Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere. --C.S. Lewis
This blog had us read the UNL Haters Twitter and Tumblr page and then tell us what we thought of the racist, sexist, and just plain mean comments our fellow students have come up with about each other. After scrolling through the comments and the tweets on these pages, I should be more surprised than I am. When I first starting reading the various posts I had a hope that maybe I will be surprised and people will be half-way respectable towards one another, but, after the first couple posts, I was let down. I had not heard about the page or any like it, but, I am aware that people tend to bash and ridicule people constantly on Twitter. In my opinion, it seems like society is kind of immune to it anymore. People poke fun and ridicule people so much in today's world that it is almost second nature to get made fun of on a website somewhere. This being said, the posts from most of these people are absolutely ridiculous. I am not going to say that I have never given someone a hard time or said something that I shouldn't have, but, I never take it out of context or go to the lengths as most of these people do. It is amazing to me the amount of ignorance and ridicule that we can come up with.
The only thing that can change a person's attitude is themselves. A person's attitude towards another culture/race/religion is based on how they were brought up and the experiences they have been exposed to. Our country has come a long way in the realm of race equality, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Honestly, there is really nothing that UNL can do about this situation. It is, after all, our right as Americans to have freedom of speech and unfortunately, "freedom of speech includes freedom to offend people"--Brad Thor
One thing that I think sticks with people in our age group is what the people we look up to and like have to say about a certain issue. I included a music video from Macklemore where he talks about gay marriage. I think that this is one of the biggest factors that can change the minds of the younger generations. If a certain actor/musician/athlete can change one person's mind on a subject, that may not seem like much, but it's a good start.
It also seems to me that when people start bashing someone else, whether online or not, everyone else seems to start in also. All it takes is for one person to start with a negative comment and then the ball starts rolling. And it seems that as time goes on, the comments get more and more hurtful. Our book states that, "sometimes people intentionally invoke labels to establish a hostile relationship..to communicate inequality" (Martin & Nakayama 2012, pg. 245), people aim hurtful comments at those that they feel are inadequate or different then in order to feel better about themselves or in order to set themselves above others. It is a common practice everywhere from elementary school to adult hood. No matter what age someone is, they always know how to make someone else feel like crap.
We have all seen the hurtful comments on various social media sites and let it roll off our back like nothing happened. I will be the first to tell you that I have done that and I will even admit that I have laughed at them on occasion. This is the reason that people keep on doing it, when we see a hurtful comment, we do nothing about it, so there are no negative consequences for that person and they are free to do it again. Changing this trend of hurtful comments starts with you and me. People generally do not change on their own, they need someone/something to happen in order to change how they see things and change their viewpoints. Unless that happens, UNL Haters will have plenty of new posts and tweets for a long time to come.
Sources:
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Same Love feat. Mary Lambert. Accessed 2-22-2013
Martin & Nakayama, 2012. Intercultural Communication in Contexts, Sixth Edition.
Brad Thor quote. Accessed 2-22-2013
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/bradthor449523.html
C.S. Lewis Quote. Accessed 2-22-2013
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/cslewis140770.html
Prejudice picture. Accessed 2-22-2013
Racism picture Accessed 2-22-2013
I agree completely. Change starts when we start holding people accountable for the words that come out of their mouths, specifically the people that are closest to us. If you think about it, if you made a racial comment and a stranger reacted, how much would you really care? But if you made a racial comment and your best friend reacted and got angry, you might actually stop making those comments.
ReplyDeleteI love that you include the Same Love video. I have long believed that hip hop has been a powerful voice for consciousness raising. I want to insert a disclaimer that I am talking about hip hop not rap, not Lil Wayne and all of that hate. I am talking about the work of Mos Def, Lupe, Talib, shoot even Kayne to a certain extent though at times he can drive me crazy. I really appreciate the contribution that Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are adding to the conversation.
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