(wiredhear@utne) Is the internet typical of RL? I think not. It's the higher socio-economic group that has computers - and only a *minority* of Blacks belong to that group. Add to that, the fact that people can be invisible so their ugliness can surface without any threat to their security. Therefore, it would seem that net-racists would have the chance to perform as the evil little toads that they are. Do you find this to be true, Boohab?
I don't believe that there are any ideas 'out there' IRL which are not present on the net. So racism on the net uses pretty much the same language you hear in the street and everywhere else. Simply because there are only 30 million people here instead of 250 million doesn't change things much. In fact, the conversations you get into on the net tend to be much more honest. Futhermore you tend to get involved in a greater variety of conversations with many more people than is common or even possible than IRL. So you are much more likely to discover a wider pattern of ideas, stereotypes, insights and vulgarities. Socioeconomically speaking, individual mobility is accellerated on the net, there are slums and salons here.
Yes it's true that racist toads are likely to mouth off in cyberspace because nobody is going to pop them in the puss, but it's only talk. For all the racism that's on the net, and it's real, ugly, pervasive and shameless, nobody gets beat down by racist cops. On the whole, as a black man, I prefer the racist openness. There was a time early on when I wasn't prepared to accept it. Now I can deal with it.
There is a fine line between speech and conduct on the net which becomes much more clear after some years of online experience. There's a lot of 'drive-by' racist speech which is part of the background noise in certain parts of the net. But then there are individuals who are persistantly disruptive, who see it as their duty to bully, insult, misrepresent themselves, distort conversations and invite others to do the same. This is the kind of conduct that all but destroyed the civility of s.c.a.a.
Racists on the net are not stupider than in real life, just easier to spot.