Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights (Perspectives on a Multiracial America) - Softcover

Daniels, Jessie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742561585 ISBN 13: 9780742561588

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009

Synopsis

In this exploration of the way racism is translated from the print-only era to the cyber era the author takes the reader through a devastatingly informative tour of white supremacy online. The book examines how white supremacist organizations have translated their printed publications onto the Internet. Included are examples of open as well as 'cloaked' sites which disguise white supremacy sources as legitimate civil rights websites. Interviews with a small sample of teenagers as they surf the web, show how they encounter cloaked sites and attempt to make sense of them, mostly unsuccessfully. The result is a first-rate analysis of cyber racism within the global information age. The author debunks the common assumptions that the Internet is either an inherently democratizing technology or an effective 'recruiting' tool for white supremacists. The book concludes with a nuanced, challenging analysis that urges readers to rethink conventional ways of knowing about racial equality, civil rights, and the Internet.

About this title

About the Author:

Jessie Daniels teaches at Hunter College and writes and teaches about racism and anti-racism in print and online. She is the author of White Lies (Routledge). Daniels is a regular contributor to the blog Racism Review (www.racismreview.com ). Her research for this book was supported in part by the MacArthur Foundation.

Review:

Daniels (City Univ. of New York) focuses on manifestations of white supremacy and, to a lesser degree, gender disparity on the Internet. She is especially interested in offering a preliminary analysis of how the discourse of the white supremacist movement has been translated from print into the digital era. Recommended. (CHOICE)

[Daniels] raises real issues about free speech and community life, particularly as the United States seems to uphold markedly different values from much of the rest of the world. This has implications for post-colonial worldviews and theologies.
Daniels, a frequent contributor to literature about white supremacy in the United States, focuses on the utility of the internet to spread racialized (and other) hate speech, arguing that newer media are not immune to the social constructs of American life. In fact, Daniels argues that the ability to “cloak” hate language on the internet increases opportunities to draw unsuspecting young people into the orbit of racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic world views.

The world looks more and more threatening to those who believe in the supremacy of their white group over all others. This book may not show us how to respond, but it surely show us the need to do so. (Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture)

[A]nalyses of and opposition to right-wing racism and terror...is to be welcomed, particularly when it is politically progressive, theoretically rich and contains original research into a relatively unexplored and increasingly important medium. For these reasons, Daniels’s book is essential reading. (Patterns Of Prejudice)

White supremacy never sleeps, as pathbreaking sociologist Jessie Daniels again demonstrates. We see how cyber racism spreads like a sprawling cancerous growth across the Internet, as old white-racist groups get reinvigorated and new groups form and thrive all in the interest of aggressively spreading supremacist doctrines to yet more millions across the globe. (Joe R. Feagin, Texas A&M University)

Pathbreaking look into new avenues for white supremacy in a digital age. (Kathleen M. Blee, University of Pittsburgh; author of Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement)

In Cyber Racism, Jessie Daniels provides a powerful corrective to rosy accounts of the World Wide Web as inherently progressive or liberatory. By carefully tracking both overt and cloaked hate activities on the web, Daniels reveals the dark underbelly of cyberspace: far-reaching white supremacist organizations that are utilizing the web to spread racism, hatred, and violence. The book convincingly tracks the global dimensions of white supremacy, while also illustrating the myriad ways in which racism intersects with issues of nationalism, gender, and literacy. (Tara McPherson, Associate Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California and author of Reconstructing Dixie)

Cyber Racism is a wonderful text and an excellent addition to the field. I'm excited to use it in class! (C. Richard King, Washington State University)

I've known Jessie Daniels (for nearly a decade) to be a thoughtful and well-informed observer of the social nuances of online behavior. She's been carefully tracking one of the dark sides of life online, and Cyber Racism promises to be a landmark. (Howard Rheingold, Stanford University)

Jessie Daniels' Cyber Racism is a well-written, insightful, and exhaustive examination of white supremacy online. I recommend this book to anyone who seeks to understand how hatemongers can have so much influence on our society in the digital era. (Jack Levin)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0742561585
• ISBN 13: 9780742561588
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 274