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The role of race in social media

To this day it is surprising to see that there are still things to be learned. It is even more surprising that a lot of the things that you continue to learn are in fact about another race, or pertain to another race which was why you didn’t learn it in the first place. An entirely new perspective existed in the world separate from you and you had no idea. Social media now offers insight into these other perspectives. Perspectives and stories that were not taught in school yet hold so much importance in society. Perspectives such as the African American women only being portrayed as the “mammy”, the overly sexual female, or the mean controlling women. In order to counteract this stereotypical portrayal movements such as “black girl magic” have happened in social media. This movement saw the incorporation of the Serena Williams Sports Illustrated cover as a token saying “yes we are, yes we can, we are all things”.

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We must, however, not allow differences of opinion to ever paralyse our efforts towards attaining a world free of racial bigotry, hatred, discrimination and intolerance

Nelson Mandela

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Speaks to the “Mammy” image, black gril magic and many more portrayals of race as it relates to social media.

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Beware this is data from 2014....has it changed since?

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Social media helps to shine light on issues that the main stream media neglects. Issues that may affect one race more than the other, particularly if that race is in the minority.