The use of social media as a tool to educate against xenophobia

The use of social media as a tool to educate against xenophobia

An angry crowd at the Alexander township

Xenophobia is prejudice against people from other countries living  in South Africa.why so much hatred ?. Dozens of people have lost their lives because of not considered as being South African citizen. South Africa has dealt with this epidemic for so many years ,yet still people choose to discriminate based of somebody looking different, their personal values, religion of choice, nationality and the language they speak. Foreign nationals leaving South Africa .This has led to people living in fear especially those that come from other African countries such as Angola, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Nigeria etc. Due to the growing social media influence, Xenophobia attacks have grown from just being an Ethical issue ,to an economic and financial crisis,because foreigners are labeled as people who are here to still jobs from South Africans.

foreign National saying No to Xenophobia

 Stereotyping on social media has been one of the common perpetrator of these attacks. People will post stereotyped information on the social media platform in order to influence the audience to either treat other people differently because they are from other countries and because they look a certain way,  or even perpetrate  abuse towards them.Example of a common stereotype, people associate Nigerian people, as people who are criminals and drug dealers,People will therefore spread untrue information and people tend to believe those stereotypes without even checking for valid facts.

Houses Bunt down in Diepsloot Township

The social media however also has its impact as people grew heavily relying on social media to gain new knowledge and information.Information that people get from social media ,they tend to believe it so much to an extend that it shapes their thinking and reasoning towards things and people around them. It is through the media that we learn most of what we know or believe we know about social world and world politics.Caught on Camera

Stereotyping in the media has caused much more damage than what we are aware of. Even though it creates an opportunity to have an open communication but still some people choose to use it as a tool to dehumanize other people.Dealing with Xenophobia

Police shooting at the protesting group of people

The advantage of social media has been that its tool to enhanced information, by education those who don’t understand what xenophobia is about. Social media allows people to discuss issues around racial discrimination and xenophobia, whereby the audience can ask questions and share links that educate our society about what xenophobia is? and how to dealt with discrimination  anywhere in the world. This platform provides an opportunity to widen the xenophobic information and teaches us how to accept and get along well with each other as a society.Where to from here?

Camps for the attacked victims

Recommendation on the use of social media for this campaign, people must use social media to educate the audience about the issue at hand not to perpetrate hate speech. You can use social media to get feedback regarding the issue at hand because everything you publish becomes public information and things can get out of control.