I write about race and technology, and specifically the histories of Black folks as they influence online activities, from memes and community-building to care networks and activist efforts. I use theory, research, and most importantly lived experiences to tell the story of Black digital practices. The books I choose here represent how diverse my thinking is when it comes to this topic: from fiction to non-fiction, these works are as fluid yet meaningful as I think identity is, on and offline.
I wrote
Black Networked Resistance: Strategic Rearticulations in the Digital Age
I fell in love with this book as a young graduate school student at the University of Iowa. Curled up in my tiny 500-square-foot apartment, I devoured the book, not realizing morning had turned into afternoon and then evening.
At a time in the early 2000s when "serious" scholarship largely included Black people using technology in condescending and pathologizing ways, I read Everett sharply responding with counter-evidence of Black publics' involvement at every turn of media developments.
The book, I remember, made me feel like writing a counter-history that places "us" at the center is not only possible but transformational.
I grew up with Miss Lou, or the famous poet Louise Bennett. With wit and humor that is simply unparalleled, Miss Lou’s writing taught me about the importance of language.
In this collection, Miss Lou shows rather than tells the importance of “labrish” or “gossip”, a quintessential Jamaican practice. While the book, on the surface, isn’t about the Internet, the foregrounding of language, culture, and community here is directly related to the digital practices that I know and love.
This book made me feel hopeful, sad, angry, and most of all, secure, knowing that it was okay for me–and others like me–to hold all of that and let it go.
This is a steamy tale of vulnerability and betrayal. Struggling in her marriage, her new life in England, and her work in a hospice, Canadian-born Lindsey is drawn to her best friend's attractive husband, David.
Guilt about her fascination with David is complicated by her admiration for his wife, Grace,…
As a young Black and West Indian academic and, importantly, an avid early Twitter user, I finally saw myself in the world of nonfiction works about technology when I first read this book.
Before I even got through the introduction, I dog-eared every other page and ran out of room in the margins for my notes (most of which included an embarrassing number of exclamation points on my part). Digital Black Feminism’s wit and historical heft weaves through multi-generational negotiations with Black feminism and beautifully writes Black women’s contributions back into existence.
Winner, Diamond Anniversary Book Award, awarded by the National Communication Association
Winner, 2022 Nancy Baym Book Award, given by the Association of Internet Researchers
Traces the longstanding relationship between technology and Black feminist thought
Black women are at the forefront of some of this century's most important discussions about technology: trolling, online harassment, algorithmic bias, and influencer culture. But, Catherine Knight Steele argues that Black women's relationship to technology began long before the advent of Twitter or Instagram. To truly "listen to Black women," Steele points to the history of Black feminist technoculture in the United States and its ability…
I bought this book thinking it would be a whimsical read and a fun departure from my non-fiction, academic world. Fast forward a few years, and I have consistently used this book in my teaching of university students in my Digital Cultures classes.
The book might not seem like it’s about the Internet, but the spiritual, inter-generational elements of the story are easily connected to the hopeful stories we see time and again of Black folks online.
'One of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I haven't felt this way since I first read Beloved . . .' Oprah Winfrey
Lose yourself in the stunning debut novel everyone is talking about - the unmissable historical story of injustice and redemption that resonates powerfully today
Hiram Walker is a man with a secret, and a war to win. A war for the right to life, to family, to freedom.
Born into bondage on a Virginia plantation, he is also born gifted with a…
From Kirkus Reviews: "This debut short-story collection paints the wistful life of a newspaper journalist as seen through his sexual and romantic encounters...
Throughout, Hickok writes in an assured style, pulling readers along. The narrow sexual focus results in a distorted picture, yet other aspects of Art's life emerge at…
Everyone has that one book that is the I-can’t-put-this-down book. Race After Technology was that book for me.
Ruha Benjamin writes in a way that is so down to earth, tackling heavy subjects like algorithms, systemic racism, and more in a way that is somehow accessible, scholarly, and whippingly smart all in one.
From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce White supremacy and deepen social inequity.
Benjamin argues that automation, far from being a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, has the potential to hide, speed up, and deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to the racism of a previous era. Presenting the concept of the "New Jim Code," she shows how a range of discriminatory designs encode inequity by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies; by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions; or by…
It is about Black folks engaging in online activities that are often passed off as insignificant. My inquiry into ‘non-traditional’ resistance strategies meant taking seriously, for example, "Karen" memes as pushing back against centuries of white supremacy and vitriol wrapped in the form of protecting white womanhood and, thus, the nation. It meant taking seriously care and the ways Black women show up for each other online, even when their needs are not prioritized.
The book was also an opportunity for me to wrestle with the concept of "resistance," as some would argue, is overdetermined. Ultimately, it’s a scholarly journey meant for us to see joy and resistance in the same conversation through the diversity and brilliance of Black networks on and offline.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
