With the creation of the internet in 1983, humans have entered an age of rapid technological advancement, with new online platforms that have completely changed the way we communicate and engage with one another. As such, the internet has become an almost essential part of our modern day lives, directly influencing our lives with its global reach and ability to converse with others as if they were right next to us. However, as with any form of human interaction, the internet is prone to the threat of prejudice and discrimination. Online racism is something that has slowly risen to become a major problem rooted in cultural bias, stereotypes, and conspiracies, encompassing various forms of racially motivated hate speech, discrimination, and harassment that occurs across many platforms. As someone who has been around many points of the internet, I have seen blatant discrimination in social media, online forums, video games, and many other platforms where many different types of people interact. People were targeted based on their racial or ethnic background, in turn perpetuating harmful narratives, reinforcing stereotypes, and fueling social divisions. In more extreme cases, Online Racism can, and has, led to real life consequences, causing violent insurgencies, hate crimes, and fear mongering. As the internet continues to evolve and occupy an increasingly central role in our lives, it’s imperative that we strive to understand the causes, cultural implications, and consequences of this issue. By shedding light on online racism, we can attempt to create, spread, and discuss how we can push discrimination out of the internet, and potentially improve our daily lives in turn.
Racism is an issue that has been deeply ingrained into many societies across the world, and yet is still held to various misconceptions and varying definitions. However, with racism’s roots in colonialism, imperialism, and slavery, we can come to a strong definition of what racism really is. As said by Steven Roberts in Sandra Feder’s article on American Racism, “Racism is a system of advantage based on race. It is a hierarchy.”. We can expressively see this in the brutal exploitation of people based on their race during older historical periods, which in turn created deeply entrenched hierarchies and stereotypes that continue to impact societies today. The concept of racism in the government has been disputed before in light of this, but there have been several examples of blatant attempts at removing equal rights. One such example being in our ability to vote, “In 2012, the national voter turnout rate among Black citizens exceeded that of white citizens for the first time in American history. But this was quickly followed by two devastating U.S. Supreme Court rulings that eliminated core voting rights protections” Discussed by Danyelle Solomon, the rulings referred to were put out in 2013, removing the need to pass any voting laws through the federal government. The significance in this lies in the fact that it was passed after the only time Black voters came out as more significant, but also that southern states that have remained White supremacists throughout the years and many other more predominantly white spaces, can more easily suppress black voters, as well as opening the floor to racial gerrymandering. Therefore using governmental powers to strip that of minorities. Another example is the justice system, with minorities generally being 5 times more likely to get incarcerated than white people, and the more Recent BLM protest held this as one of its core desires for change against racism.
Racism is not just caused by Government intervention or challenge however. While holding with you the definition of racism, we need to discuss the more human causes and perpetuation of racism. Similarly to before, the social factors of racism are withheld in the history of our homes, and as such prejudices and biases are often passed down through generations, perpetuated within families, communities, and institutions. Lets now put a focus on that idea of community. Roberts mentions again, “For many White Americans, their ingroups do not include Black Americans. Part of the reason for this has to do with America’s fraught history of racial segregation, which kept White and Black communities separated.” and it highlights a strong and recurring part of Racism, as communication with people similar to them over long periods of time leads to a community of radical idealists, all while they were given systematic advantages in comparison to the other groups in order to emphasize that community, therefore promoting it even more. In essence, a sense of familiarity through community and ideals, combined with long standing radicalism, are the roots of Modern day racism.
This essence has already been the forefront in communication in many continents, countries, cities, and even personalized communities however, so what changed to make racism so prominent in modern times? The internet, the ever growing innovation that allowed for the creation of infinitely many online platforms, knits together every single region I mentioned, and since its creation, its most prominent gift holds the answer to that question. Online communities, as defined by Melanie Bond as “a group of people with a shared interest or purpose who use the internet to communicate with each other”, is is the internet’s gift, allowing us as people to find people similar to us that we never would’ve found before, and letting us share information efficiently and cleanly, creating communities that would have never thrived without it. Radicals on the internet, who are extremely willing to discriminate and persecute are allowed to utilize this gift. By using the internet, radical extremists and racists are allowed to organize and talk with each other, may it be on purpose or otherwise. “Websites are generally static mediums that advertise racist ideology and refer individuals to other racist resources such as discussion groups.” The Australian human rights commission elaborates on this further shortly after “Online communities have their own set of guidelines and needs, like online community engagement, moderation, and management.” directly exemplifying how predatory radical groups are, operating full out in the open, even advertising and trying to bring in more people. Despite the fact, the accessibility on the internet only gets worse concerning radicals. Not only do these open communities serve as beacons for other radicals and racists, their similar ideals reinforce the others, stirring the pot and making radical ideas more dangerous and expansive. As the community gets bigger, only more and more racist people gather, a hate group is conceived or strengthened, the most well known examples being Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. The main problem however is that this sense of community and familiarity is allowing for the spread of hate in chat-rooms, discussion boards, and especially social media.
As the more recent platforms with the ability to not only talk, but to send images, videos, and even create posts, Social media creates even more problems, and is the main source of our issues with online racism today. With Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok, not only do they allow for radicals and racists to find each other faster than they ever had before, but it allows for the spreading of images, videos, and posts that strongly reinforce racist rhetoric. These social media platforms hold a more pressing issue in terms of racism however, namely the technological amplification of racism through algorithms, and the restriction of anti-racist ideals through the same. In online racism, the definition stays nearly the same, ”We define online racism (OR) broadly as a system of practices that privilege and maintain political, cultural, and economic power for Whites in digital spaces” (Vanessa Volpe, 311) and through this definition, we can understand how Social Media empowers racism through algorithms. Ashlee Preston reinforces this in her Forbes article, “These algorithms were designed primarily by white engineers with white individuals in mind. The designers are conditioned in white supremacy and so are their algorithms.” and furthermore, Preston gives various examples of how the algorithm suppresses certain anti-racist terms while empowering others “Tyler entered “Black Lives Matter,” “Black success,” “I am a Black man,” and other pro-Black text. He immediately received pop-up warnings instructing him to edit the language in his ad. When Tyler entered “white supremacy,” and “I am a neo-Nazi,” [on tiktok] he wasn’t prompted to remove the offensive text and could sail effortlessly into the Creator Marketplace without further incident.” While reflecting clear supremacist ideation, the problems don’t just stop here, as Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok have all admitted to these problems, while Facebook and instagram have done absolutely nothing to stop this problem. The probable reason most likely comes from an express cause of a supremacist algorithm, clicks and money. With social media algorithms in general, what gets promoted are things that attract more views and more likes, and therefore more advertisers and more money for the social media company. Of course the companies themselves have some degree of control over the algorithm, but when racist notions, events, and ideals, procure such large amounts of views, conflicts, and interactions, said companies decide to ride the wave for profit. With these racist ideas coming into the forefront, all of the causes and problems presented previously go into overdrive, with racist cliques being formed effortlessly, harassment of minorities starting to ramp up, and racist ideation being put out into the air more frequently. As such, this is responsible for a majority of our problems in terms of online racism today, with such a lax degree of tolerance from social media platform owners, hate and discrimination is allowed to propagate effortlessly, leading to problems with safety both online and offline.
Online racism is a prominent force that will remain prominent for a long time, especially if we do nothing about it. From the many systemic and psychological systems that allow online racism to propagate, such as social media platforms, governmental systems, and the safety and anonymity of online platforms. We can work on solutions that slow or completely remove discrimination and prejudice from the internet. Vanessa Volpe proposes very good multi-faceted approaches in her paper on the Conceptual Model for Racial Health Disparities, “If technology can be co opted in the service of racism, it may also be reclaimed for the collective health and empowerment of Black individuals and communities.” Firstly, by proposing public interest technology for the purpose of creating value of human rights over profit, leading to less blatant pushing of racist events and ideals in social media. Finally, by working on direct changes in the Government, may it be through direct rulings, policies placed on social media, or restrictions placed on the internet, pushing for change through our Government can balance out the superiority in power, and also give us multifaceted approaches to hate groups, and online discrimination. Of course there are more prominent solutions that would allow for the slow integration of anti-racist ideals in our youth, as well as moving outside of the internet, however for minorities “curriculum offerings and materials are lower in quality; and teachers are much less qualified in terms of levels of education, certification, and training in the fields they teach.” as stated by Linda Darling in her study of inequality in school. The disparity in quality is already an issue that allows for the ideation of racism, but in more recent years, the “Critical Race Theory”, the theory that racism is a social construct that has been in our society for centuries, has been prone to removal by white majority countries, banning the education of racism, and therefore allowing more racism to propagate. As such, we can and should follow through on the dissolution of power structures in both the internet, and the government, and even you can help! By bringing up the idea in different environments, advocating at different events, putting in your 2 cents at social gatherings, or by simply putting in your vote in the general elections, you too can make progress towards this change, even if it’s just 10-20 min out of your entire lifetime.
Online Racism is truly a prevalent issue that has grown and intertwined itself into our lives through the never ending growth of the internet. But despite its long history and extensive roots, there’s many ways we can work to stop this dire and very dangerous issue, one that can bring peace to our future, youth, and internet platforms. With your new extensive knowledge on online racism, help your community and your country and take some time to support our solutions for Online racism!
