Warning: Undefined array key 0 in /home/digitald/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/radgeek-FWP---Add-Attribution-70acf52/add-attribution-feedwordpress.php on line 363
In Lisa Nakamura’s article “I WILL DO EVERYthing Am Asked,” she emphasizes the prevalence of exploitative content focusing on African Americans. Racist content has almost become completely common place all over social media and people barely even notice that they are perpetuating a hateful culture by sharing this content. Now more than ever, there seems to be no boundary on what people are comfortable with posting on the internet for the world to see. Also, with the anonymity of the internet, people feel completely invincible when they post something offensive because they can hide behind a screen. With a quick Google search of the word “meme,” two images popped up immediately that struck me:
I have seen both of these images used before on social media with different captions but I will emphasize the fact that with one search for memes on google, these are two that come up immediately. The first image shows the image of an apparent drug addict with a seemingly humorous caption to gain likes and appreciation by online users. This is incredibly offensive because it turns an image of a person struggling with addiction into a joke for people on the internet to laugh at. The second image is of Stevie Wonder, who is a popular target for memes for being blind, and this meme is blatantly racist. Essentially joking that he should be thankful to be blind because he can’t see that he is a black man. After reading the article and looking around the internet, it is obvious to me that racism has become pervasive throughout social media.
Sources:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1470412914546845
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1144795-spicy-memes