Last month, the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence launched its own social networking site. The officially named Community of Excellence is known as Black Fella Facebook by its users. Targeted exclusively at young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the site allows youths to share their goals and aspirations and to indicate their support for each other’s posts using a ‘Respect’ button. I really like that the inspiration came from the community and that the Aboriginal youth were consulted in the design process. Who else could design a system to meet the community needs?
I am also impressed to learn that a large non-indigenous organisation like Telstra (through the Telstra Foundation) would commit their resources to developing such a complex tool without, as far as I can tell, trying to influence the design.
I question the NCIE’s statement that this is a new era of digital inclusion, because non-indigenous Australians like me are not invited to join, but this is not a complaint. The service is not designed for me. One day, if it works well, there may be similar respect-based, goal-oriented tools made available for all Australians, but for now, I respect that black fellas want a facebook of their own.
I think this is a bad thing. This shows the need to be isolated from the rest of society. The thing that is usually frowned upon when it doesn’t work in their favor. I would think that if Australians did something similar it would be considered to be a racist thing, especially if the others aren’t encouraged to join.
Anytime a group is constructed and isolates itself from the rest it has to expect the bad that comes with the good. Otherwise the groups has to be open and inclusive of anyone that is interested and encourage that interaction with outside influences.
Either it needs to be acceptable that everyone can have isolated grouping that doesn’t not encourage outside influence or all groups need to open themselves to anyone interested in interacting with them.
Probably bad wording but you get the gist I’m sure 🙂
I think that if this continues as an isolated system, it shows one of two things. The first, and the major reason that it was created in the first place, is that the ‘inclusive’ facebook is not working for them. They set this up because they were getting bullied on facebook. So are children of every race, but members of majority groups have more sources for rebuilding identity and self-esteem.
The other reason it might remain closed is because it has failed. If it works well enough at building respect among Aborigines, helping them gain confidence in themselves and each other, then I hope that it will be opened up (gradually) to non-indigenous people who want a safe place to network socially. Alternatively, it will inspire an inclusive equivalent or the people who use this tool will move back to inclusive sites when they’re comfortable.
In either case, I have no problem with exclusion in moderation. If I want a safe refuge, I can go home and lock my door. I can choose who I let in. We do the same as a country. If gay and lesbian people set up a site where they can hang out and discuss their sexual preferences without being harassed, would you complain? If Rugby fanatics created a site only for footy fans, would the rest of us be upset? I think not.