Cybertypes

In Lisa Nakamura’s article on the identity of an individual online is called “Cyber types”. She discusses way race is discussed online due to the anonymity of the Internet. She shows how some people believed that the Internet would be a “utopia” because there would be no physical evidence of race or gender. Responding to this she says that we can never get rid of gender and race despite the Internet’s anonymity. She shows how race is shown online through advertisements. These advertisements are put on sites according to the target audience. These audiences are then advertised to by attracting them due to the individual’s race, gender, and ethnicity.
These advertisements embody different characteristics based on the stereotypes of a certain group. These stereotypes promote race in every facet of or life, and not being able to see an individual did not stop race, gender, and ethnicity from crossing over to the Internet. Media has a large part of stereotypes that are embodied in television, advertising, and motion pictures and can now be seen in the Internet. On sites that display rap albums or music have advertisements are shown directed towards an African-American audience due to stereotypes that mainly blacks listen to rap. This is done likewise on other sites.
Corporations will always advertise their products in a medium that their target audience will likely view. This is something that corporations will use stereotypes to accomplish. At this point there will never be a day we live with out race affecting us, and to think that this would not involve the Internet is absurd. Until we eliminate racism, sexism, and other means of discrimination from our society we will never be able to erase race from our culture. While this is present we will always see stereotypes in our means of communication.
So is advertising the only way race is present online? Anonymity creates a situation in which the user conveys who they are through themselves. Race can be inferred however through talking to someone online. As long as the individual is not out to deceive others you can pick up clues about the person through a variety of ways. These ways include the screen name of an individual or the way the type. The words used can show the ethnicity, race, or gender of an individual through certain dialect and dialogue.