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Technology and the Black Experience

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        Through explorations of the development of technology, the role of and effects on race are all too often ignored. As stated by Bruce Sinclair in Technology and the African-American Experience, “the history of race in America has been written as if technologies scarcely existed, and the history of technology as if it were utterly innocent of racial significance” (de la Pea 2). This implies that there is an interaction and relationship worthy of being explored between race and new technologies.
       From the foundation of the United States, race has been an issue founded on the desire of white men for power and economic stability. Through time, the “hierarchy” of races has been re-established and strengthened with changes in society and institutions. Furthermore, “an analysis of material technologies allows us to observe how the very category of “race” is made visible and legitimated.” We see this relationship in the examination of new technologies, and the use of technologies in racial movements. From X-rays in the early 1900’s to Social Media in the modern Black Lives Matter movement, a strong tie is seen between changes in technology and the black experience.
       Through the majority of the 20th century, technologies were designed with the white user in mind, as we see through marketing strategies and campaigns, even in the modern day, showing and targeting only white families. As we have transitioned to a more tolerant and open society, technologies are being angled toward black communities, yet the problems of inequality and prejudices still hold. It is not the end user of the technologies that create racial tension, but the use of technologies as a tool to highlight difference.

This page has paths:

  1. Race and the Social Machine Stephanie Wiehe

Contents of this path:

  1. Black Women in the Bell System
  2. Bleaching the Ethiopian: the threat of blackness becoming white
  3. Reproductive and Medical Technologies in Defining Racial Distinction

This page has tags:

  1. Social Power Stephanie Wiehe
  2. Black Twitter and Social Media Morgan Rodgers
  3. Machine Learning Zheqing Zhu
  4. Race Anna Quinn
  5. Power Dynamics Anna Quinn
  6. Social Relations Chloe Lewis
  7. Stephanie Wiehe Stephanie Wiehe
  8. Difference Chloe Lewis