony Ideologies. Meaning other groups with difference races and ethnicity that is not white American tends to fall into the group known the minority group. Minorities are often seen to the social media as a disadvantage and as a result is less advertised in the media (Macionis 2011: 152).
Racism has been a huge problem throughout the United States and every individual struggles with the unproductive messages of racism that is being passed on through from larger societies. Many people suffered from this in silence and it is what hits the hardest on children and youth who lack the life experience to understa...
No matter how much people try to stop discrimination of other peoples it will still always be there. A couple of weeks ago in Bowling Green an example of this behavior showed us that it is currently still a very real problem. The incident was that students that attended Bowling Green State University sent out some very discriminatory tweets about African American students who also attended the college. After these hateful tweets were posted in the Twitterverse a flood of responses followed the posts. There were many students who saw these tweets and were either appalled that anyone would say something ...
White privilege is a concept that many people are unfamiliar with, but not because they do not benefit from it. In the paper “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh argues that white people have an advantage over those of other races, though most are completely unaware of it or simply take it for granted. Her recognition of white privilege came from the concept of male privilege. She says that she looked at that concept and realized there was certainly something similar to it in regards to race (McIntosh, 1988, 11). This paper has great importance to the function of society. Because many white people do not recognize their unfair and disproportionate advantage in society, racial tensions can rise even more because there is a major wall blocking people from fixing the current issues.
It seems like every time that I log on to any one of my social media accounts, I get stopped during my leisurely scroll by one or two of my friends posts that has clearly been typed out furiously from the heart. These posts are typically created by my friends of color, both male and female. They are speaking about how racism is still very present today because they have each personally been affected by it. It is absolutely mind blowing that we are in the year 2016 and we are still witnessing people of our same species being discriminated against because of their race and/or gender. Beverly Tatum believes that “our educational institutions should do what they can to encourage this development rather than impede it” (Tatum 370).
As a member of the dominant race in America, I know that I possess certain unearned privileges that allow me to be more successful overall. I was raised with the mindset that racism doesn't affect me because I am white. The U.S. education system taught me about my racial and ethnic history, but it is likely that my classmates of different races could not say the same. I learned about racism in school but not to view whites as privileged or degrading towards subordinate groups. My group was never seen at fault for oppression or took any responsibility for it. Myself, nor my peers, were ever seen or viewed as unfairly advantaged or privileged. I grew up under the impression that any person could achieve what they wanted if they simply worked hard
White privilege are privileges that are given to white people who they do not earn, it 's an asset they get; on daily basis just because of their skin color.; White. Peggy McIntosh describes the white privilege as "an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code-books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks (McIntosh 1988, p175).” I believe that the white privilege is the same as racism because the word white privilege itself explains it. It is privilege given and offered towards only the white people. If someone is given a special privilege because they are white then that is racism.
“Privilege is not the product of luck, happenstance or natural occurrence. If it is not these things, then what is it” (Sensory & DiAngelo, 2012, p. 78)?
Today, the world is connected digitally through the internet. Here, we can see many cases of anger and or racism daily. The Internet helps us see the severity of the issue with anger and “symbolic racism”, for it is widely understood that it does not matter what race or gender you are to experience or express the emotion anger in a racist way towards others. (Redlawsk. et al. pg. 681). Many racist acts are displayed daily on social media, yet no solid understanding is presented as to why it happens in its totality. It is more common to see these types of acts nowadays, even though we are more educated on the matter. It may be that “people use the internet as an artificial platform to express their emotions” including anger and racism. In an article published in the UK, Shakuntala Banaji claims Social Media is a “potentially therapeutic resource, for those needing the validation of their racist or anti-racist views”. (Shakuntala n.p.) Based on Shakuntala’s observation, technology is playing an instigative role in this phenomenon. Some use the internet to release, and more times than less fuel their anger. Even so, social media isn’t necessarily just a negative factor on the issue of anger and racism, for it also exposes other factors that may help understand the subject in a broader spectrum. The internet allows us to view these acts of anger being portrayed by
These two topics have been a huge problem since 2015. Although, racism has changed over the years, it is still a big problem today. In today’s generation, we have seen a great deal of racial strife in just about everything. Some examples are, books, movies, poetry, and articles online. Since everything is online today, social media has really expanded all the drama of racial strife.
This has created awareness throughout the country, and everyone is aware of hate crimes that still occur in many parts of the country. This awareness is breaking people’s perspective of a nation where racial equality was considered with pride. The growth in people’s attitude has been helpful in the fact that white people are more empathetic and supportive of the problems faced by lower middle-class black people. However, this support has gone too far. There are many white people who post about hate crimes on social media, where they undermine their own race, in order to support other races. It almost seems as if these people have lost their racial identity, and only want to support the minorities so that they can belong to that group. There are always posts and blogs opposing any article published either online or on paper. Hate crimes now range from racist comments to attacks. Even if a small, unintentional racist comment appears anywhere online, there will be thousands of people attacking the person for weeks to
Many of our youth turn to social media to vent about any and every issue that is going on and it is not always positive. Dr. Nakagawa described in her article “The Use of Social Media in Teaching Race” how social media might open people to detest discourse or perspectives of White matchless quality. Numerous individuals fail to be racially educated meaning that they lack having the education and knowledge to talk about race, deconstruct and challenge occurrences of bigotry, and interface and work with others to deliver disparities in connection to race. The internet gives numerous chances to utilizing social/new media to produce content and points of view that are generally lost from more extensive societal exchanges about
As more technology has allowed people to voice their opinion a larger amount of people have attempted to spread hate to more people without the knowledge of the repercussions. A thirteen year old girl named Mo’ne Davis made history by being the first African- American female to play little League World Series ("Social Media has Consequences." 1). The success leads Davis to be able to be on the cover of “Sports Illustrator” and Disney Channel decided to develop a documentary("Social Media has Consequences." 1). This success lead to some negative tweets such as, "Disney is making a movie about Mo 'ne Davis? WHAT A JOKE. That slut got rocked by Nevada” which was written by a Bloomsburg University baseball player Joey Casselberry("Social Media has Consequences." 1). Casselberry got suspended, but the idea that just because this girl got all this great success this guy decided to call her a slut ("Social Media has Consequences." 1). The idea that just because she is a girl she cannot have the respect for a good job that is done is outrageous. This tweet was meant to degrade and split gender, as though to show that a guy should get this success rather than a girl. Social media has allowed for prejudice against women to still exist
Social media has changed the way people communicate with each other and in turn, has affected our ability to empathize in both negative and positive ways. One of the most harmful consequences is the rise of cyber-bullying. Another negative issue has been the trend of trolling in comments sections of websites, chat rooms, and other online venues of communication. In spite of this, there have been constructive consequences due to social media such as the ability for family and friends to keep in touch on a regular basis. Because of social media, many people are finding support and resources to help them when they fall on hard times or experience tragedies like death and illness. Overall, social media is an exciting new world that changes as it grows and it will be up to society to utilize it for good.
Social media has caused a substantial decrease in face-to-face time, stopped people from working effectively, and has caused an increase in bullying. Social media as defined by dictionary.com is “websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts”. People use social media for networking, education, and entertainment. Some of today’s most popular social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Facebook is used as a basic social media site.