Skip to main content

Um... Don't be a white supremacist maybe?

Hey everyone! Let’s see if today’s blog post is something we can all agree on. Repeat after me, “Do not be a white supremacist.” Now hold onto that, that’s a mystery tool that we will be using later. See while this statement may seem so simple, apparently, there is more than meets the eye, as proved by the recent resurgence in hate crimes. Not to name any names, but every since our oh-so-beloved president was put in office, white supremacism, or to put it nicely, white nationalism, has been on the rise. Yeah we can blame Trump, and I will, but media also plays a big part in perpetuating white supremacist ideals, only circulating certain information to fool a larger audience.
See here is the problem, media finds a way to circulate cases of terrorism when it related to other races (prominently jihadism), but when white supremacists execute terrorist attacks, information is not as quickly broadcasted. According to a study from the University of Alabama, white supremacist groups receive four times less coverage from attacks than Muslim extremist groups. This just props up the ideals that white nationalists depend upon, painting the other as the threat, and themselves as the protector, saving us from the eastern savages. At this point, many probably believe the lack of coverage is because white supremacists commit more crimes, but once again this is utterly false. A study by the Anti-Defamation league that studied 573 “extremist-related fatalities” from 2002 to 2018, found that right-wing extremists were responsible for 80% of the deaths, and in 2018 alone killed 50 people. Clearly, there is a problem here, and media makes it worse by spreading around the wrong information, or selectively publicizing information
If Americans were all responsible and did research for themselves, then maybe this would not be such a prevalent problem, but the fact is, no one does. Many just believe the first news article they see, and when the same stories are circled over and over again- that Muslims are the enemy (through things like, oh I don’t know, the travel ban), that Muslims are terrorists, and that they are going to destroy the country, then those things become the truth for so many. Media is very powerful and has a huge influence on how we see the world, but people must recognize that not everything that is published is reliable, and find data and truth through extensive research of their own.

https://theappalachianonline.com/2019/03/28/opinion-white-supremacists-and-social-media-the-double-standard-with-jihadis/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflection

Reflection Critical thinking, the media blogs specifically, were a great way for me to improve my analysis skills and give me a better understanding of the way that media is used to manipulate me. Looking back at my first media blog, I discussed how happy I was that media is becoming more inclusive. I was excited about people of all colors, genders, sexual orientations, and body types were being included in the media we consume, but after the class I realized the true reasons these people are a part of advertisements. It is all for monetary gain. Companies do not care about inclusion, they only care about ways to make money and appeal to a broader audience in order to do so. The same companies that sold one body and one skin type, have somehow managed to sell me my own identity, commodifying people or color and other minorities as a way to get more money. Once we isolate the true drive of all advertisements and all companies, it is much easier to see through them and not as easil...
Post a Comment
Read more

the midriff ;)

Women in media have always been oversexualized. With sex icons changing from Marilyn Monroe, to Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus, the role of women in media, and the way for women to reach high position in media is by being sexy and powerful, an idea that media has captured and sold to consumers in a neat package: the midriff. The midriff is more than a bared stomach, more than just an exposed sliver of skin, but is the embodiment of the ideal woman. A woman who is obsessed with her appearance, and uses her sexuality in order to gain power/ control others. She is not real, rather appeals to what women want to be. Or at least, what media wants them to think they want to be. Of course some of these traits exist in women: yes some women are obsessed with appearances, and some are obsessed with the approval of men, but is this due to media, or because that is the way things just are? Or more concisely, is media a mirror or a feedback loop? The answer to this is blurred because of the way med...
Post a Comment
Read more

News Story From Two Perspectives

News Story from Two Perspectives The issue of the travel ban was very controversial, and displayed differently from various news agencies. Its core facts are not highly disputed, but the implications of them, however, are highly contested. At a legislative level, it blocks out immigrants from eight countries ( Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad, North Korea, and some people from Venezuela), and denies them access to the country. The debate comes in here: is this truly for national safety, or just anti-Muslim sentiments being passed off as concern for the country. An article from the Washington Post and another from the New York Times take opposing stances on this, and through their language we can see the argument the authors are trying to make, even if it is not explicitly stated. The article from the Washington Post, titled “ The travel ban is still a weapon in Trump’s anti-immigrant arsena l” clearly establishes the thesis, and continues to utilize language that places a...
Post a Comment
Read more