"We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth."1
--->Race in Cyberspace? - A note on ethnicity in the digital age<---
Proseminar: The United States: One Nation Indivisible...
Dr. Brenda Bohne
by Arno Selhorst - University of Bonn, Germany
SS 96
Disclaimer:
You are very welcome to use this paper for your own works - BUT - No one is allowed to cite from the following document without giving credit to it's original author (me - Arno Selhorst) as point of reference. If you have any questions about the paper I'd be glad to get in contact with you (my E-Mail: uzs405@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de).
I also would like to thank all the authors whose sources made this paper possible. The authors are listed in the (Net)bibliography .
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The paper on hand will focus on race and ethnicity in computer mediated communication. Thus it is important to paraphrase
The third point also outlines the main thesis of the paper: Modern electronic communication may make differences in race obsolete and thus might reduce the threat of racial discrimination.
To gather material of evidence for support of the main thesis the results within this paper are based on extensive internet research. It is immanent to the topic of the paper itself that the medium discussed is also the most appropiate to gather information from. A second reason for conducting most of the research with the help of the internet itself is because hard copy literature is only just beginning to pick up on the topic of race and the Internet. It is a rather new field of study since the Net has been in the public mind for only about three years now. Another reason Internet research is crucial is the fact that the rapidly changing debate going on in Cyberspace is faster than a printed medium like books or newspaper articles. A book might be outdated once it was printed.
In summary one can say that research about the Internet's role as a communication tool between different ethnic communities, and thus reflecting its user's dreams, hopes and fears regarding race, can be most efficient when performed with the medium itself. The method to prove or disapprove the thesis was to combine statistic as well as empiric data about three tools (software) for internet communication and public expression of thought. The focus was on tools people use to communicate with each other because those tools might most likely reveal people's attitudes towards one another when it comes to ethnic differences. In the course of the paper each communication tool will be discussed on the background of its usability to establish evidence for or against the paper's main thesis. The method of research will focus on US-American Internet sources for statistical and empirical data since the larger context of "One nation indivisible..." still has to be taken into account. A final summary will consider all material discussed during the paper and state a conclusion against or in favor for the paper's main thesis.
II:
1. The American origin of the Internet (the net):
The internet is a global computer based network in which every connected computer can have access to the other computer. Sometimes passwords are needed, sometimes one can simply enter another computer system. Either single computers or entire LANs (Local Area Networks) are connected to the internet. Today people look at the net as a tool for mostly peaceful communication and a cornucopia of information. This perspective was not intended when scientists put up a small computer network in 1969 called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency NETwork). This network was, among other purposes, designed for the US military and had the task to keep up a way to communicate even after a nuclear attack would hit and destroy much of the communication infrastructure of the country. Information was supposed to circumvent broken parts of a connection and look for alternate routes to get to its destination. At the same time the information was able to travel by ways of simple telephone lines just like calling someone on the phone. The only additional hardware next to a computer required for the transfer of data is a Modem (MOdulator-DEModulator) which encodes the information sent off from the computer into smaller pieces (packets) each owning a unique number and its destination with it. This system is also called a packet-switching network.
"Packet-switching is a method of fragmenting messages into sub-parts called packets, routing them to their destinations, and reassembling them."(2)
The packets are sent off into the direction of their destination until each packet has been recieved by the destination computer where a second modem decodes the packets into their original information. If a packet is missing the sending computer gets the appropiate information about the missing packet and starts to re-send it. In 1983, the ARPANET was split into ARPANET and MILNET. The later was integrated into the Defense Data Network, created in 1982. ARPANET was taken out of service in 1990. After the cold war was over and the Berlin wall had come down the ARPANET was no longer needed for the military only. Scientists and Universities in the USA started to connect to the already existing smaller network. Other Universities linked again to the already linked Universities and the network became bigger. Since 1991 the now called Internet kept on growing faster because commercial Institutions started to hook up to the network as well. After its birth in the United States the network (the former ARPANET) expanded to other countries on the planet and thus began to spread over the entire globe. In July 1995 6.6 million computers world-wide had a permanent connection to the Internet. Currently this number doubles every 7 month. Still, the United States, seen as one social entity, is the most advanced in the use of computers and the Internet: "Being digital is an American phenomenon /.../"(3) Money transfers are already handled over the Internet. But as business starts to become popular on the Internet the social aspect of this electronic communication tool becomes also more important.
2. The people who use the Internet:
The main data for this part of the paper was gathered directly from the Education and Social Stratification Branch of the U.S. Bureau of Census. The latest data will focus on the year 1993. Over the years beginning in 1984 the number of computers in US households has climbed from 8.2% in 1984 to 22.8% in 1993. This trend is likely to hold on until today where more and more services are being offered through networked computer systems. Also the prices for an average PC (personal computer) have dropped dramaticly during the above period of time. Thus households with less income can also afford a medium PC for their home. Because more households have been equipped with PCs, access to the Internet might also increase. With more people being connected to the Internet, this medium gradually becomes a mainstream tool such as the radio or the TV. Radio and TV have influenced our dayly lives already and the impact of the Internet and its Computer-Mediated-Communication (CMC4) is still reason for critical debate among sociologists and anthropologists. Before someone can enter a discussion through the Internet she or he has to have access to a computer. With the topic for this paper it is therefore suitable to look at statistics depicting the access rate and place of computer usage for each ethnic group. Two groups will be evaluated: Whites - Blacks.
2a. Access to a computer:
Whites: 1993, 35.8% of whites being 3 to 17 years old had general access to a computer. In 1989 the percentage was 26.7% and in 1984 only 17.1%. Again one can see an increasing trend when looking at the figures. Most of those people used their computer at home (1993: 75.3%), then in school (1993: 62.7%) and 61.4% used a computer somewhere else. Looking at whites 18 and above one can see from the data gathered from 1993 that fewer people have access to a computer than the young ones in their category. Here only 26.9% of all whites 18 and above have access to a terminal in contrast to those being 3 to 17 years old (see above). Most of those 18 and above use their computer at home (66.7%) as it was the case with the younger group. 53.1% of the adults use the computer at school, college or university and only and 47.1% access their computer at work.
Blacks: Looking at the black part of American society in general one can see smaller percentages for every field discussed above. 13% of those blacks being 3 to 17 years old have access to a computer that is far less access than their white equivalents (35.8%). 67.3% of those blacks owning a computer at home actually use it. Again, this is less than 3 to 17 year old whites (75.3%). At school blacks of this age category seem to use the computer less (50.9%) than whites of the same category (62.7%). The percentages for those blacks being 18 and above are in comparisson to the young people of their ethnic group different from the numbers whites showed in the survey. Most strikingly is the small difference of general access to a computer between the two black age-groups. 13.8% of those 18 and above have access to a computer compared with 13.0% of those blacks 3 to 17 years old. The difference is smaller than the difference in the same category but with whites (0.8% difference with blacks against 8.9% difference with whites). This result may be due to black job, community and educational conditions. The gap between black teens and those above 18 does not seem to be a big as it is for the white population when it comes to computer usage. 56.8% of those blacks 18 and above use their home computers in contrast to 66.7% of their white equivalents. In school those blacks above 18 use the computer more (54.8%) than younger blacks (50.9%). A reason for those results may be that blacks above 18 attending school, college or university do not have or need a computer in their own homes since they are given one in school or on campus wheras whites of the same age may own an additional computer at home. At work fewer blacks (36.1%) than whites (47.1%) use a computer (5). As a result one can see that less blacks than whites access the computer from home, school, college and university or their work places. But even if blacks access the computer less than whites there is still a suprising statistic when one looks at the usage of the computer regarding the Internet.
2b. Computer usage by blacks and whites:
Another statistic from the U.S. Bureau of Census (6) reveals that 35.2% of those blacks 18 and above who have Internet access frequently use electronic mail (E-Mail) for correspondence purposes. In contrast only 32.4% of all whites in the same category use E-Mail frequently. Another computer communication service, a so-called Bulletin-Board system (BBS) is also used slightly more by blacks than by whites (8.8% vs. 8.7% respectively). Equal results can be found in the category of those 3 to 17 years old. Here, more blacks (1.2%) than whites (0.9%) use E-Mail and more blacks (3.0%) connect to Bulletin-Board systems than equal aged whites (2.2%). Whites may outnumber the black part of the American population on the Internet but the use of communication tools such as E-Mail and BBSs draws another picture for parts of the Internet information infrastructure. Nevertheless there are more uses for the Internet than E-Mail or BBSs. Another tool to communicate world-wide and also express one's opinion is the World-Wide-Web (WWW) which allows its users to express their point of view to a world wide public. To get another perspective of the ethnic situation on the Internet one should look at the Organizations that are present in the WWW.
3. The World-Wide-Web and ethnic orientated organizations that use it to deal with racial issues:
To show the vast diversity of US based sources in the WWW that is also a mirror of American society, this part of the thesis elaboration will present both sides of the ethnic discussion going on in Cyberspace. There is a large number of sites within the world wide web that deal with race and color of skin. Every site is filled with activists information from all kinds of races. One will find the "Black Panthers" there as well as the white supremacist organisation called " National Alliance".
The "National Alliance" (7):
"After the sickness of 'multiculturalism' which is destroying America /.../ we must again have a racially clean area of the earth."(8)
This organisation is strongly supremacist and is all about the arrival and ressurection of the white, aryian race. Their supporters believe in white neighbourhoods, schools and mass media. They put up their own short wave radio station and cater their own Internet Radio show with real time radio brought over the Internet. Research for extreme groups like this one was complicated because most of the more extreme organisations represented on the internet have their information very well hidden or they use some sort of cryptography such as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), a software tool which makes messages unreadable for outsiders. The National Alliance is obviously racist. The number of unrecorded right wing Sites might be much higher. Pages like the one by this organisation spur the heated debate on the internet and often act as a catalyst for other peoples' points of view. Pages like those are also a part and mirror of American society. On the other side are those claiming that their needs and views are the only correct ones.
"Black Panthers" (9):
" The only good Pig, is a dead Pig /.../The Pig is afraid of Black children because they are brave warriors/.../ Power comes through the barrel of a gun." (10)
A web site called "A Black Panther Primer" introduces those interested into the Biography of the organization, holds an archive of documents and supplies the reader with an extensive bibliography with more than 17 rescources in print. Another Web page about the Panthers published the once banned Black Panther Coloring book. Here one can see another strengh of the Internet. Because it can automaticly circumvent its obstacles censorship becomes almost impossible. Banned material is thus on display all over the Internet - may it be for better or for worse. As was shown in the figures about the usage of computers one can see enormous interest of the younger blacks in the new medium. Colleges and universities are among the leading institutions offering information about black issues and provide those interested with valuable information about their campus and other topics. An example would be the "Black Student Association at Rice University" (11)or the "Stanford Black Graduate Students Association" (12). There is a bulk of information concerning African American Organisations present on the Internet (13). To list all of them would go beyond the measures of this paper. In summary the statement given at the beginning of this part of thesis elaboration can be emphasised: The diversity of points of view concerning race in American society is reflected by the offerings of the Internet. The discussion about race goes on there. By inserting clickable E-Mail adresses into their pages the readers can get in direct, easy contact with the web site's authors. The medium Internet shows a second characteristic here on which we will elaborate in the next chapter: Interactivity - information passes both ways. The audience is invited to participate to accomplish a common goal. This ability can best be valued when looking at real-time communication systems such as the Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
4. The IRC - Real time computer mediated communication:
The WWW-Pages discussed in the former chapter were already slightly interactive because one is able to directly reply to the pages by sending E-Mail to the people who created the site. But still, the WWW with its pages is primarily a tool to offer information. Another tool that relies on participation of its users is a communication tool called IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Again, as any other application discussed within this paper, IRC is a service using the Internet as its information infrastructure. IRC Chats are the closest internet applications to real time conversation (when ignoring the upcoming Internet-Telephone Services). People meet in forums, so called "channels", to talk about a large variety of subjects. They type what they want to say and send their message off to the other participants of the group. Immediatly the others can see what the person has typed and they can respond. The participants can be spread all around the globe - space becomes irrelevant. A real time conversation can be triggered. In chatting systems people can also send text to just one person as if she/he would whisper to just one person within a group of people.
The Internet is a global tool for communication so race might play a major role on first sight. But looking at direct person to person computer mediated communication (IRC) one finds out very quickly that people in chat systems rarely ask the other for their color of skin. Information about the others' age and gender as well as the local time at the others place seem to be more interesting as interviews on IRC by the author showed:
The IRC seems like a place of neutral behaviour towards race but this is only true in parts. Since the IRC functions by employing different chat-channels for each topic in discussion there are hundreds of different "groups" or channels opened. Among these are also channels of the extreme. Again one can see a parallel to the real world in which there are all kinds of groups of different interests existant. A difference is still in place: On IRC and any other computer mediated communication tool within the Internet, people feel a sense of anonymity which often results in them articulating points of view they would never dare to tell someone in person. But in this fact is also the big strength and chance for the IRC because things are being said that would otherwise never be heard by the other side. That again can have a cleansing effect if it doesn't end up in polemic and emotional rethorics. A good example for a start of online discussion was the Whitney Exchange (15), a project in favor of racial understanding in the USA. Supported and sponsored by the Whitney Museum of American Art this project hosted a four month discussion of race online with participants from all over America. The results were sometimes disappointing because people started to become offencive. Most of the time though the discussion conributed more insights into the other side's lifes because the participants felt more free to speak for themselfes than they would if they had met face to face.
"But more immediately, the Whitney exchange proved that even one Black, Latino, Native American, or Asian-American participant can act as a catalyst for substantive online dialogue." (16)
III. Resumè: After looking at the Internet itself as an American invention in the first place it became clear that only after the cold war a culture of its own was able to grow within the former military network. The investigation of the use of computers led to the assumption that in general terms fewer blacks than whites have access to a computer may it be at home, school or work. Slightly more blacks than whites within their access capabilities to computers use Internet Services like E-Mail or dial into Bulletin Board systems. Still, the internet remains a medium that's vastly white, middle-class, and male (17). The World Wide Web offers a large spectrum of points of views about ethnic terms in the USA wheras racist and supremacist organizations are well hidden, mostly encrypted and thus hard to find. Organizations with the concern of supporting the African American are well spread within the WWW. The ones mentioned in this paper were just a small selection. The WWW Pages reflect what is in the American society anyways. In real time computer mediated communication people of all kinds of ethnic backgrounds have the opportunity to confront each other with their views on the other race. Because of the anonymity given it might be more easy to start a conversation about the ethnic problems rising in the USA but can also lead to polemic and sometimes harsh discrimination once again. From the facts gathered in this paper everything seems to be still in its starting position. The internet only just beginns to become a mainstream tool for people in the USA to communicate with each other. Clinton wants to connect every American school to the internet by the year 2010. As the internet will become more entagled with the "real world" people will have to recognize it as a tool for better understanding. Up till now there is no evidence that the internet automaticly will make differences in race obsolete and thus reduce the threat of racial discrimination as was stated in the main thesis ofvthis paper. The internet is rather a chance for us, a virtual environment in which we will once again push foreward a new frontier that will have no limits other than the first one we encountered. Maybe this time there won't be victims of the new frontier. The first ground work has been done and it will be now up the people who use the internet. The Net is a second chance but it is not a guarantee for a better future for both races black and white.
Footnotes: