Although we have touched on the topic of race on the Internet and social media before, I appreciated this week’s focus on the issue of race. In particular, the reading “Race and Social Media”, by Senft and Noble, highlighted many issues that are common in our society in terms of race and often not addressed. Although the statistics regarding people of certain races online were interesting, I was especially intrigued by the part about racist YouTube videos online. I am not sure if I saw “Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls” when it came out, but I do remember seeing a lot of the similar videos at the time. SWGSBG (as it is referred to in the reading) is an example of how these videos have used humor to make a statement about race. Although these are edgy, some of these videos make us laugh, while also making us think a little harder about race.
Unfortunately, not all videos regarding race online are making a statement that makes us think. I was reminded in the reading about the girl from UCLA that made the racist video about Asians in the library that went viral. When Alexandra Wallace posted her rant about Asian students in an attempt to be funny, she completely missed the mark and instead offended thousands of people, not only at UCLA, but also in the entire Asian American community. Although this girl may say some of these comments to her friends anyways, the big problem is that she chose to post this on the Internet for everyone to see. Race is a sensitive issue sometimes, and social media is a sensitive medium, so her lack of filter when posting this shows she did not know how to use social media responsibly. This video also contributes to the over-arching theme of things put on the Internet that can stay up forever. Although this girl removed her video shortly after posting it, and receiving backlash, the video is still all over the Internet and is extremely easy to find. As shown by the attachment: