Accountable

The book Accountable, written by Dashka Slater, was published in March 2017. The book's main setting took place at Albany High School. People in town called it Smallbany. It was just under two square miles, bordered by the city of Berkeley to the south and east, the gray-blue waters of the Bay on the west, and the town of El Cerrito to the North. In Albany, there were three elementary schools. One middle school. One high social. Albany was diverse, with many individuals. Issues were occurring in Albany High School. A private Instagram account was created by a high school student. The account started getting popular and intensified with racist memes to make fun of other students. Over time, the situation started alienating students. Soon, no one was safe from the results of the account’s discovery. Social media exposed and exacerbated the racist incident at Albany High by sharing others' lives in a harmful way. Social media platforms bear some responsibility for the spread of hate speech and misinformation. 

Social media both exacerbated and exposed the racist incident at Albany High School by exposing the lives of others without their consent. Andrea and Lydia are best friends at Albany High. In August 2016, the summer before junior year, Andrea stood in her best friend, Lydia’s, tiny bathroom holding a pair of scissors she found in a drawer. There was also a picture of Lolita with a noose, a known racist symbol in America delivers a message: “Be afraid.” Andrea was in Lydia’s room. She stated, “This is me being healthy, she thought. This is me looking how I want to look” (Slater 19). The evidence is significant because it demonstrates how much a post can affect someone mentally and physically. Andrea regretted her hair's appearance and cut it off because of negative comments and posts. A post on social media can have effects where the topic doesn't matter, but when the post's message is directed towards someone, it can make an impact. Andrea’s story shows the perspective of an individual affected by social media. Additionally, many stories were shared and claimed to be hurtful, but not as much as Lolia’s story. For instance, “And worst of all, a picture captioned twinning is winning that showed Lolia and her basketball coach with nooses drawn around their necks” (Slater 30). Although there have been many wicking and unsatisfactory posts, a story with a noose might be worse. Several stories can be for public audiences where the consent of the author is given. But in other stories, they’re private. A noose has significance to someone and could get extreme to the point where there could be incidents upon the post. Nooses are described differently, but in certain situations, a noose can have a great effect. Someone's background story or any story in general matters because it shows who the person is. The statement ‘Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover’ relates to the situation of the book. In conclusion, social media both aggravated and revealed racist incidents at Albany High School by publishing others' life stories without their permission.

Social media should bear a little responsibility for spreading hate speech and misinformation because of how much it affects people targeted in posts. Several account members affected many students at Albany High School in harmful ways. The account followers harmed their classmates in a way that many of the classmates couldn't believe the look on their reactions to the posts. Many of the affected students responded in all kinds of ways. Most of the students responded sadly, knowing they weren’t being characterized as they expected. For instance, a student stated, “Something about people assuming someone was stupid because of their color. Something vague about not trusting people, about thinking you know people and discovering you’re wrong” (Slater 35). This demonstrates the perspective of an affected student. Most of the students didn’t feel valued by their classmates based on the rumors they’d heard and seen. The affected students should have social media bear responsibility for the spread of discrimination and disinformation. The affected students were affected the most based on how much sentiment they felt. They felt sensations like fear and anxiety. Most of the students showed how much they were overblown by their opinions and responses. To add on, another example was claimed, “Roast posts go on your spam account. That’s where you make fun of someone's appearance, usually one of your close friends, by comparing them to something else…” (Slater 41). This evidence is important because an account shouldn't be considered an area where hate is being spread. The members of the account, therefore, had an idea of what kind of roasts accounts consist of but didn’t consider the consequences. The students who controlled the account knew what they wanted to post. Whether the posts on the account were funny, sad, or surprising, the posts were published regardless of how the people being attacked felt. A roast account can be funny in a way if it's not directly directed at someone or something in an offensive way. A first warning is always a good sign to stop or rethink certain outcomes or what might happen later on. Signals and warnings are important because they can provide hints for isolating an ongoing event/habit/consequence. In conclusion, the impacted students should have social media bear a certain amount of responsibility, but should not for the unimpacted students. 

In closing, social media both exacerbated and exposed the racist incident at Albany High School by exposing the lives of others without their consent. Social media should bear a little responsibility for spreading hate speech and misinformation to the affected people, but should not be for the unaffected people. I hope that SRHS and SR, in general, will react to a controversy like this in a mindful way. For example, the SR community is fair and mindful of the student's actions and decisions around campus. Principal Mr. Dominguez has shared presentations where he shares that SRHS is free from hate and is a secure community. The lessons that could be learned are to think before doing something and to be aware of any consequences that can follow a situation. SRHS can do better than Albany High School by possibly checking in on social media school accounts run by students to know what is going on outside of school.