229c Race and Pedagogy Project - Research Archive » Race and the Internet

Race and the Internet

September 16, 2005

Faigley, Lester. Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity and the Subject of Composition. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1992.

September 16th 2005 Posted to Race, Literacy and Pedagogy, Race and the Internet

Faigley addresses the place, meaning, and purpose of composition studies in the wake of postmodernism and the breakdown of the concept of a unified subject. While maintaining a fundamental faith in composition studies and literacy training, Faigley utilizes postmodern theories of the subject to critique and modify pedagogical strategies in those fields. According to Faigley, composition studies has proven commensurable with postmodernity in most ways. However, there has been conflict over one issue: “where composition studies has proven least receptive to postmodern theory is in the surrendering of the belief in the writer as an autonomous self, even at a time when extensive group collaboration is practiced in many writing classrooms.” (15) (Read the article)

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August 23, 2005

Kolko, Beth E., Lisa Nakamura, and Gilbert B. Rodman, eds. Race in Cyberspace. New York: Routledge, 2000.

August 23rd 2005 Posted to Race and the Internet, African American, Asian American

Widely acknowledged as a vanguard text on cyberspace race studies, Race in Cyberspace, in collection of twelve essays, directly challenges Internet utopists’ proclamations of an online racial paradise.

The editors begin with an anecdote illustrating how poorly online discourse on race is received, even in critical and mature academic circles. A post on a listserv about a theory positing race as a social, not biological, construct initiated a “flame war,” as the original poster was attacked and labeled a troublemaker for having the audacity to even mention race. The editors were troubled by the fact that the original poster was not attacked for any perceived theoretical flaws, but simply for the act of introducing racial discourse. Online, there seems to be a culture of ignoring race matters. (Read the article)

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August 18, 2005

Lee, Rachel C., and Sau-ling Cynthia Wong, eds. Asian America.Net: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cyberspace. New York: Routledge, 2003.

August 18th 2005 Posted to Race, Gender and Sexuality, Race and the Internet, Asian American

A book of collected essays, Asian America.Net seeks to address the question of how cybertechnologies complicate the tenuous space occupied by Asian Americans on issues of identity, transnationalism, and gender/sexual politics. If it is a truism, write Lee and Wong, that there was no such concept as “Asian American” prior to ethnic consciousness movement of the 1960s – the entire label being a construct – then the additional layer of technological virtuality only intensifies contestation of what it means to be Asian American. (Read the article)

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July 23, 2005

Poster, Mark. “Virtual Ethnicity.” What’s the Matter with the Internet? Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. 148-170.

July 23rd 2005 Posted to Race and the Internet, Asian American

In chapter eight of What’s the Matter with the Internet?, Mark Poster (UC Irvine) applies his broader thesis analyzing the material matter of the Internet on the subject of race and ethnicity. Drawing upon heavy theory, Poster questions how the Internet affects race. He speculates that race and ethnicity as portrayed on the Internet is somehow transformed; that in becoming virtual and disembodied, race and ethnicity (and on a larger scale, communities in general) must define itself against a global context, causing a technology-induced anxiety for some, elation for others. In his attempt to systematically parse and organize virtual ethnicity, Poster touches on the Maori, Asian American and Jewish cybercommunities, which, he contends, use the Internet as a means for enhancing and strengthening their communities, rather than any kind of transcendence of ethnicity.

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July 19, 2005

Nakamura, Lisa. “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet.” Reading Digital Cultures. Ed. David Trend. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 2001. 226-235

July 19th 2005 Posted to Race and the Internet, African American, Asian American 1b21

“Despite claims by digital uptopians,” contends Nakamura, “identity positions are still very much in evidence” (226). The Internet, she claims, does not realize any racial democracies nor does it create an egalitarian space for its users. Drawing upon her own forays into MUDs (Multi-user Dungeons) or MOOs (MUD, Object-Oriented), which are online, text-driven environments, Nakamura critically reads how users address or attempt to ignore issues of race. Her central thesis argues that the Internet allows for a new kind of racial “passing,” in which members of a minority can assume a “default white” status by simply keeping quiet, and whites can reinforce stereotypes by engaging in “identity tourism.” She calls for the Internet to be a place for thoughtful discourse instead of perpetuating old hierarchies.

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