louisgray.com - Latest Comments in louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:30:05 -0000

Revealing their names isn't going to help anything, being racist is not illegal, racial discrimination is! While I don't advocate racism, It's their choice to be racist. The editor of this article is obviously out of touch with current laws.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

marshal sandler — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:52:04 -0000

I have no problem wading into Mr Feldman's sewer ! His actions were in poor taste and he obviously is very immature ! People with this type of humor disgrace us all ! I blame certain politicians who are running for office for creating a lot of this crap recently ! Magazine's are like most of the old media their stats are down therefore they resort to the Shock Approach ! Mr Feldman's point has no point at all in attempt to be funny went from the sidewalk to the gutter ! I will not accept his confederate christian behavior I

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

VaniNY — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:47:31 -0000

You are easily taken in if you think that a television program prepared by network executives can in any way represents the will of the African -american people. I have been sayng for a long time that Conmedy Central employs a very subtle form of racism. You have only to consider their sitcom "The Office" in which an all-white office staff are faced with the hiring of a convict, who it just so happens, had to be black. Isn't that funny. The manner in which Comedy Central handled the concerns which came up on this program was characteristaically vicious and destructive ot Afrian American people. Oh by the way, a black person who works to further white racist goals is know as an Oreo. Add hat to your glassary. That makes the 3 THREE balck people you mentioned OREOS, not REPRESENTATIVES of 3 million African-Americans.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

VaniNY — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:28:46 -0000

I commend you on your sensitivity.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

jokeyxero — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:20:19 -0000

He's got a point. A black individual is only "African American" if s/he actually emigrated from Africa to America, otherwise the term is "black", this includds the American born children of "African Americans". I'm really annoyed at the US's abuse of the term. The same goes for Asian Americans, Native Americans, and any other super-PC term the media has spat out.

No offense to you Louis, language happens generally quicker than we can think about it.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Louis Gray — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:08:49 -0000

It's easy to write "African American" as a synonym for "black", and it wasn't intended to exclude anyone. I believe their words hurt people of all backgrounds. Intolerance... should not be tolerated.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

mindofandre — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:42:25 -0000

I was also at the chat with Wayne and Corvida and I could really feel my mind numbing and the back of my neck getting hot. This was supposed to be a great dialogue and it was sullied by these unfortunate events. I have to say that in the world of the Web, it seems the "anything goes" policy runs rampantly because people are not interfacing with each other in a real way.

So it just makes sense that the disease of racism hasn't gone away, it has just found another medium in which to show its ugly face. Thanks for sharing Louis.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Conservationist — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:11:08 -0000

Society is a failure. Pluralism doesn't work.

Honest people admit that and work for division -- but not for racism, which is an emotional reaction to a logical problem.

Neo-Nazis and liberals, on race, are the same thing: people who won't honestly face the issue.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

NO ID — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:05:31 -0000

I came from the other post that was shut down to openly racist comments. It's good that it was as the comments made me so angry I was going to respond in kind. I'm sorry but the online racism is scary and its to easy to believe its just little kids. There were articulate intelligent albeit racist and sickening posts that were too well-written for any dumb kid. The scary part is just how many people feel the way the Toms and Savannahs on the other post do, but that you see or pass every day and have no idea.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Markus Robinson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:59:38 -0000

Louis I really appreciate this post. When I read it one of Dr. King's quotes came to mind. "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." The fact that you would speak out about your disgust for this makes means a lot.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

gregorylent — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:48:08 -0000

where is covida when we really need her??

“Chocolate News” is ostensibly a newsmagazine — the “Dateline” to Jon Stewart’s “Nightly News.” As an example of what viewers can expect, Mr. Grier pointed to an upcoming skit about the person who does John McCain’s laundry. The skit also features Mr. McCain’s “Reverend Wright-type person,” referring to Mr. Obama’s controversial pastor.

Mr. Grier joked: “We found John McCain’s launderer, his dry cleaner, and his recordings… where the guy goes, you know, ‘Black and white cannot be together. If they mix, white will be ruined. This cannot be allowed to happen.’ ” In the skit, the comments are “used by the ‘Chocolate News’ to bring him down,” Mr. Grier added.

oh, by the way, this is by black people on mainstream media

shey? covida? louis?? any comments??

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

FDTheCars — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:33:12 -0000

Oh god, calm down. It's just a bunch of rebellious teenagers attempting to stir up anger and irritation. Ignore them and they get bored and move to their next victim. They do it to all races, regardless of their own. Judging by your screenshots, all those comments were from a website of immature idiots call 4chan.org. They constantly do that to live video feeds and youtube. Same people everytime.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

shafqat — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:03:21 -0000

Louis - you touch on an important issue, and I just wanted to point out that the impacts are far more widespread than just the African-American community. As Gordon points out, it affects black bloggers everywhere, but more importantly, it is a moral indication of the state of our society as a whole. I'm Asian and Muslim: stereotypes and racism is a common threat to my community. You're not immune to it either. Racism is about color, its simply about ignorance.

Thanks for writing about it and taking the time to provoke some great discussion. Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, right?

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

terra210 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:58:09 -0000

It is interesting to come across this, and I am glad you felt compelled to respond.

I have a very similar screen of comments I captured during an online performance in Europe, where invited participants only from top technical universities in the US logged into wish ill of a female programmer/developer, (ficticious but they did not know this). They actually thought she was wearing a device that would kill her, which they could activate online. It was a real working device. They had to log in and write a comments about why they wanted to harm her to activate it. They did. The only thing they didn't know was that she was not wearing the device. Instead their comments scrolled across the screen all night as the device clicked on and off. It was to prove a point, to show that aggression in technical universities at that time existed towards female technologists; because no one would acknowledge that the aggression existed.

It is not about gender, or race. It is about power. Those who have power, do not want to share. It is simple really. I found a great article today with comments from anita hill about this, written 10 years after her testimony. It sickens me, but it has much truth. You don't have to agree with Hill to see the truth in it:
http://news-service.stanfor...

I think we have to be willing to share. I know this sounds too simple, but those who have power often do not even recognize they have it, they just know instinctively that they feel challenged when someone without it might be close to taking away some of it... If we had more of an instinct to share and be inclusive, we would not need to be devisive through the vehicles of gender and race.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Anthony Farrior — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:11:14 -0000

Louis Gray you are one class act...

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

sent2null — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:22:19 -0000

I've always felt that what people do in the supposed anonymity of their living rooms/ bedrooms over the pc is a greater reflection of who they really are than in reality. In person people think more than they say but online, secured by a buffer of separation in time and distance the true psyche shines free. I've been interacting online in real time/near real time for almost 20 years now (since back in the Compuserve/Genie days) and I can say that though the racists online are extra vociferous they are also still only a minority in the wider population of people of all ethnicities that people the world wide web.

There are online places that get overrun with racists where the unspoken rule is to denigrate others that are different from them (some userplane rooms I've been to come to mind) but there are more common areas of interaction, blogs, forums where comments will be made by various racist posters and no one voices an opinion against the speech. In many experiences I've had, the moderate folks who claim not to be racist or never have used certain words stay silent when witnessing the abuse being levied to a fellow blog /site/ forum / chat visitor.

Racism will be dead and buried the day that the entire community of people , where ever they may be interacting denounces hateful speech directed at a member or members because of their ethnicity. Until I see that occur I am forced to conclude that many persons of European extraction don't feel obligated to denounce hateful speech if it isn't directed at them. I personally find all ethnic slurs offensive and have admonished people of all ethnicities online and in public for saying things that I felt were insensitive or down right racist. Until more people who don't look like me feel it is their obligation to do the same we will still have the problem to deal with.

Finally, many hateful statements have their sharpest barbs formed from the grains of truth that may inspire the comments. Indeed there are many sites and blogs that are run by people of color that are embarrassingly ignorant in their use of the English language or in their display of ethnic sensitivity. Ignorant people see these and off goes a feedback loop of one ignorant targeting another based on a generalization of a statistical blip in the others population. The internet fails in allowing people to see the total spectrum of interests, beliefs and motivations that drive people of different ethnicity all over the world. Mainly this is caused by the selectivity of the media (you go to where you want , you see what you want...thus conforming the input data to what you already "believed" to be so) but when coupled with an already impoverished mind that was given early reinforcement of bigoted and racist views from childhood , it only serves to strengthen the ignorance and not weaken it. Forums like this one tend to be avoided by such folks...fortunately the change to web 2.0 is tying together the global community (disqus is a perfect example of this) in such a way that views and opinions expressed in one forum can be viewed by others who may not normally visit those fora. The same is happening in video and chat ...so the web is again helping to open up the conversation on any particular topic from being a site bound one to being a global one , and that is a great thing.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

DeweyQ — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:18:54 -0000

Ross... speaking up is very important. However, I am not sure you can use the standard procedures for constructive conversations (to wit: assume positive intent, listen and observe non-judgmentally, connect to your own feelings, then reflect honestly on the intentions and needs involved). Your suggestions seem to follow these rules and I just can't get past the first one: I don't think there is positive intent in some of the hateful things I see and hear. On the other hand, I am blessed with a very diverse work environment and it is only on the Internet that I am exposed to hateful and divisive crap.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

jnbammer — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:52:33 -0000

I couldn't agree more Louis. This is both shocking and revolting. Ignorance is a plague on society, and bigotry is just ignorant.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

gregorylent — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:51:30 -0000

all human beings notice three things when they first encounter another person ... gender, age, difference .... this seems to be hardwired, and studies show that general appearance is more primary than skin color in assessing difference

this entire thread, this entire issue, is about behaviour

humans range from stupid to sublimely brilliant. it is very hard to change people, it is proving to be an evolution of dozens of centuries.

all we can do when we encounter idiots is not sink to their level. if you know a higher truth, live it. that is all one can do. criticizing changes nothing.

egoic identity with body or mind or culture or gender or nation is proving to be a self-limiting belief structure, one that everyone on this planet is being forced to grow beyond.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

EverythingYouThink — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:57:30 -0000

I particularly agree with Ross' comments below that the thing to do is SPEAK UP. By staying silent, you are validating the other persons language and behaviour (I'm Canadian too), and it encourages them to think that it's okay. Speaking up is so incredibly important.
Have you guys read this poem by Martin Niemoller?

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Ben — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:38:18 -0000

Thanks for writing this blog post, Louis. I'm not at all surprised by what happened but I still found it very upsetting to read. I would just add that this is not just the racist underbelly of the web but the underbelly of a still terribly racist society. Racist institutions that help maintain and enforce inequality help make environments that are permissive of racism, whether it's YahooLive or a tree outside a school in Jena or a police locker room in Hempstead, NY.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Citizen Politician — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:01:57 -0000

What I find funny is that many of the people that like to take jabs at Americans of African descent cannot trace their ancestry back as far as many African Americans can. For many of us our ancestors resided in this country centuries before it was a country. The experiences of our ancestors played a large part in inspiring our fellow CITIZENS to fight, laying the social and economic foundations that ALL Americans enjoy.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Mark Dykeman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:53:46 -0000

Thanks to Corvida, Wayne, and Louis for talking and writing about this.

As far as I'm concerned, we're all Web colored and we all live in the blogosphere. We all deserve respect and we all deserve to have a voice. How we reconcile that to rude, ignorant, and hateful behavior is beyond me at this point, but communication of some kind has to be part of any solution.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Karoli — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:33:20 -0000

I agree. Yahoo has been a cesspool for years, and I don't expect it to improve. It's only a small microstep above AOL.

Re: louisgray.com: Seeing The Web's Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Karoli — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:30:57 -0000

I, like you, came of age in a time where there was hope for an end to this horrid, ugly behavior. Unfortunately others came of age at the same time and taught their children to hate just as they were taught.

However, progress IS being made. Slowly. I don't believe the trolls and jerks that were spewing today even knew half of what they were saying. And if they did, it was just part of the 'shock mentality' that goes with the Howard Stern and Internet troll crowd.

There are always going to be haters. If it's not because of race or gender, it'll be because you have a blue background on your site, or you use one word too often, or whatever. They're just set to hate for the sake of hating.

That doesn't make this any easier to stomach. Some say to laugh at it. I can't do that. It makes me too sick and they're just not funny. They're selfish hedonists who love making themselves look great at others' expense.