The following blog post is the result of dialogue and collaboration by Beata Kozma, Theresa McLeod-Treadwell, and Dorothy Sidhu, students of the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology through Royal Roads University.
image via PictureQuotes.com
LRNT521 Unit 4 Activity 1
Impacts of Digital Learning on Racism
Racism is nothing than the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics particular to that specific race, distinguishing those races as inferior or superior to others. Racism is a form of stereotyping.
In the mid-1990’s, the internet was lauded for its potential to usher in a color-blind society. As the medium proliferated, scholars argued it could eliminate racial cues from communication and lead to a more egalitarian electronic global village, where there would be no race, gender or infirmities (Ess, 2001; Negroponte, 1995) (as cited in Tynes et al., 2014, p. 2)
The internet and different digital environments offered a new platform where people can express themselves and experience racism. Online racism is like offline racism, just on a different platform, with wider and way larger audience (Tynes et al., 2014).
List of Impacts
Negative
- Self Doubt / Lack of Participation and Engagement– Being unsure about how other people would view their racial identity often creates doubt about posting. Fearing negative experiences online because of a person’s racial identity has shown to decrease participation and engagement in online spaces (Chan, J., 2017).
- Exclusion, Victimization, Denigration and Cyber-bullying – The emergence of the digital era has had unintended consequences for race, civil rights, and hate speech. The myth that race does not exist on the Internet or that cyberspace represents some sort of carefree realm of “colorblindness,” is untrue (Tynes et al., 2014).
- Bias and Favoritism – In a 2018 Stanford study it is suggested that there was favoritism and tendency for white female students to significantly respond to posts by white women than were other students. In the same study it suggested that instructors responded to 7 percent of comments posted by students. But for white male students, the response rate was 12 percent. “… results show compelling experimental evidence that instructor discrimination exists in discussion forums of online classrooms,” says the paper. “Simply attaching a name that connotes a specific race and gender to a discussion forum post changes the likelihood that an instructor will respond to that post.” (Baker, Dee, Evans, & John, 2018)
- Explosion of Hate Sites – The digital environment has enabled space for the creation of websites dedicated to racial epithets, stereotyping and implicitly racist statements, racist jokes, symbols of hate, such as the Confederate flag, threats of physical harm or death and graphic representations/actual images of dead black bodies. (Tynes, B. M., 2015). White supremacy has emerged online with overt hate websites that target individuals or groups and showcase racist propaganda
- Stress, Depression, Withdrawn and Anxiety – In studies, online racial discrimination has been correlated with mental health issues such as depressive states and anxiety. A recent study done by Northwestern University shows that “researchers found that the physiological response to race-based stressors—be it perceived racial prejudice, or the drive to outperform negative stereotypes—leads the body to pump out more stress hormones in adolescents from traditionally marginalized groups.” (Levy, Heissel, Richeson, & Adam, 2016). The results of the present study demonstrated associations between race-related victimization online and depressive symptoms, anxiety, and externalizing behavior (Brody et al. 2006; Coker et al. 2009; Greene Way, & Pahl, 2006; Huynh & Fuligni 2010; Pachter et al. 2010; Sellers, Caldwell, Schmeelk-Cone, & Zimmerman, 2003). (as cited in Tynes et al., 2014, p. 10)
In between
- Heightened Presence of Race and Racial Discourse – Online spaces has created opportunities for an increase in public discussion around racial issues. Numerous hateful sites were created against race, color, and immigration (based on color and faith). The numbers of extremist and hate sites rose exponentially from 6,000 to 10,000 from 2006 to 2009 and to 15,000 by 2011 (Simon Wiesenthal Center, 2012). (as cited in Tynes et al., 2014, p. 3)
- Locus of Visibility (i.e. #blacklivesmatter) – Twitter has become a community for racial discourse in example, #blacklivesmatter has opened up a virtual space for individuals to gather and explore & learn about black identity (Sharma, 2013)
- Consciously Aware of Biases and Impact – Educators, teachers, facilitators, instructional designers etc. are mindful with the choices they make when designing learning, keeping top of mind inclusion and diversity. For example using images of all ethnicity and not stereotyping based on perceived persona’; purposeful in non-biasing – Similarly, Carime Bersh (2011) explores White prospective teachers’ understandings of their own cultural identities. This study posits that White teachers must understand their own cultural identity, privilege, and the ways they are inscribed and often perpetuate institutional bias if they are to “deconstruct, reconstruct, and recreate” their own multicultural practice (Chen, Nimmo, & Fraser, 2009)
- Globalization – The world is shrinking, cross cultural marriages, immigration increasing, we see diversity and are part of diversity within our communities of education. Though there is an increase in openness and promotion to have students from different parts of the world attend a university online, there are positive outcomes of inclusiveness, diverse thinking and heterogeneous groups, however there are also thoughts and it’s impact on educational access, inequality and exclusion suggested some university and government officials see the rise of worldwide academic competition as a threat, going so far as to limit student mobility or thwart cross-border university expansion. But Wildavsky argues that this scholarly marketplace is creating a new global meritocracy, one in which the spread of knowledge benefits everyone–both educationally and economically (Alberts, 2010)
Positive
- Racial Self Expression through Creation of Social Media Content – People of Color are not without any agency in expressing racial identity online, however. The emergence of a prominent Asian American presence on YouTube (Balance, 2012) and the cultural force of “Black Twitter” (Florini, 2014) have demonstrated the ability of communities of Color to carve out spaces within the social media landscape. Studies have found creating social media content (e.g., status updates, blog posts, photos, videos) can be a means of racial self-expression for college students of Color (Correa & Jeong, 2011), and these explicit assertions of racial identity can also signal racial group belonging and solidarity (Grasmuck et al., 2009). Such findings suggest racial identity may figure centrally in the social media experiences of students of Color. (as cited in Chan, 2017)
- Activism through Social Media – Responding to a racially hostile campus environment, Black students staged a series of protests demanding the university address the racist systems and structures contributing to an oppressive campus climate. The student activists leveraged social media as part of their organizing strategy, effectively utilizing the hashtag #ConcernedStudent1950 to raise national awareness of their efforts (Fang, 2016). In doing so, they inspired students of Color on other campuses to call attention to the racism at their own institutions through social media campaigns and other acts of activism (Hartocollis & Bidgood, 2015). (as cited in Chan, 2017). Movies, TV and web series – Netflix, streaming online – e.g. Detroit, Queen Sugar, Empire, Atlanta, Hidden Figures, Lee Daniels’ The Butler… Loving
- Virtual Safe-Space are created through hashtags – Research has shown that such hashtags are important for building communities for these groups. For instance, the “hashtag feminism” and “Black Twitter” communities have utilized hashtags as a virtual safe-space for expressing feminist and racial identities, respectively, connecting users with shared identities and demonstrating the ongoing discussions of the issues they face. Hashtags about these groups can evolve into or function as part of online movements, such as in the case of #WhyIStayed and #BlackLivesMatter (Liu, Ford, Parnin, & Dabbish, 2017)
- Racial Literacy – People need the skills to be critical of what they read, being producers of media, rather than consumers. Being racially literate means having the tools with which to converse about race, deconstruct and challenge instances of racism, and interact and work with others to address inequities in relation to race. (Nakagawa & Arzubiaga, 2014, p. 3) Behaviors and attitudes such as keeping the conversations alive; open dialogue, expressing opinions, sharing, being vulnerable and transparent; having a voice, being curious use example from the SD 74 (Bennett, 2018)
- Virtual Reality (VR) – Can help to overcome implicit biases, according to a paper recently published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Researchers used VR to help people slip into the skin of an avatar and temporarily take on a new identity, cultivating cross-racial empathy along the way (Maister, Slater, Sanchez-Vives, & Tsakiris, 2015)