An 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.