CAPS #3

UNL Haters is a site I have heard about many times, but this is the first time I have had the chance to look at it.  I didn’t realize that were so many different examples of hate such as this happening right here at UNL.  I think it is a good concept because people need to stop saying such ignorant things, but I also think this site might hurt in the long run.  For example, some people on this site aren’t racist.  I think it would be a good idea to tell these people that they are being ignorant, instead of exposing them to the world.   I understand that what they are saying is wrong, but I think there could be a better way to go about this. 

This blog really brings to light some of the issues that are happening here at UNL.  Some of the posts were people criticizing their own religion or sex.  This surprised me because I thought I would only see posts about people criticizing groups that they weren’t apart of.  It’s sad that people can hate on people from other groups, let alone people from their own group.

I’ve been ignorant about hate being around campus.  I haven’t noticed it as much as I should.  When people say things that I know are putting down a different group, I usually don’t say anything. This is the wrong approach to have.  I should be stopping these people by telling them that what they are saying is hurting others.

 

This blog reminded me of Westboro Baptist Church.  This is a church that is the news a lot for picketing schools and funerals.  They have signs such as “God Hates Fags,” such as the picture above. They show a lot of hate and are very ignorant which makes it hard for anyone to listen to them.  In the link below, Russell Brand tries to listen to what they have to say (Brand, 2012, November 27). 

I think that UNL Haters and Westboro Baptist Church have to do with social position.  The people that are saying such awful things about different groups are doing so because they think that they have more power in their social position.  Social positions are defined as, “the places from which people speak that are social constructed and thus embedded with assumptions about gender, race, class, age, social roles, sexuality, and so on” (Martin & Nakayama, 2012, p. 245).

Moving forward, I think that everyone should work on not being so ignorant.  UNL Haters is a step in the right direction with trying to get the hate off of campus, but I think that maybe it could be changed so that not every single person is exposed forever as being a “UNL Hater.”  I think that we should all try to stop this kind of talk when we hear it around campus so that we can create a truly respectful campus.

Works Cited

Brand, R. (2012, November 27). Official Video: Russell Brand Interviews Westboro Baptist Church. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBA6qlHW8po

Martin, J., & Nakayama, T. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts. (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.