Rhizome Experiment, Fall 2015

Race and the Social Machine

     The machine, as many modernly see it, is a subset of technology: a physical, mechanical unit used for doing or producing.  Guattari and the like, however, look past the modern misconceptions and propose that technology is truly a subset of the machinic concept, and the machine in its broadest sense is a culmination of many parts working together.  This includes not only technological interactions, but also human and social interactions.  In an effort to achieve some level of power, humans try to control these interactions in order to create and utilize new machinic assemblages.
     This same concept of social interactions and the control of them can be applied to race.  In a society composed of many parts (individuals) working together to create a greater being, society and culture, racism has been created through the control and manipulation of certain human interactions.  Race itself was established by pointing out difference and creating a power dynamic. 
     In modern society, relationships and interactions are controlled and manipulated to highlight racial difference and perpetuate the racism established in early American history.  By examining social and technological machines, we can examine how race itself is made visible and perpetuated.  
 

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