Internetting while black
My friend and I have a joke (and I’m sure tons of other people) that the worst thing to happen to black people was integration. However, I’ve been distancing myself from that joke and not because I live in multi-culti New York and not because I love the good part of gentrification (the little intimate grocery stores, stop signs, rapid police response, quiet nights) but because there is a new number one worst thing: the Internet!
Of course, there’s no disputing the role the Internet plays in our culture. Over a very small period of time, the World Wide Web has evolved from this place used to send mail and watch porn to a place where once can make phone calls, complete college applications, find a job, read the news, and unfortunately show your ass, both literally and figuratively. And everyone can do these things. I won’t go as far as to say equally, but according to Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World is Flat, the playing field has been greatly leveled. Let’s not confuse this universal access to technology with equality. I’m cautious about referring to it as some great equalizer, even when most of us (sorry China) can Google anything. It is probably fair to say, whether you are blogging about politics or uploading a filmed fight, there is risk. And that risk may be greater given the color of your skin.
Nowadays, a job interview is not simply about going in with the best resume and the best references, but about having the most clean public image. “Clean” of course, being a relative term. Whatever, the case, it is probably not the smartest move in an economy with a 10% unemployment rate, and still in an era of “Why Jamal can’t get a job” to be online railing against the white man. Beyond the job market, there are the fat girls singing on tables, the mothers teaching babies how to roll blunts, the homemade sex tapes, and every other type of trifling exposure of black people. Every time I log onto Bossip (love this site) or see some other random colored story, I think of how much the internet is responsible for making linked fate a modern day curse.
The respect for the boundary that exist between the public and private sphere is increasingly being encroached upon by both individuals who lack restraints and awareness of consequences and corporation who are hell bent on data harvesting us all to there is nowhere left to “hide’. While I agree that people need to be more conscious of what they are posting up on Facebook (among other public spaces on the internet), I am even more concern about the way the information we post on the internet gets stored, sold and used. As Zuckerberg sits pretty with his estimated 7 billion dollars (do the damn thing bro, cuz I would sit pretty too), folks like us have our personal information scanned while in the side panels Facebook plays match a vendor. Unfortunately, this isn’t an unprecedented business model or plan.
Google, my next guilty – time killer – pleasure, has their program read our emails and then brings up advertisements that tie into the content of the email. Although this feature has potential to be useful, I find it very disconcerting to say the least because my e-mail is what I would consider to be in my private sphere. I don’t want anyone (or anything for that matter) reading/scanning my e-mail and matching advertisements to the content of my personal e-mail.
The respect for the boundary that exist between the public and private sphere is increasingly being encroached upon by both individuals who lack restraints and awareness of consequences and corporation who are hell bent on data harvesting us all to there is nowhere left to “hide’. While I agree that people need to be more conscious of what they are posting up on Facebook (among other public spaces on the internet), I am even more concern about the way the information we post on the internet gets stored, sold and used. As Zuckerberg sits pretty with his estimated 7 billion dollars (do the damn thing bro, cuz I would sit pretty too), folks like us have our personal information scanned while in the side panels Facebook plays match a vendor. Unfortunately, this isn’t an unprecedented business model or plan.
Google, my next guilty – time killer – pleasure, has their program read our emails and then brings up advertisements that tie into the content of the email. Although this feature has potential to be useful, I find it very disconcerting to say the least because my e-mail is what I would consider to be in my private sphere. I don’t want anyone (or anything for that matter) reading/scanning my e-mail and matching advertisements to the content of my personal e-mail.
This really gives me an interesting perspective. Thank you for facilitating the question of internet’s role in this never-ending conquest of culture and indoctrination of whiteness. Even with something as potentially transcendent as the internet, of course we still have to be reminded of our situated freedom. Right on dawg.
This really gives me an interesting perspective. Thank you for facilitating the question of internet’s role in this never-ending conquest of culture and indoctrination of whiteness. Even with something as potentially transcendent as the internet, of course we still have to be reminded of our situated freedom. Right on dawg.
For most of my adult life I have believed that access overrides effort everyday – with the right connections you rise. And I still believe that access overrides effort, but apparently internet access allows for the perpetuation of stereotypes, and for jackass behavior by all sorts, but as we know when black folks exhibit jackass behavior the stench lingers longer. So is interentting while black the new driving while black?
For most of my adult life I have believed that access overrides effort everyday – with the right connections you rise. And I still believe that access overrides effort, but apparently internet access allows for the perpetuation of stereotypes, and for jackass behavior by all sorts, but as we know when black folks exhibit jackass behavior the stench lingers longer. So is interentting while black the new driving while black?
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