Contributed by Peter Ludolph In the internet media age, we have seen an increase in conversations about race, culture, and activism. There have been two major subjects in race within the realm of the internet in the last couple of years. The first involves racial discrimination—particularly discrimination toward black Americans by police officers. The second major subject has been the idea of transracial legitimacy. Both of these receive support and criticism in their aims to create social change. In this short article, I will write about the idea of racial transformation and how the internet has reacted to this idea. When many people think about the idea of racial transformation, one name usually is brought up before all others: Rachel Dolezal. This woman was the former head of the Spokane, WA, chapter of the NAACP. She was born and raised white but in early adulthood she began to identify as a black woman. She has received both support and criticism for her decision in changing her identity. Large portions of the internet population has expressed feelings of opposition toward Dolezal, however, the academic community has been accepting of Dolezal’s racial transformation. I think that this contrast in opinion on behalf of the internet toward Dolezal shows an interesting characteristic of the internet when it comes to social commentary. Internet media is in many ways a mirror in the way it reflects back toward people the feelings that exist on certain topics. Most of the support seen on the internet for Dolezal comes from the academic sphere, while, at the same time, the negative commentary or opposition comes from those outside the academic realm. White people seem to not care as much when a black person says they identify as white, as black people do when a white person says that they identify as black. This probably has to do with a feeling that white people don’t understand the struggle of black people, so identifying as black when you’re white comes off as demeaning. In the past, people were not thought to be able to change or decide what their race is. However, this is a changing value in our society and most of the commentary that is going on about this subject is off of the internet. Much of what is being discussed on the internet is the core concept of racial fluidity, which includes the main question, “Can people choose their race?” Recently, Nancy Leong did an article for The New York Times called “Racial Fluidity Complicates the Value We Assign to Race” (Leong, 2015). In it, she talks about how society gives different values toward different races within society. In particular she notes that there are specific advantages to being white in society and other equal advantages to being black (Leong, 2015). She continues by writing that for white people the ability to get loans, get jobs, and even sell things on Ebay comes easier (Leong, 2015). On the flip side, black people tend to have advantages with companies that are trying to diversify their workforce (Leong, 2015). The problem that arises, Leong notes, is that when we accept racial fluidity we then begin to take away those particular advantages from people who are specific races (Leong, 2015). An example of this may be a white person identifying as black receiving the benefits of Affirmative Action to the same extent as a black person. To many people this would not seem fair, however, if race determines these benefits, then racial fluidity could aid a person in getting benefits they would not have originally been entitled to. You can find Nancy Leong’s article here. Other points that fight the idea of racial transformation are arguments that race cannot change because it is beyond a choice. Race in many way is an experience. We are born into a race and every experience from birth in a particular race defines the experiences of that race. A black person who is born black and raised black cannot define their experience growing up to be white because that is what they felt like they were. Race is not merely as individualistic as something like gender is. Gender has a highly limited amount of possibilities, whereas race has many forms. A person who decides that they are white after living their whole life as black is not actually white. They are their own race in many ways because the experience of being a race has to be a lifelong experience to truly be a particular race. The jury is still out on the case of transracial people. Most new media sources have not made their mind up on what their thoughts are on transracial individuals. I believe that in the coming years it will become more apparent on forms of new media what people actually think about this concept. If you want to be at the forefront of this type of discussion, the best place to talk about it is the internet. The amount of discussion going on about this topic is staggering. Works Cited Leong, Nancy. "Racial Fluidity Complicates the Value We Assign to Race." The New York Times. 2015 The New York Times Company, 17 June 2015. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
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Contributed by Gustavo Zogobi Humans of New York is a blog and bestselling book containing portraits and interviews collected on the streets of New York. Brandon Stanton is a photographer and the creator. He started writing it in November 2010. The initial goal for Brandon was to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street, and after that he would be creating a catalogue of the city’s inhabitants. At some point of doing it, he started interviewing his subjects in addition to photographing them, and alongside their portraits he would be including quotes and stories about their lives. Later on, he started doing both things together. He was photographing and writing about the inhabitants of New York. After doing that for a while, Humans of New York was born. Brandon looks for any kind of person that wants to share some interesting aspect of their lives. For him, where you came from, your race, your sexuality, or your religion does not matter. What really matters for him is the point that you have a great story that you can be told, and that he can publish. New York being one of the biggest cities in the world is great for this kind of thing. With thousands and thousands of different people, with many kinds of culture, Brandon is in paradise. One of the greatest things about Humans of New York is that anyone can be a protagonist. For Brandon, it's only important that you have something really interesting to tell, any kind of story, based on some experience in life that you have lived. Racism, discrimination, or differences do not exist for Brandon. His job is to know a lot of different people, and consequently new cultures, and that is what he looks for. Humans of New York can be accessed in any social media. It can be found on Facebook with over seventeen million likes so far. Also, it can be found on Instagram, and almost 5 million people have liked it on Instagram. Brandon Stanton has a Twitter account, and on Twitter he shares every story that he publishes. On his Twitter account he has almost five hundred thousand followers. Lastly, Humans of New York has its own website where people can learn more about what Brandon does and what Humans of New York is. Humans of New York has become a success with all those followers on social media because people want to know about each other’s lives. What Brandon does without any kind of discrimination of culture, race, and religion is especially great. People like sites like this one because it reflects reality; it is not like a movie where almost everything is fiction. Personally, I think Humans of New York is awesome. Every week I read a different story, and how Brandon does it is phenomenal. He always tells interesting stories. It seems like he knows how to pick the right person because every person has an amazing story that has to be told. It does not matter the age, gender, race, country, and religion, every time that he tells a story it gets more interesting. And what always gets my attention is that every person has something absolutely amazing that has to be heard, and Brandon does it perfectly. He deserves all the success that he is having right now with Humans of New York because he knows how to do it. It is not simply a picture and a story that he presents, it is way more. He makes us, his audience, wait anxiously for the next post. Keep doing it, Humans of New York; keep making us to read more, and more. Brandon, you are great! |
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