Alice Polonsky

Online Deliberation- Racism This past week I participated in an online deliberation on Yahoo News through an article regarding racist activities at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington. This college provides a center called the Diversity and Equity Center (DEC), which is described as a hate-free space for all students no matter what ethnic background they come from. This past week, employees from the center sent out an email encouraging students to attend a happy hour discussion focusing on diversity as a whole. However, the email angered students and faculty because of its mention of the exclusion of white students for this discussion. After much fury, the DEC canceled plans but Mrs. Blackhorn, the programs director, specificall y told news reporters that this center is not for white people but only for those of color. For this reason, I felt personally inclined to participate in the deliberation regarding this civic issue. Through the comment section of the blog I received positive recognition for my opinions, negative feedback from my comments on others opinions, faced challenges in furthering a well-rounded deliberation from a plethora of users, and learned what factors could have made the discussion more effective in the long run. First, I began participating in the deliberation by commenting on the article stating how I agreed with other users thoughts regarding Mrs.Blackhorn terrible wording in the email and how the DEC should be accepting of all individuals regardless of what ethnic background they come from. I expanded the issue by noting how the United States is still a Melting Pot of individuals who are able to bring new innovations to positively improve our economy and society. After checking back to the comments section a day later, my comment generated six likes and one dislike. Though no one directly responded to my comment, it clearly demonstrated that other individuals were in favor of my point of view. As a first time online deliberator, this positive

recognition meant that I was successful in following the aspect of the deliberation criteria that focuses on prioritizing the key values at stake. I was able to reflect on my personal values towards racism in the United States as well as important values, such as the exclusion of white people from a discussion about diversity, highlighted in the news article. After my initial comment, I furthered the deliberation with a user named Dean who was asking the general public if it would be acceptable to create an organization dealing with problems with the minority race that would be called the National Association for the Advancement of White People. I thought this comment was completely unprofessional and ironically racist in itself. I responded to Dean with explaining how his comment was indeed racist and educated him as to why the NAACP was first created in the 1900s. Though I never received a response back from Dean, my reply initiated two dislikes from the news blog. This negative feedback concerned me because it demonstrated that either the individuals commenting are not educated or are making this entire issue at the college an entire joking matter. Nevertheless, by being able to create a solid information basis, I believe I made a professional response to the deliberation I was attempting to instigate with Dean in regards to his racial comments about the advantages of the black and white population. Likewise, in an attempt to generate a well-round deliberation with other Yahoo users I was not very successful. When first identifying an online forum to comment on, I was extremely confident in my selection because the comments section of this article had over 1800 comments with people of all ages, genders, and ethnic backgrounds sharing their thoughts towards the racial activities that occurred at this small community college. I thought that this deliberation would be similar to the one that was completed in class regarding higher education in American society. Though after I commented no one seemed to take much of an interest into deliberating with me

but rather diverged into expressing their own thoughts and opinions. Additionally, many individuals opinions were quite out of context of the topic. For instance, one user who went by the name of Darkness mentioned how college is creating the biggest cowards and ideologues this country has ever seen. When first stumbling upon this comment, my first inclination was this opinion is completely out of context and is extremely offending to the population of college students as a whole. For this reason, these out-of-context comments implies that the Yahoo News Blog is not a reliable online forum for intriguing deliberation that would have the same capability to enhance mutual comprehension as was seen in the past in-class deliberation I had with my fellow peers regarding the system of higher education in the United States. Lastly, from my experience in participating in this online deliberation I have learned the factors that would make these discussions to be more effective for the next time I comment on an online forum. In todays society it is simply easier to like or dislike a post then having to comment back to an opinion you might agree or disagree with. Deliberations that encourage individuals to create a list of pros and cons regarding the issue at hand will be more inclined to formulate more solutions then ones that do not specify specific likes and dislikes. I feel as if the ability to simply like or dislike should be eliminated entirely from these types of online forums. If this feature were to be eliminated then more individuals would be more motivated to deliberate the topic as well as have their skills as a deliberator be strengthened for the better. Additionally, after participating in both an in-class and online deliberation I believe that in-class deliberations are much more effective. Though online deliberations give you the chance to deliberate with thousands of people around the world, it gives more people access to negatively attack others opinions by using vulgar language and racial diction because they are not directly sitting in front of that person stating their mind. For this reason, online forums, such as the

Yahoo News blog, should create an organized set of restrictions that will not allow users to comment using inappropriate language that creates unnecessary discourse which diminishes the entire discussion as a whole. In conclusion, my experience with the online deliberation included favorability by other users regarding the important values highlighted in the racial activities that occurred at South Puget Sound Community College, a number of dislikes from my response to unprofessional racial comments, challenges in deliberating through the Yahoo News blog, and learning that likes and dislikes features and the ability for users to comment with inappropriate diction on the internet does not promote successful deliberation. From participating in this online deliberation I have come to the realization that face-to-face deliberations are much more reliable for devising a variety of solutions then ones that are conducted through an online forum. In turn, if more online deliberations were able to include many of the same factors as ones completed in- class, such as mutual comprehension or the creation of pros and cons lists, then they would be able to organize many plans of actions that would be able to solve the hundreds of civic issues American citizens deal with on a daily basis.

Interaction 1:

Interaction 2:

Interaction 3: