Chapter 5

At the very end of the chapter (p 199-201), Nakamura describes how the internet has allowed people of color to intervene in aspects of their culture industry. She includes the example of a campaign against Abercrombie and Fitch when they produced a T-shirt line depicting stereotypical images of Asians accompanied by text, which offended the Asian culture. Email campaigns were initiated immediately and "spread like wild fire." The petition was very effective, resulting in the removal of the T-shirt line and an apology form A&F to the Asian American community.

Nakamura sums up the chapter by looking at everything people of color contribute to the internet. This includes things like posting videos, creating websites, writing political messages and much more. This changes the way we think of people of color. Instead of consumers, they are producers of the internet content. With Latinos and African Americans being the "fastest growing groups of internet users," we can clearly see that they are no loner merely passive users. And with more people engaging in the internet, the meaning of participation on the internet is shifting from merely checking email and web surfing to producing the content.

I think that this chapter points out several interesting things about the Internet. First off, it shows just how efficient the Internet can be. We can see through the illustrations of the petitions just how quickly word got around. This is true for most news, big or not. One person might mention something, then someone else blogs about it, while yet another person vlogs about it. Word will spread and soon enough everyone knows the news, however important (or not important) it may be.

Second, throughout the chapter, and especially at the end, Nakamura describes the level of participation users of the Internet are at today. We are no longer a culture of passive users, especially the Net Generation. I see this in my own life. I have made a website and I post blogs as well as check my email regularly and occasionally surf YouTube videos. True, most of the content I've published on the web is for school, but still, I think this proves the point Nakamura is making. We are no longer just using the Internet to do research for our homework but using it to publish our homework assignments. And I think that as technologies are advancing, we are seeing more and more demographics jumping on the band wagon because if they don't learn how to use the new technology, they will have a hard time catching up down the road.