Heavy Competition for Racebending.com Facebook Ban

By Guest Contributor Michael Le from Racebending

Aang - Believe

Racialicious’ Note: Racebending is a site that was set up in response to the whitewashed casting of The Last Airbender. Racebending has since extended its reach to discuss the poor representation of people of colour in film and tv in general.

In case you missed the headline yesterday, Facebook has banned the Racebending.com group, implying we were “hateful, threatening, or obscene.”

The response from the community has been overwhelming and we are extremely grateful to all of you who spoke out in solidarity with the cause. Strong voices of dissent emerged, led by respected names in the Asian American community such as Asian Pop writer Jeff Yang, comic artist Tak Toyoshima, and Oiyan Poon of APAs for Progress.

We are still trying to contact Facebook for an explanation. In the meantime, we encourage our members to join our Facebook page or follow our Twitter for the latest.

Hopefully we’ll be able to open a dialogue with Facebook soon on this subject. It did get us wondering, however: what does it take to get your group banned? What – besides open discussion of racial issues in American media – does Facebook consider “hateful, threatening, or obscene”?

As it turns out, we beat out some stiff competition for the ban. A few minutes’ searching Facebook groups turned up quite a lot of material. We were very surprised that these groups satisfy Facebook’s “Terms of Service” and merit continued broadcasting on the social networking site. Given that these groups are thriving under Facebook’s policies, getting banned is almost an accomplishment.

Let’s take a look.

Facebook Asks Why Can’t Asians Drive?

Facebook Asks Why Can't Asians Drive?
First up, this group is a “Just for Fun” example of blatant racism, with slurs against the mentally handicapped thrown in for good measure. The ensemble is completed with the use of stereotypical “ching chong” font.

Facebook Accepts Rape Jokes

Facebook Accepts Rape Jokes
Apparently extracting humor from the victims of sexual assault is not sufficient for a group to be removed from Facebook. There are actually several groups based on this theme – easily thousands of members when added altogether.

Facebook Hosts “F*CK ISLAM”

Facebook Hosts "F*c k Islam"
This group is called “F*CK ISLAM.” The group explains its position:

There are many races to be found in islam. It’s your ideology we are revolted and annoyed by. I don’t care what colour you are. You are primitives. What’s worse is that you are primitives with access to modern weapons that your semi-evolved brains couldn’t ever have created on your own.”

It goes on for pages and pages, but this is the basic gist and tone of the group’s message.

Facebook Accepts the BNP

Facebook Accepts the British National Party - Britain for Whites Only
Last, we have the official Facebook group of the BNP (British National Party). For those unfamiliar with British politics, this Wikipedia entry may prove enlightening.

Their aim is to restore the pre-1948 demographics of the country by “firm incentives” for “immigrants and their descendants to return home.” Since 1982, they have fought hard to repeal British anti-discrimination laws. From their chairman:

Our fundamental determination to secure a future for white children is restated … We don’t hate anyone, especially the mixed race children who are the most tragic victims of enforced multi-racism, but that does not mean that we accept miscegenation as moral or normal. We do not and we never will.”
-Nick Griffin, Chairman of the BNP

Perhaps it’s not that these groups don’t violate the Facebook Terms of Service. Perhaps Racebending.com – a safe space for the open discussion of race in American media by consumers of American media – was simply deemed a high-priority for banning: something particularly “threatening” to users of Facebook, to casual readers. Perhaps the dialogue taking place among its six thousand members about where Americans of color fit into the national landscape was considered especially dangerous – especially incendiary, especially worthy of silence and censorship.

Unfortunately for them, the attempts at censorship have had the opposite effect: the community is speaking up. We’re louder than ever. And we’re not going away.

Share and Enjoy:

Trackbacks & Pings

Facebook Restores Racebending.com Group :: The Last Airbender Movie Casting | Activism at Racebending.com on 17 Mar 2010 at 6:54 pm

[...] Heavy Competition for Racebending.com Facebook Ban – by Michael Le via Racialicious [...]
a friday round-up of online awesomeness « The GingerFly on 19 Mar 2010 at 3:38 pm

[...] Isn’t FB awesome? [...]

Comments

dersk wrote:

Thought I just read that it was un-banned but made private? My guess would be that someone nominated or reported the group to Facebook adminstrators (although surely someone would have reported those others).

The problem is, Facebook can pretty much do whatever they want, right? I mean, I suppose you could always ask for your money back (or, less, sarcastically, set up a ning or Drupal site to host the group).

There’s so little actual public space left these days (malls are private property, community sites are corporations, etc., etc.) that I’m starting to wonder to what extent owners of spaces that are quasi-public ought to be required to allow full freedom of speech – or at least full-er.

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 11:45 am ¶
Janelle wrote:

This is really typical. I’m very sure that this has everything to do with sponsership with the film’s studio. But to me this only means the movement is working and hopefully will only drum up more support….

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 11:50 am ¶
Slush wrote:

Fabulous post.
I didn’t know about Racebending.com.

It looks like Facebook has already taken it back.

But are they going to explain or apologize?

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 11:53 am ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:

Facebook needs to create a filter and ban groups that have “F–K ——-” which fall under categories for race, nationality, religion, or ethnicity. Just a helpful suggestion…

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 12:24 pm ¶
Mike wrote:

Hi folks,

As some have pointed out, Facebook restored the group last night, but with all the settings on “secret” for some reason. We’ve since changed it back.

There was a huge rush of public outcry and support for our group and several dozen members wrote into the Facebook “group suggestions” to ask why the group was taken down.

We never received a response (we never even got a warning) and there was no notification about the ban being rescinded.

One day, the group just wasn’t there – and all the admins got accusatory emails calling us “hateful, threatening, or obscene.”

Then a few days later, after a whole lot of noise from our supporters, the group just popped back into existence with no explanation.

Our cofounder contacted Consumerist.com and they said they’d look into it.

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 12:49 pm ¶
Darth Paul wrote:

That (and their egregious privacy violations) is why I hate Facebook and will never join.

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 1:06 pm ¶
violet wrote:

Paramount probably bought ads with Facebook, and are probably putting pressure on them…once again, Facebook’s not a public service but a corporate entity. And as this post proves, not a very ethical one.

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 1:26 pm ¶
Elton wrote:

Let’s “face” it: Facebook is the establishment. Facebook is not your friend. Facebook is not hip or subversive, and it really never was.

We have a tendency, especially members of the Millennial generation like me, to look at fads and trends on the Internet like Google and Facebook as belonging to us, like our own little inside joke, or a top-secret bit of technology from the future that only the young and “with it” know about and are able to use.

The fact is that these are giant corporations controlled by an extremely wealthy elite who do not have your interests in mind. Their main goal is to make more money, not to subvert the establishment, or to make cool tools that rule. They are the establishment.

Now, there’s nothing inherently evil about corporations, and I would be a hypocrite not to point out that all of my computer equipment, Internet service, even my clothes, all come from corporations. But we need to be smart and aware of what we’re really dealing with here. Facebook, and, increasingly, the entire Internet, is not a place free of influence from government and corporate interests. The governments and corporations that control the Internet want you to think you are acting of your own free will when you use their free services, but you are just little hamsters running in wheels provided by Corporation, Inc., powering their money generators. In a figurative way, the Internet is the Matrix. We think we are free because they want us to think we are free. In reality, we are trapped. The Matrix has you.

I hope that is the most conspiracy theory-ish I will ever get. I really didn’t want to sound like one of those stupid tinfoil-hat-types who think “the goverment’s spying on you, man.” I love corporations, and I love the government. They may not do a good job of running the world, but at least they run the world. But we should never forget that for better or worse, we, the masses, have our place, which is not to question the system or to have freedom, control, or power beyond our designated cages.

One can have a pretty good life within a cage, I think. To rattle the cage, or to break it and escape, would be suicide.

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 2:28 pm ¶
Azizi wrote:

Thanks Racialicious for sharing information about the Racebending.com facebook group and facebook administration’s troubling (and as it turned out temporary) ban of that group. As a result of your publicity of that story, I just became a fan of that group. And then I realized I hadn’t yet become a fan of Racialicious, and so I also took that step.

Regarding Elton’s post that facebook is part of the corporate Matrix, I agree. And because of that I resisted starting a facebook page until this past December. But I concluded that it could be worthwhile to use free webspace in ways that may not have been intended by those who set up that free space. So instead of social chit chat and hitting people with pillows (or whatever aps are hot now), on my facebook page cocojams jambalayah I post music/dance YouTube video gems, mostly but not exclusively from African American cultures and other Black cultures around the world. And I encourage discussion about those videos and help facilitate other cultural sharing-as well as social sharing- among people who’ve met each other on facebook.

As it happens, one of the featured videos that I’m showcasing today (on facebook and on my website which also showcases music/dance video gems) is
Labi Siffre – “Something Inside So Strong”. Here’s my website’s link to that re-posted YouTube video:
http://www.jambalayah.com/node/493.

For those who aren’t aware, Labri Siffre is a mixed race Black Briton. And “Something Instead So Strong” could be one of the theme songs for the craziness that facebook took Racebending.com through:

“The more you refuse to hear my voice
The louder I will sing
You hide behind walls of Jericho
Your lies will come tumbling
Deny my place in time
You squander wealth that’s mine
My light will shine so brightly
It will blind you
Cause something inside so strong.
Something inside so strong.”…

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 3:13 pm ¶
urbia wrote:

As far as I’m concerned, the ‘elites’ have only arranged themselves the privilege of having front-row tickets to the show of seeing activists defy their wishes and interests. They can monitor all they want, it’s not like they can stop what they don’t like from happening.

“One can have a pretty good life within a cage, I think. To rattle the cage, or to break it and escape, would be suicide.”

This gave me a chuckle for its vaguely victim-blaming tone, though perhaps it’s not what you intended. One can turn it around and suggest that to anger the masses by suggesting we have a ‘place’ would be suicide for them. After all, if they’re so all-powerful, why be all Matrix-like and vague? Why can’t they just come out and say what they want to say to our faces? I look around myself and see that the intelligent commenter on this blog have no qualms saying things ‘to their face,’ if they’re monitoring us like it’s suggested.

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 5:38 pm ¶
urbia wrote:

*commentors

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 5:38 pm ¶
michelle wrote:

Here is another facebook group called “grad school bitches” which uses racism to get its misogynist message across:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=411962429464

Of course, it is all framed as a grand “joke”. I pointed out the racism and misogyny to a friend of the creator, and predictably, her chosen response was to call me a “bitch”.

sigh.

Posted 17 Mar 2010 at 7:31 pm ¶
jk wrote:

Well, first of all, I don’t use Facebook because I think it’s stupid.

Second of all, why are any of us surprised? “The man” (be that the govnt or hollywood or corporations) will always flog the little ppl who dare to speak up.

RIght now, I know all about being the little person under the thumb of some faceless, heartless organization. (don’t we always wonder why it seems like the REAL bad guys can get away with anything and everything while us little people get @ss raped for the tiniest mistake?)

In conclusion, I won’t be watching Airbender and I hope other people won’t either (though I doubt it because asian-american causes rarely garner any support)

personally, I think the group was banned bc hollywood pressured facebook to eliminate anyone who might threaten their bottom line.\
\

Posted 18 Mar 2010 at 12:37 am ¶
Aman wrote:

Truly awesome..
This has created more communities and decreased the humanity effect one should have.

Posted 18 Mar 2010 at 6:26 am ¶
nemogbr wrote:

I was part of “Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women’s group”, an Indian women’s rights group, with over 60,000+ members. The group Admin’s password was cracked and the group information was changed to make it the complete opposite of the original intent. We all complained to the FB team, but instead of restoring the real admins, they deleted the group.

Hilary Clinton’s FB group page encountered a similar problem and the FB team restored the group, but since the group was based in India, it wasn’t seen as of any importance.

Posted 18 Mar 2010 at 8:00 am ¶
Perpetual Explosion wrote:

I’m angry at the backlash against racebenders. On every Youtube video about the subject, there is a backlash by inexplicably irate fanboys and fangirls, who can’t, for the life of them, see what’s wrong about the casting, and furthermore, are incensed that someone dares harsh on their squee. A standard post goes “fuck u racebenders get a lief y cant u leave ma movie alone!!!1″ Central to their arguments, when arguments are actually presented, is that the casting directors based their decisions purely on talent, and that the best actors just happened to be white. What makes me want to vomit is the reason they are able to say this: because there aren’t enough POC characters in TV or movies, and non-white actors often get shoehorned into stereotypical roles. It’s a perfect racist tautology: it is assumed that Asians can’t lead a movie, because so few people have seen them do so, because Asian actors are often shoehorned into stereotypical roles, based on the assumption that Asians can’t lead a movie, because so few people have seen them do so, and so on and so forth, in a perpetual, self-feeding loop of stupidity.

Posted 20 Mar 2010 at 1:30 am ¶
Aiyo wrote:

I just hope Last Airbender bombs and does really bad like Dragonball. Bunch of stupidness.

Of course the group got banned because it spoke out against racism and speaking out against racism is racist but making joke racist facebook group are a joke and if you don’t get the racist joke you need to lighten up SMH.

I don’t care that facebook put the group back up becasue they shouldn’t have banned it in the first place.

That is just some freshly squeezed bull crap

Posted 20 Mar 2010 at 7:22 pm ¶
urbia wrote:

@Aiyo

“Of course the group got banned because it spoke out against racism and speaking out against racism is racist but making joke racist facebook group are a joke and if you don’t get the racist joke you need to lighten up SMH.”

It doesn’t make sense, does it. Apparently the cause-effect patterns are lost to those people, and everything has been simplified to, ‘if you’re white, you get to describe yourself with all the positive attribute and actions, and if you’re POC, you’ve got all the negative attributes and your actions are the result of bad motivations,’ on like every subject under the sun.

Posted 21 Mar 2010 at 11:41 am ¶