Web Images

There is a danger in the World Wide Web that Blackmon highlights in her article “But I’m Just White.” That is, racial stereotypes are portrayed there, just as they are in texts. If it’s true that young African-American males have primarily a musical presence on that web (and only that), then students are likely to pick up on the underlying assumptions, consciously or not. It’s important, therefore, to mention that the web is NOT immune from gender or racial stereotypes, even though the web was born in an era when we as a society try very hard to be politically correct and representative of all peoples. If students are working with images on the web, such as Blackmon illustrates (97), I feel it would be useful to note the sheer variety out there. If there is an image of a woman baking bread, there is surely one of a woman playing soccer. If there is an image of an African-American listening to rap, surely there is one of him/her in the role of a lawyer. It’s very easy, therefore, to find opposing images. How hard we have to search might be another story. It would be interesting to discover which images are most accessible. I actually tried typing in African-Americans under Google images, and the majority of the pictures were slave or HIV related. There was one positive photo of a family (4 generations of women, I assume). When I typed in women, I got a huge mix of everything. There were two scantily clad women who looked like sex-symbols. There were women in the Middle East completely covered in their clothing, and there was a volleyball and hockey team from the US. There were also two graphs of women in state legislator positions. It’s apparent that women have made more strides than African-Americans when it comes to representation on the web. I could have my students do a similar search and analysis of why the web is set up this way. Who decides? Who is the audience for the web? These are large questions worth exploring.
Bethany