Race in Digital Space

Race in Digital Space: A National Conference on Race and New Media Technologies

Cyberspace has been represented as a race-blind environment, yet our everyday encounters with race have consequences–both “inside and outside the box.” Although most discussions of the “digital divide” have tended to erase the numerous contributions of minority artists, activists, entrepreneurs, journalists, and scholars, this conference celebrates those accomplishments, while situating them against the backdrop of the challenges we still must confront in order to insure equal access to information technologies. What cultural and social baggage do we carry into the digital domain? How does the “race” for connectivity, access, and linkage relate to other races for visibility and equal opportunity? How are communities tackling political and economic inequalities in order to bridge the “digital divide”? How have minority communities deployed digital tools to comment on digital culture, to reconfigure the history of racism, and to claim a more powerful voice in shaping the future? Racism affects all Americans and so we are bringing together speakers of many different races and backgrounds to share their experiences and offer their solutions.