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Partly in response to last RT, I think a lot about why things seem different now than in the last few years, and one element I think we collectively discount is the relatively short time good, true information has been easily available. 1/
I want to be clear that what Iām saying is not about *excusing* or *justifying* anything. If your response is āthis information was always out there, people just needed to get it,ā I agree with you. My comments are about what people did, not what was right. 2/
I think a lot of us who have grown up with the Internet fail to recognize what a new concept it still is, especially sociologically. While use starts taking off in the mid-90s, itās not until about 15 years ago that 80% of the nation is online. 3/
And you have to remember that (a) it takes people time between their first day online and learning how to really navigate things, and (b) it takes people time to absorb, synthesize, and really ālearnā new information, and especially to UNLEARN old information. 4/
Letās also remember how the Internet took shape, and how white and male it was for much of its history. Iām 41, and was an early adopter, Iāve grown up watching the Internet (well, the Web) develop. A lot of what it is now didnāt exist for a long time. 5/
20 years ago, there was no Wikipedia. The Internet was a great place to read snarky reviews of horror movies written by young white film students. You could go to iMDB and learn who was in what movieāthere was even a site to check your Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon knowledge. 6/
But if you wanted to learn, say, statistics about race and policingāor even just āhow to be an anti-racist,ā you were going to a library. These were not topics that came up in regular conversation, they were topics of academic study and discussion. 7/
As much as social media is a Pandoraās box, I absolutely think it has done IMMEASURABLE good in transcending the way our physical lives as Americans are segregated and divided, and allowing us to really talk to one another for the first time in history. 8/
Now, thatās done a lot of bad thingsāit has created this sort of international disaspora of white supremacists that I think we havenāt really reckoned with as yetābut itās also made such a difference in educating an ignorant white hegemony about racial terror and tyranny. 9/
Again here I reiterate my earlier point that Iām not defending the past ignorance of white people. Iām only saying I believe it was reality, not that it was okay. 10/
But I grew up in the 80s and 90s. I thought we were so modern, but looking back on them now, they are SO MUCH MORE like the 50s through 70s than the 2000s and on, itās laughable. 11/
I donāt have space to list all the things that were absent from my childhood education, but Iāll give some examples. I had no idea about Tulsa, or Detroit, or Rosewood, or Tuskeegee; no mention of internalized white supremacy, or overpolicing, or redlining. 12/
If I told you my education on civil rights was āSlavery was bad, then Lincoln ended it, then Jim Crow was bad, then Martin Luther King ended it, and everything has been great ever since,ā I would not be simplifying it all that much. 13/
So Iād argue that the accessiblity of information via the Internet has had a slow marching impact on our cultureālike an ink stain spreading on paper, the truth about Americaās history of racism and white supremacy has diffused across our society. 14/
Iād call this a credit to those Internet pioneers who saw it as the chance to spread truthāThe Root, just to pick one example, was only founded in 2008. But that information gets picked up by readers, who share it with other people, who share it with others, and so on. 15/
My parents, who have lived in this country since the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations, have learned more about racism and colonization in the last five years than in their entire lives preceding that point. Some from their kids, some from TV and the Internet. 16/
So maybe itās a Pollyana view on my part, but while some say we live in a āpost-truth society,ā I think the truthāwhile it may be slow to catch up with those fast-traveling liesāis persistent, and eventually wins out. 17/
When people ask āWhy is it different now,ā again maybe Iām optimistic but I think itās because every day we live in a society a little more dedicated to justice, and in another 5 years it will be even moreso. 18/
And I know, some of you are thinking āBut what about Trump? Wasnāt that a huge step backwards?ā And honestly no, I donāt think it was. I think it was a counterattack by a white nationalist minority that knows they are on the way out. 19/
Certainly it was a step back for US politics, and for US policy, good god yes. But was it a step back for us as a society and a culture? No, I think in a lot of ways it reflects the fear of those still stuck in the 1950s, that America is leaving them behind. 20/
And listen. Iām a privileged white male who got a tiny taste of marginalization and discrimination because Iām queer. Iām not here to tell any marginalized person that āHey, things are getting better.ā Because my view might be totally skewed. 21/
But this is honestly what I think is happening. I think most of us are good people who believe in fairness and justice and just donāt have good information to recognize how unfair and unjust things have been for so long. 22/
It certainly doesnāt mean stop fighting, because the fight is what has brought that information to people. But I do believe that as long as these protests are necessary, weāll see more Americans joining them every year. And hopefully before long we wonāt need them any more. 23/
Also, I want to say this isnāt me negating other theories, or saying āThis is THE explanation.ā I think there are a huge variety of factors that influence societal trends. But especially for younger people, I think the recency of available information is often lost. 24/
