Ryan RandallSep 22, 2023

Dr. André Brock's Baker Lecture on #Black #technoculture is starting off right now!

Even if you can't attend all of it, they'll send out recordings to registered participants. #libraries #critLib #CulturalStudies

https://sites.google.com/view/bakerlectures/baker-diversity-series/dr-andr%C3%A9-brock

Dr. André Brock

How does Blackness manifest in Western technoculture? Technoculture is our modern ideology; our world structured through our relationships with technology and culture. Once enslaved, historically disenfranchised, and never deemed literate, Blackness is understood as the object of Western technical

Show threadRyan Randall
Dr. Brock's "Black Cyberculture: Black Joy and Digital Blackface" talk today will look at both Black joy online and how non-Black people use Blackness online.
Sep 22, 2023 at 7:08pmWeb
Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023

Dr. Brock pairs a reading of _The Negro Motorist Green-Book_ and _Lovecraft Country_.

Describes the Green Book as the first Black-authored network, a search engine providing crucial information for Black motorists.

Lovecraft Country also shows how the interstate highway promises universal access, but ends up exposing Black folks to white supremacy and discrimination.

And Dr. Brock likens the interstate highway to the internet, a subsequent but similar network.

Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023

Did I mention that Dr. Brock recently published a book, _Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures_, which explores similar topics?

https://bookshop.org/p/books/distributed-blackness-african-american-cybercultures-andre-brock-jr/10817823

Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023

Now discussing Afro-optimism / Black optimism, and how this can be perceived through Black use of gifs or other moments of joy online.

One example is a Black interpreter of American Sign Language—apparently famous on TikTok—interpreting a rap song that's got rather profane lyrics / a "ratchet" performance.

Notes that Black Sign Language has important differences from ASL, particularly with respect to modes of embodiment. (I personally can't say how much the interpreter's bringing in BSL in this video… I'd also add that from what I understand, the variations between BSL & ASL are also an artifact of segregated schools for the Deaf.)

Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023

Afro-Optimism argues that Blackness isn't pathological, isn't social death, isn't the negation of sociality.

It's the celebration of Black thought in the middle of modernity and capitalism mining Blackness for profit.

Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023
Now touching on the hashtag #BlackGirlMagic and cites CaShawn Thompson in 2014 as starting that tag, moving that sense of being online. https://cashawn.com/
CaShawn Thompson – The mother of #BlackGirlMagic

Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023

Did I mention that Dr. Brock's book is also   #openaccess
https://opensquare.nyupress.org/books/9781479811908/

(…but between me, you, and all these other Mastodon readers—if you can buy a print copy, I imagine Dr. Brock would appreciate seeing some author royalties from NYU Press.)

Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures

[Open Access] Winner, 2021 Harry Shaw and Katrina Hazzard-Donald Award for Outstanding Work in African-American Popular Culture Studies, given by the Popular Culture AssociationWinner, 2021 Nancy Baym Annual Book Award, given by the Association of Internet ResearchersAn explanation of the digital practices of the black Internet From BlackPlanet to #BlackGirlMagic, Distributed Blackness places blackness at the very center of internet culture. André Brock Jr. claims issues of race and ethnicity as inextricable from and formative of contemporary digital culture in the United States. Distributed Blackness analyzes a host of platforms and practices (from Black Twitter to Instagram, YouTube, and app development) to trace how digital media have reconfigured the meanings and performances of African American identity. Brock moves beyond widely circulated deficit models of respectability, bringing together discourse analysis with a close reading of technological interfaces to develop nuanced arguments about how “blackness” gets worked out in various technological domains. As Brock demonstrates, there’s nothing niche or subcultural about expressions of blackness on social media: internet use and practice now set the terms for what constitutes normative participation. Drawing on critical race theory, linguistics, rhetoric, information studies, and science and technology studies, Brock tabs between black-dominated technologies, websites, and social media to build a set of black beliefs about technology. In explaining black relationships with and alongside technology, Brock centers the unique joy and sense of community in being black online now.

Open Square: NYU Press
Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023

Now discussing alternatives to Twitter, and how it's effectively a digital diaspora to other platforms.

(Dr. Brock describes a handful of alternatives… and my gloss on this description is in Dr. Brock's opinion, none of the platforms are truly robust enough for general users for various ways. Briefly mentions Mastodon, Bluesky, Spoutible, maybe another one or two that I missed.)

Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023

(There's IMHO no good reason for another person—presumably white, like I am—to ask how white people can be a good ally after this talk. That's… that's not what this discussion is about at all.)

Good answers from Dr. Brock, all the same!

1) Listen.
2) If you're white, speak up _in the moment_ to create a coalition when you see things going wrong. For instance, if you're an academic, and you notice that a Black colleague—especially a Black woman—says something and is met with silence, but her insights are later repeated by a white man & met with praise? Point that out, in the moment! Don't just commiserate with her privately later.

Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023
Dr. Brock wraps up by adding that another aspect of Black optimism is understanding that every fight ain't your fight. Picking and choosing is a way to keep moving.
Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023
Finally, here's one of Dr. Brock's web pages, where you can learn about or read more of his work: https://www.criticalracedigitalstudies.com/people/andre
André Brock — Center for Critical Race + Digital Studies

Associate Professor, Literature, Media & Communication Georgia Institute of Technology

Center for Critical Race + Digital Studies
Show threadcyborgneticzSep 22, 2023
@ryanrandall quick question I've only seen BSL mean British Sign Language, is that the acronym regularly used for Black Sign Language as well?
Show threadRyan RandallSep 22, 2023
@Cyborgneticz Good question—I don't know! Dr. Brock didn't use it… I used it just trying to type fewer letters.
Show threadcyborgneticzSep 22, 2023
@ryanrandall Ooh ok