Theorizing the Web Conference

University of Maryland-College Park

April 9, 2011Jessie Daniels, PhD

CUNY-Hunter College

“Theorizing Race & Racism on the Web”

#TtW2011

#TtW2011@JessieNYC

<where are we now?>

<where did we start?>

1997

“Here, there is no race, no gender, no infirmities. Here, there are only

minds…”

~ MCI Commercial, 1997

2002

“Like many white liberals,

I had viewed the absence of explicit racial markers

in cyberspace with some optimism --”

“-- seeing the emerging ‘virtual communities’ as perhaps our best hope

ever of achieving a

truly color-blind society.”

~ Henry Jenkins, 2002

2006

“…the suspension of the social category of visibility in online

environments transforms the experience of race in …a fundamental way…”

~ Mark Hansen, 2006

“…by suspending the automatic ascription of racial signifiers… [that] can be said to subject everyone to a ‘zero

degree’ of racial difference.”

~ Mark Hansen, 2006

2011

<3 broad areas>

<race is happening on the web>

<our panel today>

<racism is also happening in cyberspace>

219,797

8,010,202

<Facebook racism>

<theorizing race & racism>

<“racial identity formation”>

<the limitations of identity>

<the weakness of “racial identity formation” >

<U.S. has a racism problem>

<with global implications>

< U.S. is a global “haven for hate speech”

on the web >

<we are networked, global citizens>

<current theorizing doesn’t help>

v.

Nazi memorabilia for sale Yahoo.fr

“It’s not that the laws aren’t relevant, it’s that the nation-state’s not relevant. The Internet cannot be regulated.”

~ Nicholas Negroponte, 2002

“We are not going to change the content of our sites in the United States just because someone in France is asking us to do

so.”

“Germany bans Nazi speech…for the same

reason Japan’s Constitution outlaws

aggressive war…

~ Goldsmith & Wu, 2006

“it is a nation still coming to grips with the horrors it committed in its past,

and it is terrified that they could happen

again.”~ Goldsmith & Wu, 2006

U.S. Supreme Court Virginia v. Black,

2003

“no first amendment protection for a burning

cross”

Yahoo actively participates in China’s anti-democratic

“firewall”

Are we allowing “burning crosses” on the web?

What constitutes a“burning cross”in the digital era?

What constitutes a“burning cross” in the digital era?

<where are we now?>

<“the spectacle of the Other”>

<Anything but racism.>

“[racist email]….not the result of overt racism, but

rather … white participants obliviousness

about operating in a multiracial context.”

~ Henry Jenkins, 2002

http://www.jessiedanielsphd.comhttp://www.racismreview

.com/blog twitter: @JessieNYC