Racism and the Internet

Recently, our class began discussing the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" during LA lessons.

This book is a coming-of-age novel set in the 1930s, in the fictional Maycomb County of Alabama, where racism and several other social problems exist. It is about a girl named Jean Louise Finch aka Scout and a boy named Jeremy Atticus Finch aka Jem who goes through life in Maycomb County whereby they experience racism, discrimination and many other social life problems. Through their father Atticus, who teaches them morals, they learnt to view from someone else’s perspective and to understand others better; maturing into sensible children with stronger wills.

Racism is something that almost everyone would experience throughout their life. It’s when one party feels that they are more superior and want to rule or even control the lifestyles of the so called “inferior” party. They bear hatred and intolerance to those races which they look down on and discriminate against them. In Singapore a multi-racial country, most may say that racism can’t possibly exist. However, I feel that racism actually occurs in Singapore; although it’s rarely voiced out some people do express their discrimination on other platforms for them to appear anonymous. It’s inevitable for one to feel that its race is superior probably as a sense of national pride, however, its best to keep such feelings under control.

During lessons, there would usually be someone who will randomly shout out random yet humorous comments, sometimes racist comments, to break up the tense seriousness to make lessons amusing and more captivating. I am certain whoever shouted out such comments didn’t have any other intentions other than humor.

However, the platform whereby such comments are expressed is extremely critical. For example, if such a comment were passed in a classroom, we will simply treat it as a joke with no hurtful intentions; but if such a comment were expressed on the internet for example on a blog or Facebook whereby almost anyone can view such comments it would have been a grave mistake as it could result in a flame war which could even lead to arrest.

Indeed some time ago, there was an article in the papers about some Chinese teens who posted racist remarks on Facebook who were then arrested. This link will provide additional details:
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_486005.html

This tells us that racism is actually a major issue worldwide such that a racist remark ended up in these teens being arrested and that a social networking area can be dangerous if one doesn’t consciously think before he acts.