Name: Holly Baumann

Social Justice Group: Technology: Online Radicalization

Date of Fieldwork: January 13, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On Friday, January 13th at 12:30, me and my group met with Kalil in his office to interview him. Kalil is LREIs Director of Equity and Community, and his jobs is to make sure LREI stays diverse, and he uses his expert knowledge around diversity and community to make sure everyone feel comfortable in the schools environment. In our interview with him, we decided to focus on how online radicalization affects minorities, who they try to recruit (and why), and how lots of time, people in these hate groups (like the proud boys) are parading their harmful view and ideals in plain sight, and acting upon violent endeavors.

In the interview, we discussed a bit about white victimization, and what Kalil defined it as. We also talked about who is targeted by these hate groups. The general people they look for are young boys that they find in video game chat rooms. The reason for this is young boys tend to be vulnerable or feel misunderstood, so members of these hate groups try to manipulate them into joining their groups.

We learned a lot in our interview with Kalil, and we’re excited to apply the information we learned to our project.