While we may think of digitally-mediated racial justice activism as starting with Black Lives Matter, Charlton D. McIlwain shows in his new book Black Software, the story actually spans nearly five decades and involves a varied group of engineers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, journalists, and activists.
McIlwain chronicles the long relationship between African Americans, computing technology, and the Internet. He argues that the forgotten figures who worked to make black politics central to the Internet's birth and evolution paved the way for today's explosion of racial justice activism. From the 1960s to present, the book examines how computing technology has been used to suppress the voices of black people, but also how black people seized these new computing tools to build community, wealth, and wage a war for racial justice. Through first-hand accounts, Black Software centralizes African Americans' role in the Internet's creation and evolution, illuminating both the limits and possibilities for using digital technology to push for racial justice in the United States and across the globe.
Join the SOC Diversity Committee, The DC Chapter of the Internet Society, and the School of Communication for an exciting discussion of Dr. McIlwain’s new book on Thursday, November 14, 2019 from 3-4:30pm in MGC 247.