Law in Contemporary Society

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TheInternetAndTheNewRacism 12 - 27 Apr 2012 - Main.JenniferAnderson
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 Every time I read a news article, a blog post, or anything else on the internet related to the issue of race, I try to avoid reading the user comments. The reason is that I know, with all certainty, that there will be a small but vocal group of anonymous posters who thrive on using their anonymity to incite racial hatred. I wish I could say that this was limited to an uneducated group of Mississippi rednecks, but even comments on race-related posts on Above the Law can rise to this level of small-minded discourse.

In fact, with the increasing popularity of twitter, many people don’t even try to hide behind a shroud of anonymity anymore. Most recently, with the release of the Hunger Games movie, there was a widely reported instance of apparent dissatisfaction and disapproval with the fact that many of the “good” characters in the movie were black. Of course, as soon as these users became aware that their tweets were being reported on major news sources like the Huffington Post, without their usernames redacted, they either deleted their tweets and made their accounts private or shut down their accounts altogether.

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 -- ElizabethSullivan - 26 Apr 2012
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Verging away from the race issue, I think So Yeon made an interesting point about why people go on the internet and make distasteful statements when she cited that “sociologists attribute this behavior to a certain dissatisfaction with society and more specifically the economy.” Throughout history, there seems to be a correlation between the exhibition of negative actions based on racial/class perceptions and general social instability. Maybe instead of taking it to the streets, people are now feeling comfortable taking it to the web. Maybe people just use these forums to release internal conflict that they feel they would not have the opportunity to explore elsewhere. Where are the spaces for frustrated people to come together and explore their conceptions (or misconceptions) of race/class identities in light of other social issues? If not in the comment section of a random news article, then where can people throw their ideas out anonymously in hopes of obtaining feedback?

-- JenniferAnderson - 27 Apr 2012


Revision 12r12 - 27 Apr 2012 - 17:16:05 - JenniferAnderson
Revision 11r11 - 27 Apr 2012 - 03:16:55 - WilliamDavidWilliams
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