Hate - still alive and well in America on the internet

“A young user entering this realm of hate-disguised-as-humor is given control of the interaction. A child can spend hours with the WCTOC (World Church of the Creator) site or may drift in and out, building a narrative not just from the databases but also bringing in other anonymous links to other hate sites” (Williamson & Peterson, 2003).

I have been observing a resurgence of something that I thought was long gone. I remember seeing race riots on television as a young girl. Since then we have been teaching and learning to be more tolerant of others; haven’t we? In researching cyberspace ethics I found that some of the groups that I thought were outdated are actually thriving in that realm. The Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, Skinheads, and anti-Semitic groups are protected by the first amendment, and they are catering to a possible ripe group of recruits; children.

I sat and read “The Rhetoric of Hate on the Internet: Hateporn’s Challenge to Modern Media Ethics,” with my mouth hanging open. I was so frightened by what I was seeing; I began to yell at my son loudly asking if he had ever seen any of the websites discussed. Like every 14 year old he likes to play internet video games. The games included in the article had such colorful names, “Niggerhurt” which is an African safari type game. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what the ‘prey’ is in this game. There are others that are just as horrific. In one game you can be a commander of a concentration camp, merrily putting Jewish people to death. If you want to know where the hate is coming from, it is straight out of the computer screen in your home. These groups are also giving themselves organizational type names, I mean the World Church of the Creator sounds like good things don’t you think? In reality it is the WCOTC.com, a site for White Supremacy.

These people are using cartoons, video games, and music to attract young people to listen to their rhetoric. There main goal in life is keeping the white race pure. They are very welcoming, and as I mentioned protected by the Constitution of the United States. They use loosely worded disclaimers to ‘warn’ that their sites are graphic. They also insist that they do not promote violence; they are merely a forum to discuss their views. One page of the article sent a very cold chill directly to my core. The age of one person that frequented this site is 14, the same age as my son. He asked for advice about how to deal with a non-white student that was mean to him. No problem, all of the adults had plenty of non-lethal ways to subdue his problem, the problem with some of the tactics was that injury or worse death could occur to the ‘offender’. Only one person was concerned about the legal implications if the boy actually killed his antagonist, since he didn’t want to see a nice white boy go to jail for nothing.



Just watching the news recently it seems as if every person in America is extremely tense. I must admit that some of the crowds shown on television protesting the government, and more specifically President Obama, have been drawing lines in the sand that make those memories of police with fire hoses and attack trained dogs a little more vivid in my mind. I am worried about a lot of things for my 14 year old son. This revelation is the one that just took the lead on my list of what to not sleep over.

Lorraine




Reference

Williamson, L., Pierson, E. (2003). The Rhetoric of Hate on the Internet: Hateporn’s Challenge to Modern Media Ethics. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 18(3&4), 250-267.