Race After The Internet by Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White

What makes people think it is acceptable to racially profile others? In almost any situation whether it is in public, in your own home or the internet most people seem to partake in racial profiling in one way or another. Typically this is done by discriminating someone purely based off of skin color or by stereotypes they may have heard in the past. But what does the internet have to do with this? There are a couple instances which have been shown throughout the media that are good examples of this. The first of two examples is ABC’s “What Would You Do?” segment that was aired on television. Secondly is the case involving Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. The internet plays a much bigger role on racial profiling than you may think. One way the internet influences racial discrimination against black Americans is mostly based on social media. Over the years one would think society would change to a more peaceful, equal state of mind but instead it hasn't changed and may have actually got worse by making it more acceptable when really it’s not. Another way the internet influences racial profiling is from news and informational sites that expand real life cases such as the previously two mentioned with Trayvon and the ABC feature. The connection between the two is that racism keeps being brought up on the internet even though views on this subject have apparently changed. The reason why racial profiling is so pervasive is caused by the internet. Internet users have authority to say what they want and where they want. The end result is the internet being filled with user’s opinions and reactions to many different things to where readers of the internet get influence and own ideas, causing racial profiling and discrimination to spr...

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... old era are gone and the new era has fully come in this problem won’t as bad because they won’t be raised to think like that. I guess no one will know until that day actually comes.

Works Cited

• Mcmc Lisa Nakamura, Peter Chow-White. Race after the Internet. New York, Routledge, 2012.

• Evan M Axelrod. Violence Goes to the Internet Avoiding the Snare of the Net. WorldCat. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD, 2009.

• PJ Williams. The Monsterization of Trayvon Martin In defending George Zimmerman; his attorneys exploited ugly racial stereotypes. British Library Serials. NATION -NEW YORK- 297, no. 7/8, (August 19, 2013): 17-22

• Rebecca M Blank; Marilyn Dabady; Constance F Citro. Measuring racial discrimination. WorldCat. Washington, DC : National Academies Press, 2004.

• CHARNEE PEREZ. Lost Key or Bike Thief: What Would You Do?. ABCNews, May 6, 2010.