Racism on the internet sometimes also referred to as cyber-racism and more broadly considered as an online hate crime or an internet hate crime consists of racist rhetoric or bullying that is distributed through computer-mediated means and includes some or all of the following characteristics: ideas of racial uniqueness, racist attitudes towards specific social categories, racist stereotypes, hate-speech, nationalism and common destiny, racial supremacy, superiority and separation, conceptions of racial otherness, and anti-establishment world-view. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Racism online can have the same effects as offensive remarks made face-to-face. [6]
Cyber racism has been interpreted to be more than a phenomenon featuring racist acts displayed online. According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, Cyber-Racism involves online activity that can include "jokes or comments that cause offense or hurt; name-calling or verbal abuse; harassment or intimidation, or public commentary that inflames hostility towards certain groups". [7]
Though there have been studies and strategies for thwarting and confronting cyber racism on the individual level there have not been many studies that expand on how cyber racism's roots in institutional racism can be combated. [8] An increase in literature on cyber racism's relationship with institutional racism will provide new avenues for research on combatting cyber racism on a systemic level. [9] For example, cyber racism's connections to institutional racism have been noted in the work of Jessie Daniels, a professor of sociology at Hunter College. [10]
Although some tech companies have taken steps to combat cyber racism on their sites, most tech companies are hesitant to take action over fears of limiting free speech. [11] A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, a document that declares the internet as a place free from control by "governments of the industrial world", [12] continues to influence and reflect the views of Silicon Valley.
Online stereotypes can cause racist prejudice and lead to cyber racism. For example, scientists and activists have warned that the use of the stereotype "Nigerian Prince" for referring to advance-fee scammers is racist, i.e. "reducing Nigeria to a nation of scammers and fraudulent princes, as some people still do online, is a stereotype that needs to be called out". [13]
According to CNN, blackfishing occurs when a non-Black celebrity or influencer intentionally alters their physical appearance, by appropriating the skin tone, hair texture and overall aesthetics associated with and/or originating from Black people. It is common on social media. Many non-Black celebrities have been criticized over tanning their skin to appear darker skinned, often times looking more racially ambiguous and/or Black. It is believed[ by whom? ] that the increase of social media marketing has made space for more contemporary racist microaggressions that involve the monetization of aesthetics associated with Black American culture.
Blackface, the stereotypical practice of caricaturing Black people, has been around since the 19th century. The theatrical minstrel show included White performers participating "comedic", though highly racist, skits, and performances depicting Black people. Performers would often paint their faces black with obnoxiously big red lips as well as talk in early African American Vernacular English to symbolize their perceptions of Black people. [14] The stereotypes portrayed in minstrel shows have been reflected in various forms of media over time such as Hattie McDaniel's role as the motherly, yet desexualized "mammy" in the 1939 film adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind , [15] or the lazy and inarticulate "coon" caricature. [16] Today, the advancement of technology has allocated the use of GIFs and reaction memes of Black people to portray exaggerated forms emotions online because internet users think of Black people as "excessively expressive and emotional". One of the most commonly used people in GIFs and memes is media mogul Oprah Winfrey, whose clips from her former talk show and occasional TV specials are often created into gifs and memes and are used frequently on the internet. [17]
Racist views are common and often more extreme on the Internet due to a level of anonymity offered by the Internet. [18] [19] In a 2009 book about "common misconceptions about white supremacy online, [its] threats to today's youth; and possible solutions on navigating through the Internet, a large space where so much information is easily accessible (including hate-speech and other offensive content)", City University of New York associate professor Jessie Daniels claimed that the number of white supremacy sites online was then rising; especially in the United States after the 2008 presidential elections. [20]
The popularity of sites used by alt-right communities has allowed cyber racism to garner attention from mainstream media. For instance, the alt-right claimed the "Pepe the frog" meme as a hate symbol after mixing "Pepe in with Nazi propaganda" on 4chan. [11] [21] This gained major attention on Twitter after a journalist tweeted about the association. Alt-right users considered this a "victory" because it caused the public to discuss their ideology.
In her article "Rise of the Alt-Right", [11] Daniels explains how algorithms "speed up the spread of White supremacist ideology" by producing search results that reinforce cyber racism. [11] Daniels posits that algorithms direct alt-right users to sites that echo their views. This allows users to connect and build communities on platforms that place little to no restrictions on speech, such as 4chan. Daniels points to the internet searches of Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, as an example of how algorithms perpetuate cyber racism. She claims that his internet search for "black on white crime" directed him to racist sites that reinforced and strengthened his racist views. [11] Moreover, Latanya Sweeney, a Harvard professor, has found that online advertisements generated by algorithms tend to display more advertisements for arrest records with African American-sounding names than Caucasian-sounding names.
Daniels writes in her 2009 book Cyber Racism that "white supremacy has entered the digital era" further confronting the idea of technology's "inherently democratizing" nature. [9] Yet, according to Ruha Benjamin, researchers have concentrated on cyber racism's focus on "how the Internet perpetuates or mediates racial prejudice at the individual level rather than analyze how racism shapes infrastructure and design." [9] Benjamin continues by stating the importance of investigating "how algorithms perpetuate or disrupt racism…in any study of discriminatory design." [9]
In Australia, cyber-racism is unlawful under S 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth). As it involves a misuse of telecommunications equipment, it may also be criminal under S 474.17 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). [22] State laws in each Australian State make racial vilification unlawful, and in most states serious racial vilification is a criminal offense. These laws also generally apply to cyber-racism, for example S 7 "Racial vilification unlawful" and S 24 "Offense of serious racial vilification" of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 (Vic) both explicitly state that the conduct being referred to may include the use of the Internet. [23]
In May 2000, after the League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (la Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et I'Antisemitisme-LICRA) and the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) brought an action against Yahoo! Inc., which hosted an auction website to sell Nazi paraphernalia, a French judge ruled that Yahoo should stop providing access to French users. [24]
Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena.
White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.
Blackface is the practice of non-black performers using burnt cork or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment.
White pride and white power are expressions primarily used by white separatist, white nationalist, fascist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist organizations in order to signal racist or racialist viewpoints. It is also a slogan used by the prominent post-Ku Klux Klan group Stormfront and a term used to make racist/racialist viewpoints more palatable to the general public who may associate historical abuses with the terms white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist.
Stereotypes of African Americans are misleading beliefs about the culture of people with partial or total ancestry from any black racial groups of Africa whose ancestors resided in the United States since before 1865, largely connected to the racism and the discrimination to which African Americans are subjected. These beliefs date back to the slavery of black people during the colonial era and they have evolved within American society.
This is a list of topics related to racism:
Stormfront is a neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web's first major racial hate site. The site is focused on propagating white nationalism, Nazism, antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as anti-feminism, homophobia, transphobia, Holocaust denial, and white supremacy.
White power music is music that promotes white nationalism. It encompasses various music styles, including rock, country, and folk. Ethnomusicologist Benjamin R. Teitelbaum argues that white power music "can be defined by lyrics that demonize variously conceived non-whites and advocate racial pride and solidarity. Most often, however, insiders conceptualized white power music as the combination of those themes with pounding rhythms and a charging punk or metal-based accompaniment." Genres include Nazi punk, Rock Against Communism, National Socialist black metal, and fashwave.
/pol/, short for Politically Incorrect, is an anonymous political discussion imageboard on 4chan. As of 2022, it is the most active board on the site. It has had a substantial impact on Internet culture. It has acted as a platform for far-right extremism; the board is notable for its widespread racist, white supremacist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, misogynist, and anti-LGBT content. /pol/ has been linked to various acts of real-world extremist violence. It has been described as one of the "[centers] of 4chan mobilization", a title also ascribed to /b/.
Pepe the Frog is a webcomic character and Internet meme created by cartoonist Matt Furie. Designed as a green anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid body, Pepe originated in Furie's 2005 comic Boy's Club. The character became an Internet meme when his popularity steadily grew across websites such as Myspace, Gaia Online, and 4chan in 2008. By 2015, he had become one of the most popular memes used on 4chan and Tumblr. Different types of Pepe memes include "Sad Frog", "Smug Frog", "Angry Pepe", "Feels Frog", and "You will never..." Frog. Since 2014, "rare Pepes" have been posted on the "meme market" as if they were trading cards.
The alt-right is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity and establishing a presence in other countries during the mid-2010s, and has been declining since 2017. The term is ill-defined and has been used in different ways by academics, journalists, media commentators, and alt-right members themselves.
The relationship between race and video games has received substantial academic and journalistic attention. Games offer opportunities for players to explore, practice, and re-enforce cultural and social identities. Because of the multifaceted cultural implications of video games, there may be issues of race involved in the player base, the creative process, or within the game's universe. Video games predominantly created and played by one racial group can unintentionally perpetuate racial stereotypes and limit players' choices to preconceived notions of racial bias, and issues of representation and harassment may arise in the industry and the player community.
"It's okay to be white" (IOTBW) is an alt-right slogan which originated as part of an organized trolling campaign on the website 4chan's discussion board /pol/ in 2017. A /pol/ user described it as a proof of concept that an otherwise innocuous message could be used maliciously to spark media backlash. Posters and stickers stating "It's okay to be white" were placed in streets in the United States as well as on campuses in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism is a 2018 book by Safiya Umoja Noble in the fields of information science, machine learning, and human-computer interaction.
Serbia Strong is a nickname given to a Serb nationalist, anti-Croat and anti-Bosniak (anti-Muslim) propaganda music video from the Yugoslav Wars. The song has spread globally amongst far-right groups and the alt-right as a meme which references and advocates for the religious cleansing of Muslims.
Karen is a term used as slang typically for a middle-class white American woman who is perceived as entitled or excessively demanding. The term is often portrayed in memes depicting middle-class white women who "use their white and class privilege to demand their own way". Depictions include demanding to "speak to the manager", being racist, or wearing a particular bob cut hairstyle. It was popularized in the aftermath of the Central Park birdwatching incident in 2020.
The Happy Merchant is a common name for an image that depicts an Anti-Jewish caricature of a Jewish man. The Happy Merchant is common on websites such as 4chan or Reddit where it is frequently used in a hateful or disparaging context.
In the Western world or in non-Asian countries, terms such as "racism against Asians" or "anti-Asian racism" are typically used in reference to racist policies, discrimination against, and mistreatment of Asian people and Asian immigrants by institutions and/or non-Asian people.
The alt-right pipeline is a proposed conceptual model regarding internet radicalization toward the alt-right movement. It describes a phenomenon in which consuming provocative right-wing political content, such as antifeminist or anti-SJW ideas, gradually increases exposure to the alt-right or similar far-right politics. It posits that this interaction takes place due to the interconnected nature of political commentators and online communities, allowing members of one audience or community to discover more extreme groups. This process is most commonly associated with and has been documented on the video platform YouTube, and is largely faceted by the method in which algorithms on various social media platforms function through the process recommending content that is similar to what users engage with, but can quickly lead users down rabbit-holes.
Digital blackface is a term used to describe the phenomenon of non-Black individuals using digital media, such as GIFs, memes, or audio clips featuring Black individuals, to express emotions or convey ideas. This behavior has sparked debate and criticism due to concerns about cultural appropriation and the perpetuation of stereotypes. Digital blackface has been described as "one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism" and has been compared to historical minstrelsy, while others have dismissed the concept in its entirety.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)