Racism In Society

In the past decade, racism has changed along with how society has changed. For example, in today’s society, it is rare to see a store, restaurant or anyone who just will not serve anyone because they are black; however, it can still happen. In society today, world racism is taken and given in a different way. When the Internet came into play during the 21st century and social media following not far after, the characteristics of racism changed. Author Emily Fekete writes in her article Race and (Online) Sites Consumption, “Geographers have noted the increasing role of the Internet and social media in everyday life (Zook and Graham 2007; Elwood 2011; Kitchin and Dodge 2011; Stephens 2013)”. Not only has social media increased, but in doing this,
These tweets consists of vulgar and offensive slurs towards all races. A study by Demos found that there are six different ways to tweet race-bound slurs: Any type of negative stereotype; a casual use of the slurs; trying to directly target abuse of any kind; appropriated meaning, saying something to benefit oneself and not others around them; non-derogatory or lessening the value of others; and lastly offline action or in other words writing an insult that goes on and continues in the real world not just through social media (1). These are just six of the main types of slurs and vulgar tweets many people have posted on Twitter alone. However, according to most people, over 70% proclaim that these tweets mean nothing and are being used in a non-derogatory fashion (Demos, 1). Even so, some of the words and text that many people tweet can always be seen as filthy and crude. A few of the top words are; p***y which is used in 4% of all tweets (an average of 410 a day); p**I used in 11% of tweets (average of 1,170 a day); and the number one word being, white-boy which is used in almost half of tweets posted, 48.9% (average of 4,890 a day) (2). These numbers are only increasing as social media itself increases. The Anti-Social Media estimates “around 50-70% of tweets were used to express in group solidary with ‘re-claimed’ slurs used within ethnic groups.”
(Nakagawa, Arzubiega, 1). Because of this many people of all ages are aware of videos and statuses that go viral. So when a ‘racist video’ is posted to a social media site, it can become extensively popular in a matter of hours. Many teachers and professors use this as a learning tool, to teach their students about the different aspects of race both formal and informal. With technology widely increasing different learning tools are starting to be being used. YouTube, is a great way to show informative videos about race both helpful and even violent. In showing these videos teachers can explain the truth and wider aspects of racism and how it is still alive and well in today’s world. Another tool of social media teachers can use, is to teach in the way of commenting and liking a post. This might seem simple and even useless; however, in using this tool, teachers can see and read what their students think and believe about the video: if it was informative; if it made them think; if they want to do something to change it. Also showing the students the many comments that are posted can show how many people from different races all over the world think and believe. They can also use social sites like YouTube to look back in time and see and read about racial literacy. What does this mean? Basically, it means that