TODAY1) Quick overview: Lisa Nakamura2) If you’re easily offended, today might be

difficult, so a word on “why”– AKA Dr. Phill talks about profanity and racism from his soap box in Phillland.

3) Griefing4) Racism?5) Activity – how do we know the difference? 6) Homework – that proposal dealie thing I

asked for plus you get to read some of my stuff.

Dr. Lisa NakamuraLisa Nakamura is currently a professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan (formerly of U Illinois). She has written two key books on race on the internet (I reviewed one of them for the journal Kairos, if you want a brief overview of it).

Among her major contributions to thought about race in cyberspace are the concepts of Identity Tourism and her current work on griefing/race in griefing spaces.

Identity TourismA quick summary, granting that any summary of such an idea is going to also be a reduction: in the book Cybertypes, Nakamura coins a phrase: identity tourism. This is the theoretical concept that you can be anyone or anything on the internet, most easily embodied by (though certainly not the most interesting or particularly what Nakamura was going for) the gentlemen who get caught on To Catch a Predator pretending to be young women in chat rooms.

Nakamura’s point was that you can pretend to be anything or anyone online without the dangers that exist in the real world. You can try on races, genders, classes, etc.

Her talkAgain. In the hopes of avoiding a quiz, I have cooked up five questions about the lecture (just her part– the Q & A was cool, but I realize not hearing the questions very well might have made it harder to follow).

1.What is griefing?

2.What are “the lols” as Nakamura talks about them?

3.What are “trolls” as Nakamura is discussing them?

4.What is “enlightened” racism?

5.Why is Xbox Live considered “homophobic?” as opposed to “racist?”

Enlightened Racism

As you might guess from my treatment of today’s materials– having you watch her speak for so long, attesting to having cited her heavily in my dissertation and to having published a review of one of her books, I think very highly of Lisa Nakamura.

I do think, however, if you’re not listening carefully, you might miss something VERY important about “enlightened” racism. She points out at one point, near the end, “it’s just racism.”

I endorse this messageNow you get a little of my own theorizing– good prep for your next set of readings. We could talk Critical Race Theory all semester long (really, I love it, and I’m deeply into it), but there’s something in particular I want to bring to the forefront as we think about issues of race and griefing and the internet:

There’s a tremendous gray area.

For example…… I’m going to utilize another scholar, quickly, Dr. Keith Gilyard. In the introduction to Race, Rhetoric and Composition, Gilyard talks briefly about the movie Barbershop. Warning– Barbershop is not a good movie.

But in it, one of the key moments is when one of the African-American barbers allows the white barber to cut his hair, symbolically conveying belonging/blackness upon him.

All rhetoric is ……situated, based on a moment (kairos) and embedded in culture.

So, too, is racism. I’m mixed blood Cherokee (did you all know that?), and I grew up in an almost all-black projects in rough and tumble Richmond (lolz). On those basketball courts, I was called, and called my friends in return, the “N-word” (let’s see if I can stop myself from commenting on not saying the word but saying it here)

In that moment…… it was okay for me to use that word. It was an accepted part of the discourse community and fully understood how I meant it and why I was using it.

It is NOT by any means the same for me to just feel I can blurt out that word in this classroom. This is a different moment. There is a different expectation.

Time to muddy the waterLet’s look at a few pieces of pop cultural production.

I mentioned earlier that some of this might be uncomfortable. If you feel like you can’t respond during the next segment of class, I will understand. And I apologize if you’re easily offended. But nothing here is subversive. All this stuff either happened on TV or can be heard blasting from the windows of cars (or dorm rooms) on this campus or has been on numerous folks Facebook pages.

I’m not trying to make you feel on edge, but if you do, that’s an important thing to remember rhetorically.

Now, on the 224 Network:

Is this Racist? With your host, Dr. Phill Alexander

Trinidad James: All Gold Everything

Long Duk Dong

The Boondocks vs. Real Life:Teacher says “Nigguh”

Chief Illiniwik

Those Crazy Olsen Twins

The Chapelle Show:Black Bush

Jar Jar Binks

Activity: Enlightened Racism

In pairs, I want you to find an example of something you feel is “enlightened” racism and email it, along with a paragraph of explanation of why, to me.

My email, should you have forgotten, is

alexanp3 at MiamiOH dot edu

For TuesdayTwo things:

1.Write your Multimedia Argument Proposal memo and submit it. The format/directions for this are on the course website.2.Read the two pieces linked on the syllabus. They’re by me, so if you don’t read them my questions might kill you, since I know the work really well. Also, they’re early works in my research, so they’re sort of sketchy. It’s meant to be a mix of fun and learning.