Cybertypes Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet

Examining internet advertising, role-playing games, chat rooms, cyberpunk fiction and web design, Nakamura traces the real-life consequences that follow when we attempt to push issues of race and identity on-line.



First published in 2002. In Cybertypes, Lisa Nakamura turn sour assumption that the Net is color-blind on its head. Examining all facets of everyday web-life, she shows that racial and ethnic stereotypes, or 'cybertypes' are hardwired into our online interactions: Identity tourists masquerade in chat rooms as Asian_Geisha or Alatiniolover. Web directories sharply delimit racial categories. Anonymous computer users are assumed to be white. Lively, provocative, Cybertypes takes up computer relationship between race, ethnicity and technology and offers a candid and nuanced understanding of identity in the information age.