“Rather
than attempt to police speech or litigate it, leave it to non-public officials
to hold people accountable for the things they say,” said Kristina Bui,
editor-in-chief of the Arizona Daily Wildcat, in a post on the UNL Haters page
(n.d.). Bui brings up an important point that the individual members of society
need to call people out and make them accountable for their actions.
This raises an interesting question within friend groups. Martin and Nakayama address how close friends will often call each other bad names or use offensive stereotypes toward each other in a playful manor. As you saw in the previous clip from "Mean Girls," Janis Ian calls her best friend Damian "too gay to function." This makes it acceptable for other people to use those same offensive terms, thereby adding to the prejudice. "Regardless of the intentions of the speaker, negative labels can work in small but powerful ways: Each utterance works like a grain of sand in sedimentary rock or like one roll of snowball going down a hill--small in itself but said over and over serves to reproduce systems of sexism, racism, homophobia, and the like" (Martin and Nakayama 2012, 247).
As you saw in the previous clip from "Mean Girls," when another person made the comment about Damian it wasn't acceptable anymore and evoked anger (Martin and Nakayama 2012, 246). While this video is an extreme example and probably wouldn't occur in response to the hate on the UNL Haters page, wars start over hate, and the words that come out of a person's mouth are extremely important both on an intercultural level and an interpersonal level.
In a world that is now documented at every turn through social media, these hateful messages not only make the person look bad but also can hinder them in their future. Impressions are everything and no one is safe from their own digital fingerprint. In conclusion, as a campus we need to become more sensitive and really think about what we say and what we put out for the world to see. As Bui said, we need to hold each other accountable instead of simply ignoring the hate or laughing at someone's prejudice remarks.
In a world that is now documented at every turn through social media, these hateful messages not only make the person look bad but also can hinder them in their future. Impressions are everything and no one is safe from their own digital fingerprint. In conclusion, as a campus we need to become more sensitive and really think about what we say and what we put out for the world to see. As Bui said, we need to hold each other accountable instead of simply ignoring the hate or laughing at someone's prejudice remarks.
Works Cited
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgU_8deZ0s4&feature=endscreen - "Mean Girls (2004) – Funny Damien Scenes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPYqRaOm1ak -
"Mean Girls (7/10) Movie CLIP – Girls Gone Wild! (2004) HD"
UNL Haters. (2012). Retrieved from http://unl-haters.tumblr.com/
I agree that perception and impressions are everything. Sure the actual person posting the ignorant comment could of been making a sarcastic joke, but everyone who reads their statement wrong will see them as a discriminatory jerk. People think that the things they say last a moment and have no long standing effects. If that were true would we still study Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech?
ReplyDeleteI really like how you used an example from mean girls to emphasize prejudice in areas most people don't even recognize it like when Janis calls Damien "too gay to function." Even though they are friends it still makes people think those kinds of references are okay when they can be hurtful.
ReplyDeleteGreat connection to Mean Girls! Very appropriate given that our current learning unit examines intercultural representations in pop culture.
ReplyDelete