memes as racialized discourse
The reality is we live in a world where the color of an individual’s skin is a key predictor of life outcomes. Despite significant amounts of data indicating the depth of racism that still exists in modern U.S. society, many people still subscribe to the belief that we live in a “color blind”, post-racial world.
In Why is it not Just a Joke? Analysis of Internet Memes Associated with Racism and Hidden Ideology of Colorblindness Injeong Yoon explores how a modern medium for communication, internet memes, perpetuate colorblind ideology by simultaneously mocking people of color and denying structural racism.
Yoon conducted searches for key terms such as “that’s racist” on Memecenter, a user created database of internet memes, to gather the data for their analysis. Several themes emerged within the data, including cultural stereotypes, embodied racism, denial of racism, racist media/commercial images, crimes committed by people of color, immigrants, police brutality, criminal justice, and the black/white binary.
After thematic grouping, the data was further sorted based on the racial/ethnic groups represented in the meme. Using social semiotics the author considered the information being transmitted through each image on two levels, or “layers”. The first layer is denotation– who, or what is being depicted in the image; the second layer is connotation, which seeks to identify and explore the ideas and values being transmitted by the image.
Unsurprisingly, Yoon found that internet memes reinforce negative racial and cultural stereotypes against people of color, as well as strengthening binaries that serve as a tool for othering people of color, and normalizing whiteness.
Many of the memes analyzed supported cultural racism; for example, through depictions of African Americans as criminals, or Mexicans as illegal immigrants– implying the culture of minorities is the cause of inequity rather than structural racism.
Post-racial thinking was also reinforced through images presenting the idea that racism is simply a matter of perspective– for example, juxtaposing an African American man’s view of police brutality against a white man rather than a person of color; or, “reverse” racism of affirmative action.
While internet memes may be seen as satirical at best, satire still serves as a source of discourse and method through which culture reproduced and disseminated– making meme discourse worthy of further study.
