Race and the Digital: Racial Formation and 21st Century Technologies

Race is Here to Stay. Now What?

Job well done on the blog; I enjoyed reading it! I like the fact that it highlighted points I thought of while I read Fernandez's text, "Cyberfeminism, Racism, Embodiment". I am not surprised at the fact that racism is alive and well in the twenty first century. Like you said, "white supremacy is clearly present among cyberfeminists", but it is also present among all non-whites. Knowing that things like cyberfeminism and the Internet attempt to provide anonymity (and to an extent equality) make me hopeful that racism will cease to exist one day. The question is when will that occur?
I like the article you chose to compare and further discuss Fernandez's work. It is a sad but true reality that 'white' is better, and that being 'white' opens many more opportunities in school, work and personal growth. When reading the article, I remembered an article I read on Buzzfeed titled, "Meet José Zamora, The Man Who Changed His Name To Joe To Get A Job" by Adrian Carrasquillo. Here is the link: https://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/meet-jose-zamora-the-guy-who-changed-his-name-to-joe-to-get?utm_term=.onRezEXvQ#.uuXVDZoxR
Essentially, José changed his name on his resumé in order to get hired. He does not think that it is a horrible thing to change his name to Joe so he could get a job; he "did what he had to do". Some Latinas/os and other people of color, however, do have a problem with it. This situation shows how a person of color is still judged, whether by their name, appearance, and/or other identity markers. Therefore, race is apparently not ignored by the masses. And just how race is not ignored by those with so-called privilege, people who are scrutinized and judged based on their race should not ignore what is happening to them either. Going off of Ashley's point of people potentially ignoring the topic of race because it is "sensitive", well the reality is that several people's lives revolve around race since it is an important part of their lives. It may represent who they are, and they cannot say "I am not going to talk about this today" because it is with them everyday. If people do not want to talk about race, racism and all of its effects, then why aren't all people given complete equality and it will all be over? What is holding society back from achieving this reality?
I appreciate Addie's reference back to my blog post, and agree with her point on how this situation with cyberfeminism parallels that of Native Americans not receiving Internet connection like the rest of the country. In both situations, people live different realities, have different privileges, but why? Why, why, why? Could it be that some people must have a superiority complex, that they do not care if other people do not receive the same rights as them in order to satisfy it? I see that this may be the case for women and their process of acquiring their civil rights. Women (no matter what racial category they fit in) do not have the same rights as their male counterparts. I remember taking the Chicano 10A class where this reality was highlighted. I recommend Vicki L. Ruiz's book "From Out of the Shadows" where it recounts Mexican American women shaped the United States, and what they did to find a place in it; I believe that Dr. Carpio also shared how this book correlates with our class topics. Women are women, no matter if they are white, black, brown etc. When will we all accept that and join forces to adequately address the inequalities we all face?

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