Although young people think it's wrong to use racist and sexist slurs online, they don't take offense when they seem them, according to a poll conducted by the Associated Press.
Based on the poll, which was conducted in collaboration with NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV, a majority of young people between the ages 14 and 24 said that when they see derogatory words and images online targeting various groups, they often dismiss the material as not meant to be hurtful or a joke. The poll was conducted online Sept. 27-Oct. 7 among a random national sample of 1,297 young people.
The most frequent target is people who are overweight, followed by gay people, African Americans and women.
"Most of the time they're just joking around, or talking about a celebrity," Jeff Hitchins, a white 24-year-old in Springfield, Pa., told the AP. "Hate speech is becoming so commonplace, you forget where the words are coming from, and they actually hurt people without even realizing it."
Vito Calli, 15, said he believes insulting groups of people are wrong, but when he encounters derogatory material online he usually brushes it off.
"I see things like that all the time," Calli of Reading, Pa. said. "It doesn't really bother me unless they're meaning it to offend me personally.
"Even then he tries to brush it off," according to the AP. Calli, whose family emigrated from Argentina, said people online direct jokes about Latinos to him.
This is not uncommon. According to the poll, many say they aren't very offended by slurs in social media or cellphone text messages, even inflammatory terms like "bitch" or "fag" or the N-word are used.
However, like Calli, most young people think using offensive language against a group of people is wrong.
In comparison to an AP-MTV poll distributed two years ago, young people today are more disapproving of using slurs online. About half of those surveyed in 2011, said using discriminatory words or images is not acceptable, even if it was meant to be a joke. That figure climbed up to sixty percent.
Now, a bare majority say it's wrong to use slurs even among friends who know you don't mean it. In the previous poll, most young people said that was OK.
Maria Caprigno, 18, of Norwood, Mass., who has struggled with obesity since childhood, said it hurts when she sees mean images or posts about overweight people. She said online activity reflects the rest of U.S. society.
"It's still socially acceptable to comment on someone's weight and what someone is eating," Caprigno told the AP. "We need to change that about our culture before people realize posting stuff like that online is going to be offensive to someone."
The poll also revealed that young people said they were less likely to ask someone to stop using hurtful language on a social networking site than face to face.
"I try to call some of my friends out on it but it's really to no avail," Erick Fernandez, 22, of West New York, N.J. told the AP. "They brush it off and five minutes later something else will come out. Why even bother?"
