Social media platforms as we all know have their pros
and cons. When you have so many ignorant, close minded people trolling across
cyber space, it’s always great to see some patient and informed individuals
take their time out to educate them.
Both these screenshots, although different, are clearly
linked by historical amnesia. An attempt by many Americans to bury the not so
positive realities of the nation’s past.
Having an awareness and understanding of the United States
history of Native Americans, African Americans and generally people of colour, I
have a great appreciation for the “America was never great” hat (it’s
amazing!!). The message this statement contains speaks volumes, something that
not surprisingly has gone over the heads of Fox News.
Fox News is well known for its right wing agenda setting and
bias, so it comes to no surprise that historical amnesia is a discourse that
this news channel perpetuates. A black woman wearing a hat that says “America
was never great” goes against all of this because it brings focus to America’s
history of slavery, segregation and racism. The problem with Fox News is that
it is a mainstream media outlet that is accessible to many people, which is why
their agendas, bias and gate keeping contribute to the mind sets of people like
Logan McLeod who feel entitled to make comments about an experience they have
not lived or been personally affected by. Would it be too far fetched to assume
that Logan McLeod might possible watch Fox News every now and then?
Historical amnesia is extremely problematic because it
belittles and denies the lived experiences of those that are still being affected
by the events of the past. Unfortunately there are too many people out there
making comments like these without this understanding.
It’s a shame we can’t do away with internet trolls (YouTube
is full of them smh…), but I highly commend those, like Kat Blaque, that create
and use their social media platforms to educate people about such topics in a
way that is informative and discursive.
A lot of the time clapping back on social media can go very
wrong, with arguments and rants escalating and disappearing within seconds. I
think Kat Blaque and whoever runs the Home Depot page did a great job with
their responses which were informative and straight to the point. :)
This topic makes me think of the historical amnesia within South Asian communities (I am British Indian). Even older generations who would have been privy to the brutalities carried out by the British during the colonial era and so on may hold the belief that British people "civilised" us and gave us opportunities. Whilst I am appreciative of having been born in the UK and having a vast array of opportunities compared to many of my Indian counterparts, I will still acknowledge the damage caused by the British rule in India and the racism faced by my grandparents which continues to this day.
ReplyDeleteI was looking into writing a blog similar to this and was totally appalled by the sort of voice that social media offers on issues around race. Kat Blaque, who is talented at wrecking ignorant and hateful people over Facebook, receives near daily hate messages, threats and insults- so much of which is premised on social amnesia. It seems much easier for people to deny an extremely racialized history and its current implications than to have a little compassion and actually stop to listen. There is such a bounty of information and perspective out there that the Internet makes accessible, but a culture that deny's history's importance stops people looking! I think people like Kate Blaque and the media team at Home Depot are brave to stand by their convictions in a forum where people are so quick to criticize. Social media is definitely a new frontier for social action and redefining ideologies- the difficulty is that most people don’t use it this way and issues of access mean social media isn’t much of a ‘public sphere’ free for all platform at all.
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