Since the network was created by Tim Berner Lee. Then something started to appear, and they still have some influence on modern networks. The differential treatment of gender and race has always been a hot topic on the Internet. However, as people’s horizons have gradually broadened, they have also begun to explore whether the Internet will continue to strengthen or weaken racial and gender discrimination. And with the change of thinking, some people gradually want to use the Internet to break the current phenomenon of racial discrimination and sexism.
The development of racial and gender discrimination in the Internet
In the 1960s, counter-cultural actions paved the way for today’s class division politics. (Alberto and Turner, 2021). Turner then provided an idea for the World War II Research Laboratory, showing that most people already have a similar cultural background, and that they are mainly male. In addition, the participants in the commune were mostly white and middle-class. In addition, Silicon Valley has gradually formed a fraternal culture, which means that they intend to push other types of people to the edge of Silicon Valley society. (Alberto and Turner, 2021) It can be seen from this that society has gradually become a patriarchal society centered on white men. As the Internet continues to develop and become highly developed, everyone can see it. Then these views have gradually penetrated into the hearts of the people, and they have begun to assimilate their thinking. Therefore, some extreme racism and sexism on the Internet gradually began to sprout, and began to poison many young white men.
For instance, a very cruel incident occurred in the United States which is called Altanta Spa Shooting which is caused by a 21-year-old white man who on 16th March 2021. The victims of this strike were 6 Asian women. （Bella，2021）
The misrepresntation of women and other people of color in the media
Women and other races have always been at a disadvantage in the media，and women and other people of color are always labeled badly on the Internet. In the current media reports, in the pursuit of a sensational effect, it is always common to copy, reinforce gender stereotypes and even distort the images of women and other races. From an analysis of racism on the media, the analysis can show that even if the criminal record should maintain the principle of racial neutrality, the media always deliberately emphasizes racial issues, either deliberately or metaphorically，this can be understood as racial emphas（Kulaszewicz，2015）Crime reports on blacks are often more detailed and comprehensive than whites, and they always show the image of black prisoners more violent. And when reporting crime news, more time is about black people, which will strengthen people’s discrimination against black people. （Kulaszewicz,2015) What is more, the hidden racial discrimination has become worse due to distorted medi a reports. Since the covid-19 epidemic, many unscrupulous media have started to use China as a selling point to trigger a large amount of discrimination against China and Asians.
《All Together Now》uses bats and the Wuhan wet vegetable market to make fun of Chinese food. (Yang, Renaldi, and Bahmani, 2020)
Even in Australia, a country that advocates diversification, the media still exhibits a certain degree of exclusivity. The mainstream media’s presentation of minorities and other races is even more negative. And it also shows certain negative emotions about the culture of other countries. Reports about white people always occupy the mainstream position. （Rodrigues, Niemann and Paradise, 2019)
“racism sexism speciesism” by ThinkVegan is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Furthermore, women also is one of the key topics that often are discussed online. Even though, the society has been developing rapidly and gradually opening up, media reports and opinions on women remain unchanged. (Sharma,2013) The media input a wrong idea to most men, that is, women are just objects. And this kind of sexy female image makes many girls feel uncomfortable. Then many girls change their appearance and body for the so-called standard. (Flores,2019) This abnormal idea gradually merges into the rape culture, and men will see some women and will object the woman into objects they like, so this is the reason why these men feel that rape is normal. Over time, this becomes a reason why men can abuse women. (Flores,2019) What is more, women are often described by the media as consumers, so in many authoritative fields, female roles are rare, and women are generally considered to be capable of only relatively easy tasks. （Altay,2018) Not only have women not been emancipated from the immutable image, they have become a lucrative product for the media.
“Facebook Gender Discrimination” by Karanvir Singh Sangha is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Search Engine has its own bias
The search engine is mainly coded by white male engineers, it is not only a corrupted machines,but also an imperfect of system which is human-made. the structure completely established on the racism and sexism. (Noble,2018) Many people think that the results of their search on search engines are objective, but on the contrary, they are profit-oriented, and the ranking of search engines is to make people believe that this is the best website. The optimized search results are not intended to spread the correct information, but to spread discriminatory ideas.（Noble,2018) The search engine essentially automatically adjusts the position of advertisements according to the habits of searchers, so to a certain extent it represents the racial discrimination in the society. （“Google searches expose racial bias, says study of names”，2013）Then Noble (2018) proposes an oppressive algorithm, which discusses many disturbing examples. For example, when noble types black women on the internet, the search interface always shows pornographic content, which naturally sexualizes black women. Black women are the subject matter of pornographic websites and treat them as a commodity.(Noble,2018) The reason for searching for black women and then jumping to pornographic web pages is because these people browse the most web pages.（Noble,2018）
Against the discrimination online：Social campaign
Everything has two sides. Even though the Internet has aggravated the power of this inequality to a certain extent, it also gave many people the opportunity to show the real race and protest this inequality online. There was a racial discrimination protest in the United States in 2020 that lasted for nearly a month, it is called “Black Live Matter”. Almost 15 million ot 26 million people attend this event.
“Black Lives Matter” by seikoesquepayne is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Georege Floyd was violently enforced by the white police and died during his detention.
Even though he was not the first African American who died of violent law enforcement, the reason why the people’s response was so great this time was because the victim was not able to fight back this time, and kept telling the police that he could not breathe during the law enforcement. And the statement given by the police is an action made for fear of hurting his life.From the law enforcement video posted on the Internet, it can be seen that Georege Floyed was completely unlikely to cause harm and was easily killed by violent law enforcement.The police thought Floyd’s life was nothing compared to his own safety. This is the main reason why this protest is so almighty this time(Cheung,2020)As the video was reposted frantically on the Internet, four violent law enforcement police officers were ordered to be expelled, and at the same time many people began to march in the streets and graffiti the police. This parade is not only black but also a large number of white people who participated in the parade for Floyd’s injustice.(Cheung,2020)
Conclusion
The Internet is a double-edged sword.On the one hand, it strengthens racial and gender discrimination on the Internet. At the same time, it also gives people the right to change for themselves on the Internet. And we should better regulate our words and deeds on the Internet, so as to create a good network environment.
References
Alberto, L & Fred F. (2021), ‘”It’s an Ongoing Bromance”: Counterculture and Cyberculture in Silicon Valley—An Interview with Fred Turner. Journal of Management Inquiry 30(2), pp. 235-242.
Bella Timothy.(2021,September 28), Atlanta spa-shooting suspect pleads not guilty to murder charges for 4 of the killings. The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/28/atlanta-spa-shooting-robert-long/
Bhumika Sharma.(2013), Image of Women in Media, Himachal Pradesh (HP) University. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2316183
Erwin Renaldi, Nazli Bahmani and Samuel Yang.(2020. November 11), Muslims, Chinese Australians and Indigenous people most targeted in racist media coverage. ABC News.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-11/australian-mainstream-media-often-perpetuate-racism-report-finds/12849912
“Google searches expose racial bias, says study of names”.(2013, February 4). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-21322183
Helier Cheung.(2020, June 8), George Floyd death: Why US protests are so powerful this time. BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52969905
İBRAHIM ALTAY.（2018, March 19), Representation of women in media, Daily Sabah, https://www.dailysabah.com/readers-corner/2018/03/19/representation-of-women-in-media
Kassia E. Kulaszewicz.（2015). Racism and the Media: A Textual Analysis. https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1478&context=msw_papers
Melanie Flores.(2019).Misrepresentation of women in the media: Why men need to stop treating women like objects. https://chimesnewspaper.com/44819/opinions/misrepresentation-of-women-in-the-media-why-men-need-to-stop-treating-women-like-objects/
Rodrigues, U. M., Niemann, M., & Paradies, Y. (2019). Representation of news related to culturally diverse population in Australian media . Journalism, May 31, 1–19.
Safiya U. N. (2018) A society, searching. In Algorithms of Oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. New York: New York University. pp. 15-63.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.