[Air-l] Fwd: CHE-Academe Today, "A glance at the spring issue of "Dissent": Race and the Internet"

[Steve Jones]

ACADEME TODAY: The Chronicle of Higher Education's
Daily Report for subscribers
_________________________________________________________________

MAGAZINES & JOURNALS

A glance at the spring issue of "Dissent":
Race and the Internet

Will the Internet change our perceptions of race? Jerry Kang, a
professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles,
says that depends on how we construct our online environments.

Mr. Kang writes that, at this stage, most Internet communication
takes place through text, in which participants' races may
remain invisible. "This prompts giddy speculations about Martin
Luther King Jr.'s dream Version 2.0 -- to be judged by the
content of one's text-characters, not the color of one's skin,"
says Mr. Kang.

But ultimately he sees only limited use for Internet
environments in which all mention of an author's race is
excluded. While acknowledging that "zoning most marketplaces for
'abolition'" could be useful, he suggests that the Internet's
real promise may not be in eliminating racial perceptions, but
in changing and enriching them. "Virtual communities are
centered around common interests, experiences, and fates," he
writes. A focus on common goals may allow people to relate to
those of other races in ways that change their perceptions of
race. This is especially likely, he says, if information about
people's race is not revealed until they have already
established a relationship.

Constructing a positive environment for racial interaction on
the Internet will become even more challenging as online
environments come to rely heavily on graphics as well as text.
Mr. Kang hopes that those who build these new online
environments will consider their potential to improve or harm
race relations. "If we are coding a new 'cyburban' reality," he
writes, "let us at least make new mistakes."

The article is not online. Information about the journal is
available at http://www.dissentmagazine.org/