Features

Mandy Te has had first-hand experience of the difficulties social minority groups can face in the western world. Although these are sometimes difficult to navigate, she believes there's an opportunity for us as human beings to use the internet to grow our acceptance and understanding of one another.

As someone who was born and raised in New Zealand, the question that follows “where are you from?” really bothers me: “No, I mean but where are you really from?” Of course, you can tell when a person is genuinely interested and you can tell when they’re not but, then again, you don’t hear people asking where Caucasian people are really from. These little things, these everyday things that I try not to let get to me are something many minority racial groups face in New Zealand and in many other countries.

Social justice is about advocating for the equality and acceptance of all people no matter what they look like, where they come from and who they’re attracted to. Social justice itself is not a term that can be narrowed down to one specific meaning. For example, Urban Dictionary describes social justice as “promoting tolerance, freedom, and equality for all people regardless of race, sex, orientation, national origin, handicap, etc ... except for white, straight, cisgendered males. Fuck those guys, they’re overprivileged no matter what.” This one definition of social justice is enough to offend most of Dunedin’s population so, as you can tell, it’s also a sensitive topic to discuss. Perhaps this is why online activism, especially regarding issues of race and privilege, is a method of choice for new, young activists.

With our lives so entrenched in technology, typing a post online ensures that no one will interrupt you mid-explanation, you have time to thoughtfully plan and write out replies, and while there still may be some yelling, sentences typed with caps lock permanently on will save you a trip to the audiologist. Access to the Internet has allowed people – and particularly young people – to discuss and understand the social issues that occur in our day-to-day lives, as well as dispel popular ideas or stereotypes about groups of people, religions, and countries. With such a disparity of wealth, power, and social equality, young people have taken to blogging platforms like Tumblr to tackle these issues.

I was given the opportunity to talk to popular Tumblr blogger and social activist, Jenny Park, on her perception of what social justice is and why she is an online social activist. Park believes that many social justice bloggers simply write about their personal experiences and in fact, this is how she first started addressing issues concerning race and gender. Park defines social justice as “dismantling oppressive systems in our society that exist to uplift people that fit certain expectations while holding down those that don’t. It’s about looking at issues critically from a broader scope of systematic oppression rather than personal, individual choices and intent. It is about seeking to undo the status quo that so many people accept without question and speaking out over normalized oppression.” Put more simply, “it’s about being a good person, not just a decent one.”

Many social justice bloggers like Park struggled to know whether they were being over-sensitive or whether others felt the same way: “At the time, I was not able to articulate why they made me upset. I majored in history at university, and taking courses that actually discussed race theory and feminist discourse gave me the words to understand and process my own experiences.” For many people, writing and reading about social justice online helps them find their feet, and there’s a comfort to knowing that these uneasy feelings you have when it comes to race and gender are shared. The ability to express and tackle these types of social issues is also tied to media representation and media coverage; in many cases, it’s the lack of media representation and media coverage that adds to this uneasiness and strange sense of isolation.

When the Charlie Hebdo shooting occurred on 7 January 2015, media outlets chose to cover the issue extensively. The shooting at the paper’s offices in Paris was considered a violation of free speech, and demonstrations took place all around the world. “Je suis Charlie” became a worldwide slogan, with celebrities like George Clooney showing their support at the 2015 Golden Globes. All the while, from 3 to 7 January 2015, Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group, had destroyed at least 16 towns. The media coverage of this issue and of the massacre in Baga was limited to a few media outlets, although the death toll and the number of people missing is said to have exceeded 2000 people. The point of comparing these two events that happened almost simultaneously is not to say that the Charlie Hebdo shooting should be dismissed or that the severity of the Baga massacre is necessarily worse and therefore deserves more attention (although there is no doubt that the Baga massacre and the Boko Haram attacks within Nigeria, Chad and Niger should be given more coverage) but to show why everyday people are challenging the news and media representation in the hopes that social justice can take place.

With the Ferguson protests in 2014, which were spurred on by the shooting of Michael Brown, the racial prejudice within news was also something that outraged social activists. As one media outlet pointed out, Michael Brown was described in the New York Times as a teenager who “dabbled in drugs and alcohol … [and produced] lyrics that were by turns contemplative and vulgar …” It is unclear what the point of these comments was when describing the shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old. Media ownership plays a major role in this problem of representation and lack of widespread coverage. Six companies own the majority of American media, and in 2012 it was recorded that 232 media executives were in charge of all the information being fed to not only the American population but to people internationally. One main criticism of media ownership is that news outlets lack diversity and thus minority groups are not accurately covered or represented; less than seven per cent of TV and radio licenses are held by women, while racial minority groups in the US hold just over seven per cent of radio licenses and three per cent of TV licenses. Unhappy with the disparity in media coverage and media representation, online activists now take to social media to challenge how groups are perceived within mainstream media and to spread awareness of the issues pertaining to social justice.

Twitter’s part in the Arab Spring displayed the positive influence that social media could have on political and social change. Social justice blogs spread news and information that cannot be found within mainstream culture (or are often found days later).

However, the Internet is a dangerous place. There’s a reason why your parents told you not to talk to strangers on the street and, now, not to talk to strangers online. The ability to send anonymous questions and messages on Tumblr allows people to hide behind a screen. Instead of spreading positivity, most questions, messages and even replies are abrasive, invasive, offensive and aggressive because it’s a lot easier to type what you think than it is to say something rude to someone’s face. A major issue that some people have when it comes to social justice blogs is that they are safe spaces for racial minority groups and racial minority groups only. People from majority groups are often dismissed when they ask questions or reply to posts made by social justice blogs. However, where does this aggression really come from? One social justice blog, angryasiangirlsunited.tumblr.com specifically tells their majority-group followers that they are “free to reblog submissions and posts unless the OP (original poster) tags it as ‘do not reblog’, but keep your comments/observations/theories to yourself. Understand that there are so many spaces that cater to the experiences and opinions of white people. These are spaces where we are often spoken over or spoken for by white people and we don’t need that happening here.”

When these requests are constantly ignored and social justice bloggers start retaliating, the term Social Justice Warrior (SJW) is used. As well as interviewing Jenny Park, I also interviewed a Scarfie, Fedora-wearing Redditor, who said he sees SJWs as people who come in two categories. The first group consists of people who are passionate and strong-minded when it comes to issues under the social justice umbrella. The second group, on the other hand, is the group he has nothing nice to say about: “They are all people on the Internet, who are basically all Americans, and a guy I know in Wellington. I don’t think you should talk to people as if you’re on a moral crusade; they come across as ignorant and arrogant and I really dislike the ‘us versus them’ worldview of the second group.” Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Marcelle Dawson, who specialises in social movements and popular protests, views SJWs similarly to Internet trolls: “Sharing one’s opinion is not the same as being a committed activist … it would seem that their contribution to any kind of debate is more about seeking attention by being rude and aggressive, and less about understanding an issue and forming an educated opinion.”

As a social justice blogger, Park considers SJWs to simply be “someone who fights for equality. Isn’t that something we should all aspire to be? I’m supposed to be offended that you called me someone who strives to better society?” One question that must be asked, though, is whether online activism is an acceptable method of protest. While we have social justice bloggers and SJWs actively taking part online, do these people fight for equality offline? We saw what happened with Kony — there were over 80 million YouTube views of a video that aimed to make Joseph Kony, militant leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, a public enemy. He became infamous for abducting children and forcing them to become brutal soldiers. The aim was to create enough demand to make international governments take Kony down.

People believed in the cause, watched the video and put up some posters but did not attend rallies and protests or donate. Whenever Kony is brought up in a discussion, the issue of slacktivism is now addressed. People complain that the Kony issue was oversimplified and that those who produced the video weren’t actually helping the cause. While it is true that volunteering inside the war zone and sharing viral videos are two very different things, it’s probably unfair to stretch this to calling people “slacktivists”. The alternative is doing nothing.

So, could all these people blogging about racism and sexism meet the same result? Marcelle Dawson believes that there is no “best” method of protest: “Different causes and different political climates will require different strategies.” According to Tumblr’s Director of Outreach, Tumblr users aged 18–34 are more likely to attend protests and educate their friends and family on politics and current events. Park, who has seen numerous social protests take place online — in particular, the Ferguson protests — believes that Internet activism is underestimated by people: “I see a lot of people throwing around the word ‘slacktivism’ in reference to activists online and I think that’s incredibly demeaning and does a disservice to the message that can be spread through the Internet as a platform … Internet activism/posting can also support ‘real life’ activism. During the Ferguson protests, donations and legal advice were mobilised through the Internet. Hashtags like #blacklivesmatter created solidarity amongst the movement.” Ultimately, each case works on an individual basis. No doubt, there will be people who are activists both online and offline, but there will also be people who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.

So, if mainstream media representation and the disparity of media coverage doesn’t change and if online activism through social justice blogs, while informative but also exclusive, is problematic, how are we meant to achieve social justice? While I have benefited from the safe spaces of social justice blogs, better communication is needed between the owners of these blogs and those who follow them. The conversation needs to be opened for everyone to participate so that people can gain a better understanding of the issues at hand and so that all of us can work together to dismantle the power imbalances within society, especially when it comes wealth, class, racism and sexism. I’ve had enough of people telling me the reason I do well at things is just because I’m Asian. Rather than have my successes invalidated — “Asians are naturally smart” — I’d like to think I have worked hard. But I get that people don’t necessarily understand the implications of what they say. In fact, it may even be viewed as a compliment. That’s why if we open the conversation, we can collectively come together and make an effort to elicit change; we can encourage one another to educate ourselves more, and maybe by taking small steps like these, they can eventually become bigger ones.