Firstly, my association with MySpace has nothing to do with “ghetto” or “minority,” but with the “MySpace scene whore,” an admittedly sexist terms used to describes males or females who participate in some chapter of the underground heavy music scene, are usually white high school or early college suburbanites, dress in glamorized Hot Topic “scene” clothing and hairstyles, pile on make-up, and post lots of high-contrast shots of themselves from the “MySpace angle” (from above, at a slight diagonal) which reveal their cleavage (girl) or bare body with tats (guy).

As already previously mentioned, the majority of Facebook users are not even from the US. Additionally, Facebook’s well-organized profile cells (quotes, groups, pages) make it very easy for me to associate my profile with things like civil rights and social justice movements and groups, etc. This was nigh-on impossible with MySpace, not least of all because of its horrible, horrible layout and user interface.

As far as racial divide on Facebook, I’ve visited fan pages and discussion forums where the users were basically all white and suburban, but I’ve also visited other areas where there was hardly a white poster to be found. So I don’t think even anecdotal evidence supports the idea that minorities don’t use Facebook.

To Gregory A. Butler: I really appreciate your insight and opinion. Thank you for contributing to this discussion; voices of color are obviously integral to these discussions and need to be heard and valued more. However, I must take issue with something you pointed out. The alleged “words for nigger” in other languages you cited are, well, simply not that. The words you cited in Russian and Yiddish(German) simply mean “black.” The same words would be used to literally speak of the color black in any context. The word “moreno” in Spanish is not considered offensive, and is often used as a culturally endearing term. It is used for anyone of darker skin-tone and certainly has nothing to do specifically with Africans or African-Americans. I don’t know any Italian and can’t seem to find any information online on this word, so I can’t weigh in on that.

However, I wish to say that, while other cultures and languages certainly have racist and racially-charged words and attitudes, I do not believe that any term in another language is as storied, charged, complex, or destructive as the English nigger. I am fluent in Czech (my mothertongue), and by extension know a good deal of Slovak, Polish, and Russian, I have learned German in college, and have also studied other languages such as Spanish, French, Arabic, and other to various degrees. I am also a student of linguistics and love informing myself on sociolinguistic issues because of my interests and passion for social justice, equality, and peace. From personal, anecdotal and decent degree of linguistic experience, I can say that nigger cannot be translated into any language of which I know and retain its massive network of implications as it does in American English. Yes, even regular day-to-day words can be used pejoratively in English and other languages, but the N-word is a unique elements of English that is even more unique in its cultural, historical, political, and social contexts in the United States of America. Our history of racism, slavery, and particular denigration of blacks in this country gives this word more power and vitriol than, I believe, is possible anywhere else. For further (and certainly better informed perspectives), check out The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why by Jabari Asim and Nigger – The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word by Randall Kennedy (if you haven’t already read these great volumes; they’re both rather short and pretty easy to come by at the local library).

Also, I must quibble with your statement that “most White Americans are actually quite racist against Blacks (and, to a lesser extent, Latinos).” While I do not agree that many whites in this country are very racist, I also believe that most do not realize it because of the level to which racism has become covert in this country. I don’t believe most whites, racist as many are, would say that they’d rather not live around blacks or Latinos of they had a choice. I believe if they had a choice, they’d just want more blacks and Latinos to “act white” (not that this is any better). Also, numerous reports (example) find that discrimination and racism against Latinos is on the sharp increase and is already possibly more common than outright discrimination against African-Americans. This is, of course, not to in aqny way minimize racism against blacks, but I believe because of our current political situation (i.e. controversy over “illegal aliens” and “the south taking over” etc.), mixed with the fact that Hispanics are not only of different skin color and cultural background, but often speak another language (and sometimes no English), buttressed by general xenophobic ignorance found in American culture, the Latino population can no longer be said to be discriminated against “to a lesser extent.” Even the fact that the vast majority of Latinos are Christian and many established Latino communities in America are actually politically conservative has not saved the Latinos in this country from being the target of hate and racism on a large scale.

“This isn’t about aesthetics, its about function. It’s about the way that oppressed people have been locked out of more functional things in the same way that public rail transport goes to middle class neighborhoods while working class neighborhoods are forced to use slow and inconsistent bus routes.”

JACKPOT.

a) There were more people in my social network who were using Facebook than there were using Myspace, and I found it easier to find and communicate with people I actually knew on that site than on Myspace.

b) Myspace adopted a lot of things reminiscent from geocities homepages…with ugly cutomized backgrounds and themes that take ages to load, and music that begins to automatically play until you find where the stop button is. Not to mention all of the fake profiles, pornbots, spambots and advertisements.

It is interesting that some minor celebrities have emerged from Myspace (But never facebook), like Tila Tequila who ended up getting a T.V. show on MTV. It was pretty “ghetto”.

I also know a ton of people on Myspace (who don’t have facebook) who are rednecks (uneducated, reactionary whites), not “ghetto”. I think it ultimately boils down to facebook attracts more students and college educated people – while Myspace attracts and retains those who have not gone to college, and have social networks consisting more of people who entered straight into the workforce, or leanred a trade after high school.

I could be mistaken, but Facebook also seems to have a more international characteristic.

There is certainly a racial and cultural aspect to those who are on Facebook vs. those who are on Myspace, but I think it is secondary to the underlying economic and technological aspects.

For instance, if I wanted to find an old high school friend of mine who I know didn’t go to university…I’d check on Myspace. If I knew they went to a university, I’d look on Facebook first. It’s just the demographic.