Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Cyber Lynching and Race in Digital Environments

“There is really nothing more to say-except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.”― Toni Morrison

In a previous lecture about cyber racism and electronic lynching, University of Kentucky's archivist Stacie Williams gave many insights.



She opened with illustrating the differences in these magazine covers that use the exact same photo of O.J. Simpson.  She discussed how one cover capitalizes on the stereotypes that portray African Americans as savage and intimidating.  She also discussed how these stereotypes and the propaganda about 'racial purity' are historically linked to lynching.  

Williams also defined: lynching, cyber lynching and information architecture. Williams discussed how theories associated with information architecture may explain why some web search results display negative stereotypes about African Americans. 

The lecture concluded by discussing boolean searching and how to avoid being bombarded by websites and links that may not address your information needs and academic research.  


Please take a moment to reintroduce our class community to the terms and definitions that Stacie Williams used in her lecture when answering the following question. 

How do these discussions about cyber lynching affirm, change or challenge your understanding of lynching, African American Studies and the connection between information architecture and web surfing?

1 comment:

  1. Honestly this only proves the theory I've had for a long time. once Obama ran for presidency I started to realize more and more that despite how successful black people will always face criticism. It seems that no matter how successful and powerful a black man becomes, the media will still try to demean and manipulate their success into meaning nothing. I love African American studies because I feel like it keeps our people awake and knowledgeable. It educates us on the things that keep black people down and quiet, so we can notice it and rise up against it.

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