In chapter 4, Reed focuses on gender and racial inequalities and how they make themselves known on the internet. Early on in the chapter, he poses an important question; "if we are truly in a post-racial, post-sexist era, why would one want to disguise one's race or gender?" Although anonymity has it's benefits, such as preventing bias, it's very existence should be questioned. True equality would have no need for anonymity, because no one's thoughts/opinions/etc. would be considered less than someone else's. The idea that minority groups must disguise certain aspects of themselves in order to be accepted as an equal was not created by the existence of the internet. One of the reasons that J.K. Rowling published under her initials is because her gender could not be determined based on initials, and she was more likely to get published if people thought she was a man.
A lot of this chapter reminded me of our class discussions about Gamergate, and how many members of the gaming community are actively supporting gender inequality. What is particularly remarkable about this is the fact that Gamergate is trying to pass itself off as a group in support of proper gaming journalism and critique, and many people believe that, because why would a bunch of heteronormative, white, middle class males lie?
I like Reed's point about how nobody woke up one day and decided to embed all of these inequalities into the internet/computer. It wasn't a consciously racist or sexist choice, it was an unconscious recreation of a society with existing systematic inequalities. Most people support or promote inequalities subconsciously, because our society just enables us to. "Going with the flow" is the path of least resistance, and we will always choose the path of least resistance because it's easier. It's just a shame that that path happens to be a dark one.
These inequalities are designed to perpetuate themselves, and if we don't actively try to change them, then they will never change.
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