Harambe the Gorilla versus the Idea of Harambe
The unjust killing of the gorilla Harambe is a relevant issue that we can link to racism and animal cruelty in society. Racism around the world has always been a prominent issue, and I don’t think it will completely cease to exist in the future. Having some sort of judgement toward another human being is ingrained in us, just like how memes have become a part of our social structure. Memes amplify a sort of movement in society to simplify and express our emotions toward a significant problem. As for the Harambe memes, there is a line that is only drawn with the large majority who truly stand by the problem, but no one can control how and when a meme goes viral. I have laughed at the matter multiple times when the meme blew up, but a part of me also thought how inhumane people were to animal especially toward one who really is capable of compassion and empathy. The headline grabbed people’s attention because of the compelling story which pits man v.s. animal. But indeed if you didn’t know what actually happened to Harambe, you wouldn’t be able to comprehend the memes. The memes acted a sort of desensitizer for people to make sense of the situation; it also fueled the idea that gorillas can be a dangerous and uncontrollable animal. With this, I say it only starts to become a problem when people are so invested in social media or the “fake news” that they become hardly conducive to real world problems. However, Harambe became the de facto and many failed to recognize the underlying problem of animal cruelty and many desensitized themselves from the actual tragedy itself. We are degrading a species that share similar strands of DNA like us. We became numb to issues as such with the dark side of the internet and its proliferation of these five second memes; crafting our own perception and putting words in the mouth of an animal who could not defend itself. Why is it okay for Harambe to be killed but not for the mass slaughtering of dogs at the Yulin festival in China? Or poachers of coyote fur, and elephant tusks? It may presumably be that these animals are deemed as cute or helpless. But it is in fact, that we, the people who provoke the aggressive behavior of wild animals by sheltering them in captivity.
I think the internet will drastically change our lives in the next few years with these memes popping up here and there. It go two ways: 1) distract us from reality and waste our time, or 2) be so wildly popular that it will allow us to be informed about certain issues. One thing I know is that the meme culture is here to stay because it is a fast method to relieve stress by laughing at the memes and it helps forge relationships by sending and receiving memes. But also, there is always going to be that one person who will make a disgusting comment following a bad meme and others who will follow suit. So…there’s that.
