Online Harassment Of Ethnic Minorities Essay Sample

While reading “are you willing to die for this work” by Abby L. Ferber and “Nobody sees it, Nobody Gets Mad” by Marwick, Fontaine, and Boyd, they all have one main objection; addressing how online harassment of ethnic minorities is different compared to that of dominant groups because of social status. Consequently, we will take a look at each article and evaluate ways in which each group is harassed online. 

In the article “are you willing to die for this work”, Ferber says, “online harassment often occurs in form of a larger number of emails filled with hate, anger, venom and, threats” (Ferber, 5), and most of this is caused by the “white supremacist (Ferber 9)” because of the “fear of losing privileges and powers in the community which causes them to scapegoat people of color, immigrants, minorities, or working-class (Ferber 9)”. 

The above-stated statements sum up the reason why online harassment occurs in a way that when minority groups try to raise up and seek equality, dominants groups always find ways to bring them down and one of the ways is by harassing them through social platforms. Like Ferber’s article, the article “Nobody Sees It, Nobody Gets Mad” the authors quote “Yeah, people want to be seen. But then, at the same time when they are seen, who are they going to blame? No one but themselves (Marwick 2)”. 

The authors also state, “If you did not want to be seen doxed, bullied, or fired, you should have not posted on Facebook (Marwick 3)” This idea implies that no everyone is treated equally online most especially minorities, and you might post something helpful but because of your social status, your post might hinder you in many ways. 

I have never been harassment online or on social media platforms, but I have a high school best friend who experienced online harassment for not only being a woman but also a black woman. Karla was invited by her two college friends to a party and during the dancing when the floor was crowded, a white guy came up to Karla and they both started dancing like normal people. However, after some time, the guy started touching Karla inappropriate way, and first, she thought it was normal, but the guy kept on going dipper and dipper. 

After a few minutes of being uncomfortable, Karla slapped the guy and told him “get off me, I felt uncomfortable." The guy left Karla and went outside, and Karla immediately told her friends to go home but they all said no telling “it’s too early”. She went out and unfortunately, the guy she had slapped was waiting for her outside. He followed her and grabbed her trying to do bad things to her, but Karla screamed, and the guy left her after tearing her clothes. 

The next morning, Karla wanted to go to the police and report on how she was harassed at the party but unfortunately, Karla could not remember the guy’s face so she thought it was a good idea to take a picture of her torn dress, tell her story so people can help find the guy. The comments she received online were unbelievable in a way that everyone turned their back on her. One person commented and said, “so you want to sue the white guy so he can pay for your college, what’s wrong with black women these days”, someone else commented “I was there, not only did you slap him, but you want to sue him” and “black b**ch has torn her clothes and now she’s blaming it on the innocent white guy”. 

After seeing all those comments, my friend was surprised and even though she was a victim of rape by a white guy, however, when she turned online to look for help, instead of being a victim she became an assailant. This event reflects a quote that we saw from one of the articles “If you did not want to be seen doxed, bullied, or fired, you should have not posted on Facebook."