Lisa Nakamura's article Menu - Driven Identities: Making Race Happen Online opens with the question "what happens to race on the World Wide Web?" Like gender, age and other markers of identity, is race and racism experienced by users of the internet or is the internet, like we have discussed in this course, a medium for people to be free form what can be viewed as the constraints of their everyday lives? Nakamura is critical of those who suggest that "user's identities can be freed from race when on the web." She argues that unlike popular belief, the web is a structured medium where by users experience some degree of prompting and direction which ultimatley pigeon-holes the user to fit into what she describes as a "clickable box." The article discusses and problematises the need for internet users to have to choose from predetermined options when it comes to their ethnicity.
Nakamura's article contains various examples of just how race is infact experienced online. The first is the use of portals and their ability to "impose order upon the web's enormous collection of data by presenting the user with a series of choices." Often these choices relate to identity and include questions in relation to age, sex, marital status and racial identity. Nakamara states that she was directed to a series of choices when searching the term race. These were:
1. African diaspora
2. Asian-American
3. Gay and Lesbian
4. Community Services
5. Latino Culture
6. Men's Issues
7. Nativ American Culture
8. Religion
9. Virtual Worlds
10. Women's Issues
Keeping in mind these categories are specific to America, they are still incredibly restricting and for an environment that many claim to be free from everyday experiences of identity, these groups do not offer the space for hybrid or alternative choices. I found myself thinking as a half German - half Australian woman, where would I fit into these categories? Nakamura is very critical of forced categorisation that menu's like this encourage and the inability to choose more than one option. She also points out the invisibility of 'whiteness' in such menus. That choosing 'white' is not an option and therefore all alternatives are considered 'other,' and that when other ethnicities are mentioned, they are based on traditional stereotypes. Nakamura attributes a lot of this categorisation to money making opportunities, "these sites want to know what you are so they can best figure out what they can sell you."
The article goes on to discuss how the inernet and access to it is implicitly determined by race. She describes the internet as being a "domain of the white upper middle class user." She includes in her argument that white Americans are more likely than black Americans to have access to the internet at home. So race is experienced by its users both online and by their ability to access an online environment.
Nakamura closes her article by including an example of her own experience as a Japanese - American woman and er exposure to a circulating email entitled "101 ways to tell you're a Japanese American." This list inlcudes various stereotypical examples of behaviours of half Japanese - half American people. Interestingly, this shows that not only is race categorised by websites and web portals but unconciously perhaps by its users.
Some questions to think about?
1. What have been your own experiences of race online? Where would you fit into such a restricting category list? Or is your internet use infact influenced by your race - think about the websites you visit etc.
2. Do you think sigifiers of identity are lost online? Think about race, gender, sexuality, age etc.
3. Is race something that is commodified online? Does our ethnicity make us more of a target for particular sites?
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9 comments:
Thanks for the presentation! Answering to your questions, I don't personally find race a significant element in my net usage. meaning i don't think i visit any specific sites for example that would be racially exclusive.
In some ways I guess the signifiers of identity are lost online, as you can't physically see the other person. However, as the article argued (and i think all of this weeks artcles did) that race/gender/sex/age are things that do not entirely dissapear online. I think i some ways, we always want represent ourselves, even if we choose an avatar or an identity different to the reality. For example, i would never make racist comments online just because i can.
I'm sure that some sites 'provoke' racial discussion and make ethnicity an issue. However, i still personally feel that the main purpose i use internet, has got nothing do with such issues. In this sense, i believe that sites that do make you reveal such personal things about yourself, are more sensitive to discrimination etc.
I agree with maija, I dont often see race as a big issue when I look at websites. I think in certain contexts race can become important though, such as in news events..
Now I think about it, I think the websites you visit are influenced somewhat by race..especially people who speak other languages. ie. China has their own popular search engine and forums.
I honestly haven't thought about the accesibility of internet in relation to race but its an interesting factor to look at. I have seen those 'You know you're ___when you...' lists before though through email forwards. They are quite stupid and while I don't think most people would take them seriously, it does pose a significant question of how race is identified in reality.
The implications of an 'anonymous' cyberspace obviously has its pros and cons, and race is obviously something which has been commodified in many aspects through the internet. Webcomics especially spring to mind when I think about how race has been commodified..
To be perfectly honest, i have never considered the idea of race online. one thing i am really enjoying about this unit is the opportunity to look at subjects I have never considered.
as for my personal experiences with race online, i guess the fact that i have not even considered it as an issue as such shows that i am yet to encounter it online.
I do think that the online environment does allow for certain aspects of ourselves, be it gender or race to be lost, as we have the chance to alter or not state certain information therefore leaving it up for interpretation. however as the article discussed, aspects of ones identity are not all lost when online and essentially it is up the individual person to reflect what they desire about themselves.
i do like the point that jakki makes concerning the idea that other nations have their own search engines, something i have personally witnessed having travelled and bared witness to this very factor. Perhaps this is in a sense an aspect of race online, however the specific language/country search engines are not solely designed for one race, therefore the idea can be disputed.
Jakki's comment reminds me the characters of Japanese Manga and animation (included Webcomics) tends to have various hair colours,(e.g. bronze or brownish) other than black. I think it is a kind of "whiteness" influence to Asian as well, no matter on which ways.
I didn't see any linage between race and the market strategies. As the globalization process, enterprises are not willing to differtiate, or stratity their customers in terms of their races. I didn't see any context about races (not obviously for sure) in ads.
Thanks for Katherine's presentation! The questions are indeed worthwhile to think about!
Awesome presso Katherine1!! :P
(By the way, Alison, I'm assuming you are taking notes on when we all make comments, and just for the record, I'm Katherine2 = Katherine Mountain. Cheers.)
Like alot of other people are saying in the comments above me, I have never really sat and pondered the question as to how I experience race/religion etc online.
I like Nakamura’s point that internet accessibility is highly racially determined, but I struggle with her suggestion that the way we engage with material online is similarly racially determined.
But then again, of course it does make sense that the way I interpret and read websites is driven by the context of my own upbringing and race and religion. So I suppose I interact and engage with website in ways subconsciously determined by my own particular background. As a white middle class female Australian, it’s not as though I actively seek out websites whose contents pertains, for example, to Native-American specific issues.
In terms of my own online identity, Jakki’s use of the word “anonymity” is exactly what I would use. I do feel safe in my perceived anonymity online. However, Nakamura’s point that the internet is a white middle class domain, and the fact that I more or less fit into that category might have something to do with my perception that I AM anonymous online. If I wasn’t a part of the majority, if I was an Aboriginal Australian for example, perhaps I would be far more conscious of myself online.
Thanks for the presentation Katherine, it was great!
Personally, for a majority of the time I do not really find my race to be particularly significant in my own internet usage at all in terms of what I look at/read. However, I have personally come across this menu-driven identity stuff in the past, and have actually sat and had a little whinge to myself about it. In my personal experience with a site such as MySpace I’ve found myself eliminating my own ethnicity on my profile – which is something that is supposed to build an ‘accurate’ picture of yourself online. When filling out the “details” section of my Myspace profile, and being of an Asian-Italian background, I found that only Asian was an option. Not even Eurasian was an option. I was obviously not going to chose Asian, because that would eliminate my Italian side. So, I chose ‘No Answer’. By eliminating this aspect of my identity, it almost felt as if the profile was not entirely an accurate representation of myself… AND it’s annoying… to me anyway.
It is interesting to consider though. As an internet-addict, I post in several internet forums and find it so interesting to discover the race of a person after having had a conversation with someone for an hour to up to four. Automatically when talking to someone, I assume that they are of a Western, English speaking background… mostly because the internet forum is mainly in English, and in the way of user profiles, they don’t really give away much of the race of the poster. Jakki mentions the anonymity on the internet and I agree completely but I think there are certain things on the internet that mirror real life which break this sort of anonymity. For example, in real life there are the stereotypical ‘signifiers’ that give away the race of a person, such as – and I’m going with something totally cliché here – the khakis ala Steve Irwin could give away some bloke as being Australian, and on the internet when someone uses smiley faces like,
^_^
>_<
^_-
>.>
They are usually assumed as Asian which could be because they may resemble someone of Asian orientation or because they are predominately used by Asians. I have used these smiley faces (mainly because I think they are cute, not because I think they are a reflection of my race) and friends have told me, “Kylie, THEY ARE SO ASIAN!”. So I think that race does exist on the internet to some extent. I think race translates from the real world into the cyber world. Just in different forms, like there is a cyber equivalent for every real-world equivalent.
Furthering on the topic of race on the internet in terms of internet forums – does anyone else find it strange that the dominant language in these forums is English? Even if a forum is one that is specific to a country whose primary language is NOT English?
Meh, I think I rambled a little.
Thanks for providing some great questions for discussion Katherine.
A agree with a lot of what has been said in previous posts. As a white, middle-class female I also have to admit I have never really considered that there are insuffient racial categories available to choose from on sites such as myspace. This weeks readings and Kylie's post really opened my eyes up to this issue. I guess this sort of thing is just another example of the way that western societies attempt to categorise everything, which we all know is an impossible task.
While the readings this week suggested that people's identities are visible online, I only agree with this to an extent. While the examples used in the articles were convincing, I still think people can cover up who they are to an extent.
What I am specifically thinking about are stories where older men have have created a new identity for themselves online to the extent that they have convinced children that they have spoken with in chat rooms to meet them offline, and I am sure there are more examples than this.
I think this is one of the real dangers online, as children who are usually less critically minded and less aware of the way identities are lost online can fall victim to this.
I personally find it hard to comment on such an issue as my internet use is based mainly around visiting websites that do not require such information. I’m therefore inclined to agree with Maija, in that my main use of the net does not address such issues.
It is interesting to note how this topic ties in with what Deborah Lupton brought up in the article, The Embodied Compute/User. In it she describes the typical computer nerd as someone who is physically unattractive, has an unimpressive physique, normally riddled by acne. What she omits from this is any relation to race. Though this is not my personal opinion, in my experience with stereotypes in various forms of fiction (for example South Park), more often than not, computer nerds seem to be Asian. I know that gaming in Asia is like sport, and have read news articles about how people in Korea will sit in the same chair for upto 48 hours at a time playing games online (http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/09/16/online-gamer-dies-after-3-day-online-marathon/). This sounds bizarre, but take a look at this article. I can’t believe the gaming companies are willing to let their customers pay their fees with blood!
However, getting back to my point, despite what stereotypes seem to exist, I think the extent to which race matters online is limited. Even though I fall under the white middle class banner, this seems to be the general sentiment with our tute group.
Just a side note, has anyone done a ‘how Asian are you test? I couldn’t find the link for the one I did, but I actually scored higher than my Chinese friend…..very strange indeed.
Also, I wasn't able to add the link that article using the normal link method, anyone know how to do this?
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