If you’ve been on any social media site in the past few weeks, you’re no stranger to the newest phenomenon-memes! A meme is a random picture where people usually add a relevant funny caption or saying. Most of the captions have a sarcastic tone, but range in their comedy.
Recently several memes have popped up on tumblr pages, as well as Facebook.
A University of Illinois’ Facebook memes page was created, but instead of getting
laughs, it got a lot of backlash. Once students saw some of the questionable memes poking
fun at racial groups, from African-Americans to Asians, many students took to their comments box to express their hurt.
Kyle Castner was involved in the debate over the memes that were argued as racist. He believes people shouldn’t be so defensive.
“Yeah, a lot of them are offensive, but that’s the internet. It’s free speech, people are going to post whatever they want.”
Some students even went as far as to report the page to Facebook and several petitioned to have the page removed. However, with more than 9,000 likes, and the question of freedom of speech, these students had their work cut out for them.
The Illinois Student Senate got involved as the controversial Facebook page found its way onto their meeting agenda, and they met to vote on whether or not to have the page removed.
Creator of the petition and member of the ISS, Damani Bolten says he’s had memes
made about him.
“They’re hurtful when you see them and you try your best to overlook it. But anything that has a racial undertone to it, there’s some underlying sense of hostility.”
Damani says that his resolution isn’t trying to get the entire page removed, but to bring awareness. Due to the complaints, many of the suggestive memes were removed from the page; however, the ISS voted against the resolution. Many students argued that the ISS didn’t have jurisdiction over the page. Since the Facebook page isn’t sponsored by or affiliated with the U of I, the administration has not gotten involved.
Issues like this help to shed light on a topic that many people are afraid to talk about–race. Whether it’s a joke, or a serious debate, many people are turned off once the conversation about race takes its course. However, if the Facebook memes controversy has taught us anything, it is to just be careful of what we say. While it’s funny to your friends behind closed doors, it’s could be offensive to someone else. If you’re wondering what’s offensive and what’s not, by all means, try to ask someone. If you have a co-worker or classmate of a different race (someone who you’re comfortable enough to approach), ask them what they find offensive. It may seem awkward, but it could help you in the long run. You wouldn’t want to be joking with your boss in the office only to find that you’re the only one laughing