New Media - New Racism

1. New Media - New Racism • Anti-Gay Cyber Violence, The “Dirty Little Secret” of Community Blogging, Normalizing Violence in “Love the Way You Lie” — Microaggressions

2. Anti-Gay Speech on the Internet • As of 2011 the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified over 1018 active hate groups; most with active internet sites (up from 932 in 2010) • The growth in hate group Web sites also coincides with an increase in reported hate crimes (motivated by a bias against persons based on race, religion, sexual orientation and ethnicity/national origin

3. Stormfront • Launched in 1995 by Don Black - former KKK Grand Dragon • In 2002 the website reported 2000 hits worldwide • After Barak Obama became a frontrunner in the 2008 election: over 40,000 unique daily visitors • After 2012 Election

4. Why the Internet? • Reduced expense of online communication is key to the rapid expansion of hate groups (traditional print media costs: production and distribution) • Anonymous access, sophisticated Web design with audio/video plugins, relative lack of regulation • Major themes: • speak out against the gay lifestyle • sponsoring organizations typically identifies itself with Christian, family-oriented values

5. Hate • Hate is not simply prejudice or dislike of some person or group; hate is “repulsion and justification of violence or oppression against those different from us” • Hate crimes are illegal, but hate speech (generally protected by the First Amendment) is not

6. Anti-Gay Speech on the Internet • Construction of narratives that misrepresent the gay lifestyle to create a basis for hatred • child molestation • disease spreading • mentally unstable • deviant • Christian organizations declare homosexuality as ‘the chief enemy of a natural family’ and that ‘same-sex marriage will lead to the degradation of society’

7. Less than Human • Techniques for reducing individuals to a singular (undesirable) trait lays the groundwork for making verbal and physical violence acceptable • Beyond constructing dehumanizing representations, some anti-gay Web sites encourage some type of call to action • Westboro Baptist Church (godhatesfags.com) • justification of their hatred rooted in biblical teachings • American (hyper)patriotism to promote the virtues of hating gays and lesbians (homosexuality = un-American)

8. Postsecret Community Blogging

9. Postsecret • Self-disclose on a postcard? Potential for relational and identity resolution • sharing a secret on the blog might be a way to help others

11. Normalization of Men’s Violence Against Women • The song’s lyrics and video imagery reproduce cultural myths about intimate partner violence: • Men and women are equally responsible for perpetuating violence in a relationship • Women ‘ask’ to be abused • Violence is a means to ignite sexual arousal

12. Tough Guise (Documentary) Worldwide, domestic violence is as serious as a cause for death and incapacity among women aged 15-49 years as cancer, and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria combined

13. Racial Microaggressions • commonplace verbal behavioral or environmental indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial slights toward people of color: • microassult • microinsult • microinvalidation • Almost all interracial encounters are prone to microaggressions • President Clinton’s Race Advisory Board - racism continues to plague the US: • one of the most divisive forces in our society • racial legacies of the past continue to haunt current policies and practices • racial inequalities are so deeply ingrained in American society that they are nearly invisible • most white Americans are unaware of the advantages they enjoy

14. The Changing Face of Racism • In the post-civil rights era, racism has undergone a transformation: • modern racism, symbolic racism, aversive racism • Emphasize that racism is more likely to be disguised and covert, ambiguous and more difficult to identify and acknowledge. • association to rigid ‘traditional American’ values: individualism, self-reliance, hard work, etc. • The invisible nature of this new racism prevents meaningful dialogue about race in society • so pervasive and automatic in daily conversations and interactions that they are often dismissed and glossed over as being innocent and innocuous

15. Microassault • Explicit racial derogation by either verbal or nonverbal means: • name-calling, avoidant behavior, purposeful discriminatory actions. • referring to someone as ‘colored’ or ‘Oriental’ or using racial epithets • Most likely to be conscious and deliberate • only hold notions of others inferiority privately • only display them publicly when they (a) lose control or (b) feel relatively safe to engage in a microassult

16. Microinsult • Communication that convey rudeness, insensitivity and demean a person’s racial heritage or identity • “I believe the most qualified person person should get the job, regardless of race” or “How did you get your job?” • underlying message: (a) people of color are not qualified and (b) as a minoritized group member, you must have obtained the position through some affirmative action or quota program (regardless of qualifications) • Nonverbal: failure of acknowledgement, avoiding eye contact, etc. • conveys to the person of color that they and their contributions are unimportant

17. Microinvalidation • Communications that exclude, negate or nullify the thoughts, feelings or experiential reality of a person of color • “You speak very good English” or “I dont see color” or “We are all human beings” or “Dont be so oversensitive”

18. The Catch-22 of Responding to Microaggressions • Determine whether a microaggression has occurred • use of experiential reality and others validation • Deciding to do nothing • frequent occurrence: (a) unable to determine whether a microaggression has occurred (b) at a loss for how to respond (c) fearful of the consequences (d) rationalizing that ‘it wont do any good’ and (e) engaging in self-deception • Responding with (perceived) anger is likely to engender negative consequences: • accused of being racially oversensitive or playing the ‘race card’ • told that their emotional outbursts confirm stereotypes about people of color

19. New (Media) Ways of Responding • Shit White Girls Say...To Black Girls • Shit White Girls Say... To Black Girls part 2