Cybertypes

In Lisa Nakaruma’s article, “Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet,” racism is shown to exist everywhere, even when you don’t know. She makes this claim by saying that whenever anyone is online in a conversation, they assume they are talking to someone who is white. There are also many images on the internet that portray stereotypes. One example given by Lisa is a picture of an Arab with a camel. Not all Arabs have camels so the picture is falsely stereotyping a group. The article also claims how African tribe members are shown as little people in the social pyramid. The internet can do a lot of crazy things and has allowed for crazy things to be done through it. These crazy things include racism, sexism, or any other –ism’s. Through the internet anything can be accomplished and if there was no internet, there would still be the –ism’s, the internet is just a mass production of media and allows for easy transfers of information.

Why do people blame problems on the media. The problem doesn’t have to do with media, it has to do with the things portrayed through media. So why blame the internet when it should be blaming people who post inappropriate things on the internet. Or why blame television when you should be blaming the millions of people who pay for television in order to see what they want. The media only gives people what they want so the blame might go to someone a little closer than you may think.

I think that this article was a little high tech for me. I was unable to comprehend some of the technical terms and think that if they were explained, I would have gotten more from the reading. The reading was beneficial though in some instances, such as the part describing how when race is erased, they privileged lose power. I was able to relate to this because I was thinking about the subject and I figured that people who once had power, would not have this power. They would not get jobs merely on color but on qualifications and even though I would lose privilege, I would think that this would be a better society to live in with my family in order to raise them how I feel, stereotype free. This will be a great opportunity for me to socialize America starting small and working big.