White Girls Club?

White Girls Club might sound like something that would have been around before the civil rights movement, not a club started in 2013 by high school girls from New Jersey. I was appalled by the use of social media to spread racially heated messages between club members at Franklin High School. The fascinating sociological aspect to this hate tweeting group bearing the tag #wgc, is that they went public with messages that are incriminating in a high school setting. Fortunately a growing number of schools and counselors including Franklin, are required to create policies dictating social media use. The girls that formed the club and several other students linked to the group were investigated for counts of bullying and intimidation and found guilty. All students involved were required to go to counseling and their parents were encouraged to attend as well. Cases like this reinforce the need to be absolutely clear when creating social media policy. Propaganda of this nature will then be penalized and hopefully the repercussions will involve educating those creating such abuses and holding them accountable for their actions.

After reading this article I wondered about the general racist attitude towards African Americans that these students have developed. I am personally concerned about how our hyper connected world and evident stereotyping in the media trickles down from new sources to parents to their children. Stereotyping happens to every race and ethnic background if you look for it and at the same time it seems that media influences these perceptions faster then ever and potentially for longer, as you can still Google things long after they have been "forgotten." In the case of the #wgc, we  will not know if media had a big influence in these girls actions as we are not privy to what will be discussed with these students in their counseling sessions. We may not hear what happens when they return to school and how they interact with students of different ethnic backgrounds after their individual therapy sessions. I am reminded that I have the power in how I use social media to speak up against discussion that negatively focuses on race and stereotyping against any group of people. Those girls from Jersey can flip their three fingers over from a W to make the letter M. Standing for maybe they should have that about this a little more.