Ruminations on Cyber-Race by Jerry Kang
Jerry Kang a Korean-American law professor enquires into the functionings of the virtual world and how 'race' works in online communities. Ruminations on Cyber-Race asks if cyberspace has the potential to change racial mechanics and consequently alter the ground rules of social interaction.
Describing cyberspace as operating similarily to a sidewalk cafe, the article proposes that the Web helps people to form and maintain social relationships, the main difference being that in the virtual world most interaction occurs through text,lacking the face-to-face communication that occurs in the real world thus allowing for a sense of anonymity, (there are of course exceptions including the likes of Webcams-whereby no one is any more racially anonymous than they would be in any face-to-face encounter).Kang points out that just because race is to an elaborated sense 'anonymous' in cyberspace, this does not mean it ceases to matter. He goes on to retell a situation he personally experienced when participating in a graphical world as a "young, muscular, bald black man". This graphic representation of self caused conflict with another character appearing as a "white female" who sprayed Kang with racist bile because he was African-American. This episode influenced Kang's thoughts on how communicating at a distance through blogs, email ,instant messaging and so on could possibly rearrange race relations. He considers how cyberspace offers a way to increase interracial social interaction without the conflicts inherent in the real world and the example above. Kang expands on this idea by proposing the abolition of race in cyberspace (being race blind), intergration of race (promoting social interactivity) and transmutation online (broadcasting a different racial identity). Kang notes that although there are many inplications with these approaches (cyberspace cannot and SHOULD NOT be colourblind etc),cyberspace is a powerful social force, and if we look at cyberspace as an opportunity to explore social issues perhaps we will be able to positively progress in regards to race in the real world.
In my opinion I think race will continue to influence the content of a person's cyber interactions even if the audience is not aware of the colour of the participant's skin. Race has alot to do which cultural and social upbringing and thus implictly a person may give away clues about their racial identity,for instance poor English. Hopefully we can embrace race online and not see it as a barrier to entering and participating in virtual space.If built right cyberspace could provide the conditions to fight prejudice. Realistically,this may prove more difficult.The text is short and brief and therefore I will keep my blog entry the same.Nonetheless the artcile presents rather interesting notions and is a good starting point for considering the following:
Think about how much our lives have changed since the invention of the Web eg.paying bills online,purchasing plane tickets,booking accomodation,finding lost relations,learning new languages etc.Do you think that cyberspace has
the potential to change race relations in real life?
Is race less fixed in cyberspace? Is it voluntary or experimental?(as demonstrated by transmutation)
Kang states that virtual communities are centred around common interests and experiences and that race does not influence these commonalities,and so virtual communities are not exclusive or race-specific.
Do you agree with his perspective?
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4 comments:
I'm somewhat for and against Kang's stance on virtual communities not being race specific...only because I have just read Tak Yee's article on ICERED which obviously had some racial politics influencing how people interacted.
On the other hand, I am part of a few forums and race has never really been an issue for me. I dont think many people actually think about race much when theyre online because its just text.
In other cases, if you have an avatar or something showing a human identity, it can cause issues like it did for Kang. Race can influence discourse online but only for the few who actually take notice of it! There's this idea called cyberethics(or netiquette...I think it was in the news a few days ago actually!) and while cyberspace does allow people to judge/bash race anonymously, cyberspace still holds dominant norms from reality I think which makes it stupid to argue about race online.
After reading Kang's conclusion, I still consider his point of view has somewhat romanticize the racist happened in cyberspace. As race cannot be eliminated, abolition and intergration in cyberspace are seemed less possible.
Here is the pros. The Internet users, whatever which ethnic groups they are, they are no longer facially and racially anonymous via the videocam. And indicated that the online racists still exist as the cyberspace becomes a non-text based environment.
However, Kang's concept of "Cyberspace also makes talking with strangers easier because individuals are less fearful" reminds me about the communicate functions of FACEBOOK and MYSPACE. That's easier to communicate with people with different races in online communities, rather than in real life.
I don't see the online marketplaces needs abolition at all, since the transactions in marketplaces are originally and potentially not "race-based".
Kang details how with the development of multimedia (e.g. video-cams) race can no longer be ignored. This made me think about how many marginalised groups in society such as ethnic minorities perhaps relish the anonymity awarded by online interaction. One can be whatever ethnicity one chooses (as identified in the opening of Kang’s text ref: ‘muscular, bald black man’). Thus with the development of the visibility of internet users such security offered by the anonymity will slowly cease. An alternative example of how marginalised groups are more comfortable and relaxed within online environments can be identified in Susie Scott’s study on shyness - ‘Researching shyness: a contradiction in terms?’ 2004. (For abstract click here). This study highlights how shy individuals respond better within online arenas as there is no physical face-to-face contact which they fear. Thus with the increasing development of multimedia it could be suggested that such minority groups will retreat back into the margins of society. There needs to be a balance of varying forms of communication online, both visual (i.e. web cams) and non-visual (i.e. text only chat rooms).
An additional point that I found of interest was the detailing of Ward Connelly’s ‘Racial Privacy Initiative’. De-racing technology, in theory, seems a great idea after all why is it necessary to identify one’s ethnic background? Surely the only purpose of such information is to create discrimination? However, Kang does identify one of the flaws with such eradication of race online; asking individuals not to disclose their ethnicity is like ‘silencing a part of themselves’ as many people consider their ethnicity to be a if not the fundamental element of their identity. An additional flaw is that removing racial differences could be viewed as an act of white supremacy. Denying the acknowledgement of ethnic differences in society assumes all to be a homogenous group, arguably a white group supporting white, middle-class values. Furthermore where would racism fit into this situation? If there were no differences between races then surely racism should cease. However this is unlikely to be the case, racism would still prevail yet there would be less or no punishment for such behaviour.
A final point that I think it worth mentioning is the notion of the transmutation approach. Selecting one’s own race (which could be different everyday if one so wished) highlights how race is no longer fixed within online societies. One could argue that such individual selection is treating race as a commodity, one can select and then disregard race at the click of a button. Such selection and consumption is reflective of the consumer society in which we prevail where choice is of paramount importance. However issues of class can be raised here as only those with the means to such choice can actively and successfully participate in this consumer society; this can also be identified in terms of those who do and do not have access to online communities.
Big apologies for the length of this post!!! xx
sorry guys dont know how to add a hyperlink (to susie scotts work) in a comment so will do it in a post on the main page instead!!
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