I am currently listening to a podcast on from Black Web 2.0 focusing on race in technology. The panel “Where are the Black bloggers” was hosted by Lynne D Johnson at SXSW. An interesting discussion ensued where a number of opposing and congruent arguments where placed about black representation in the tech space. Even Loren Feldman, who launched a controversial video which instigated this panel, was there to put his point out there.
This panel was exploring why blacks aren’t recognised in America within the tech world. Not being in the US I am a bit thrown as a hardcore fan of Lynne D Johnson, Darla Mack, NerdWith Swag and more recently the shegeek herself Corvida, I know there are lot of black tech bloggers, in fact loads of black bloggers full stop who are writing some good stuff on a weekly (some daily) basis.
Now I am a geek (more observer than programmer). I think if most people had a poke around at my delicious bookmarks, foxmarks or netvibes tabs you would see a heck of a lot of real estate on issues facing technology, mobiles and social media (apart from Robert Scoble. I just don’t get it with him!) So I can stand in a room with tech heads and understand about mashups, ruby on rails, twitter, css, data farms and packet switching and give you the heads up on Mashable, TechCrunch, OmniMedia and Marshall’s ReadWriteWeb. Thing is in this world I often don’t see other black (read Afro Caribbean here in the UK) in this arena at these events or even writing or being part of strong discussions online, which is suprising considering that IT in the UK has a large pull in the afro caribbean professional community in London.
But does it really matter?
Well in a way yeah. Coming out of the podcast conversation there was a comment about a study by Danah Boyd. Race/Ethnicity and parent education differences in Facebook and MySpace usage was an article pointed out to me late last year. In my own experience more black kids and indeed other socio-racial groups in inner city schools I visit tend to be on myspace while more white and asian kids tend to be on Facebook. Although I would not submit my observation as empirical data it also made me question why this is so. Design? Perception? Socio/Economic/Racial Differences? Who knows?
It is not a primary issue for me but does make me think as to whether issues of design and usability do have cultural slants on them. In turn does this make students from such different backgrounds approach social media based on some kind of subconscious affiliation?
I can honestly admit that once upon a time I would enter networking events based on technology and the like thinking why am I the only black person in the room, but now I just get on with it because I came to build relationships and business kudos beyond my colour. Currently in the process of building a social network (both online and offline) it should be interesting to see if my own self talk (or other people’s perceptions) will get in the way of me receiving funding and building a team to progress the idea. The discussion continues……..
Tags: Race, Bloggers, Loren Feldman, Lynne D Johnson, Black Web 2.0
Filed under: Culture
Thanks for posting this David. Good observation and analysis. Only thing I want to correct, Feldman didn’t actually instigate this panel. Not sure you know, but I had alread moderated Blogging While Black as a panel twice before at SXSW and have been on other panels there. I would have done something like this anyway, this year, with or without his video. But I will admit that his video offered another thread for discussion.
Lynne I am honoured for your commentary and clarification.
I am actually planning to haul myself to the next SXSW so watch this space.
Thanks for the mention David.
As for design UI and race…it is an interesting point now that you bring it up. I supposed for those of a lower economic status, Myspace is a representation of the kind of crazy and chaotic world that they live in. Where as those of a high economic status have more order and organization in their life, hence the Facebook design.
That would make a good blog post to explore.
Thanks for the comment’s Corvida.
I think it would be a good point to explore.
Dave, there was an msnbc article out a couple months ago (if not a full year) comparing the respective audiences of Facebook and MySpace. I only recall it vaguely but it might have been based on an academic study. Regardless, the writers considered that Facebook originated at Harvard *for* Harvard students, and only branched out to the rest of the US college crowd after its initial success there. Then it expanded to the international college crowd, then to high schoolers, and only very recently to any and everybody. From the very beginning it’s been an edu-centric portal — and a closed space. Higher ed has always privileged the middle and upper classes, too… MySpace has never had that baggage, and has always been open to the universe. Including the greater section of the universe that is neither college-educated nor necessarily middle-class aspiring.
(As an aside, regular and “home” computer access and familiarity privileges certain classes as well. Can’t discount raw material access to technology as a factor. Also — could be wrong — I *think* FB got into mobile updating first, a move I’d say has expanded its “addictablity”…)
I definitely think the UI design of both sites reflects their origins and market. Almost of all the academics I know prefer FB over MySpace because of design issues: MySpace is not a pretty baby.
Anyway, if you wanna discuss ethnicity and digital access, Adam Banks has an under-reviewed book of essays out called “Race, Rhetoric and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground.” It’s a good start. The Pew Trust’s Technology section probably has some interesting recent reports on tech and social networking use by ethnicity.
Thanks for that Keisha. I am going to go and hunt out that book!
Thanks for the mention David. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the panel, but I was able to pass along my feelings in regards to the topic.
While Lynne has explained that the topic was not prompted by Loren’s ill-attempted video, but in fact it was right on point as far a timing.
My original feelings about Loren’s video was that he pulled the racism card. I have now changed my views on that because in all honesty, if the whole silliness hadn’t started I don’t think I would’ve been known in the black web community. Of course that is just my own opinion and it didn’t start mattering much until this whole thing broke out.
I’ve been blogging for many years and my name has been in many message boards, forums, podcasts and such. I never paid much attention to the fact that in the circles that I traveled when attending conferences and such that I was one of the only (if not only) black persons present. What bothered me more than my race was my gender. What difference did it make what my race was? I didn’t have a problem with that with the communities that I was involved in or represented. What made more of an impact was my gender. However, in the black web community I’m finding that it’s actually harder to break into the realm even if the category or topic is unique.
My final say is this… technology doesn’t have a color and in some aspects of what you do in life it seems harder to break out of the habit of “man vs woman” then “black vs the world”.
hey darla, you are a bit of a legend over here in the UK mobile sphere, so thanks for your commentary here. I think the whole race (and gender) issue are often underplayed and not spoken about openly and honestly.
subconsciously (well according to Malcolm Gladwell anyway) issues of difference do raise their head and I think that whether it’s technology or anything else because people are afraid to talk about it, it just festers under the surface instead of people just talking about it! ho hum…life moves on.
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