IAR 2

For this unit I decided to do an IAR analysis on Lisa Nakamuras, “Cybertyping and the Work of Race and Age in the Digital Reproduction.” I found this text very appealing and very prevalent to today’s society. There is this notion that discrimination is no longer existent. That we live in this color coded world of sunshine and flowers. The truth is, if you believe this, you are in fact very blind. This can be seen very easily when one logs on the internet.
When the internet was first “invented” let’s say, it was supposed to be a utopia for people of all age, race, sex and gender to come and be whoever they wanted to be. The magic and appealing nature of the internet was the fact that finally there was a place where people would no longer be judged on the content of external features. Sadly, like a freshly bought toy that becomes worn out, so did this dream. The internet has become a place of discrimination, a digital divide. When people log on to the internet, it is geared mostly toward white users. When we look at ads, site set up, or content used, it is drawing in that type of person. Standard English is the dominant language used on the internet, rarely do you see AAVE. What is most crucial to my point and what is most striking, is when on the rare occasion you get to see AAVE something out of the ordinary happens. Instead of the difference being celebrated and accepted amongst internet users, it is most often looked down upon. Nakumura saw this “discrimination” quite common across the board, “the internet is a place where race happens. In the early days of the Net, technological visionaries imagined the online world as a Utopian space where everything-even transcending racism-was possible. But now the internet “revolution” is over, a fact upon which nearly everyone from hackers to academics to dot com investors can agree”(Nakumaura 396). This is what I found key in this reading. That many African American people are trying to go on social networking sites or are trying to get themselves out there on the internet, and are getting shut down by discrimination. When AAVE is being used on the internet, most often you will find some arrogant person on the other side trying to bring it down. Nakumaura did recognize that there is this “digital divide” with gender, sex, and race. I truly believe the only way to completely absorb it and demolish it is for online users to keep persisting. If online users keep using AAVE and keep positive attitudes I believe that will encourage other people to use AAVE.
Overall the Nakumara reading game me an excellent basis for my paper. It really helped me see that even in the large scale world of the internet; discrimination can still be very prevalent. The point is to keep on going on using AAVE and hopefully reach a point one day when there won’t be a digital divide.