Racism on the Internet
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.
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".
[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.
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.
[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.
[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.
[23] 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.
Daniels points to the internet searches of Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, as an example of how algorithms perpetuate cyber racism.
[24] Nicol Turner Lee writes about a similar situation where search results for ‘black sounding names’ returned arrest record information.
[25] 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.
