The Facebook Project - The Missing Box: The Racial Politics Behind the Facebook Interface

Ginger, Jeff

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/8816 Copy

Description

Title

The Facebook Project - The Missing Box: The Racial Politics Behind the Facebook Interface

Author(s)

Ginger, Jeff

Issue Date

2008-08-03

Keyword(s)

• Facebook
• racism
• discrimination
• identity
• digital divide
• interface
• colorblind
• human-computer interaction

Abstract

There is no race, ethnicity or nationality category available the default Facebook profile. This, combined with the fact that Facebook is a visually-driven website, suggests that Facebook serves to inadvertently or covertly perpetuate two racist or discriminatory norms: the colorblind mentality and racialized visual classification of others. This paper quickly traverses through a basic theory of identity that dictates that persons incur an on-going dialectic between individual and social identity, both on and offline. It contends that Facebook is an advantageous place to perform and portray one’s social identity and is largely visually-driven, therefore the interface is of paramount importance. Racial, ethnic, or national identity is of significance to many individuals and the lack of a place to express this is a form of discrimination. Such a category should be added to Facebook’s set of basic identity options. Guidelines for a successful implementation are provided.

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/8816

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