Explorations of Anti-Blackness and Black Life in Computer Science Spaces

• In Event: The Role of Emergent Technologies in Equitable Futures: Navigating Between Entrenched Injustices and Expansive Possibilities

Abstract

The future is made in present moments. Our vision and actions can shift timelines towards more just futures for all people. Technology has occupied many people’s imaginaries of progression and the future. Yet, technology is not devoid of values. Our research explores the relationship between anti-Blackness and learning in computer science education (Jones, melo, 2021). In this session, we broadly explore historical anti-Blackness and learning in STEAM, aiming to understand how we might use technology towards more liberatory learning and living. Anti-Black racism, also called anti-Blackness, involves both targeted and subtle discrimination and dehumanization against those of African descent. For example, facial recognition technology used to identify people accused of crimes often misrecognizes people of African descent, leading to false arrests (Benjamin, 2019). In other cases, those traveling in airports are discriminated against for their names because names are also racialized (Benjamin, 2019). In understanding the history of anti-Blackness in CS, the field might be able to envision better how we can build and learn with technology in new ways.
In recent years there has been a call to attend to power and privilege within the Learning Sciences (Esmonde, Booker, 2017), which opened up further exploration of critical theorist perspectives on learning. One such theory we explore is BlackCrit, which illuminates a specificity to be desired when understanding how anti-Black racism has historically and presently played a role in education, including CS education (Dumas & ross, 2016). Our ontological views on Blackness shape the world we live in currently and the worlds we dream and work towards building for future generations. For this symposium we focus on the question, What is the role of desire for STEAM practitioners in building futures that support Black Life? This is explored through first an interview study with Black STEAM practitioners, investigating questions of desire, Black Life, and their current STEAM practices. We center the Black Desire based framework (Coles, 2021) and BlackCrit (Dumas & ross, 2016) in my analysis in this symposium. Black Desire work builds on Tuck and Yang’s conceptualization of Desire Based Research, but adds specificity to counter anti-Blackness. Black Desire as a lens allows us to look at the data for evidence of refusing disposability, seeing the Black community for their abundance of genius, Black joy, acknowledging oppressive structures to see beyond them, and engaging in confrontation with anti-Blackness (Coles, 2021).
In particular, we hope that this analysis grounds us in the idea of educational possibilities built on collective envisioning. This work serves as a model for deeply understanding anti-Blackness within the CS context. We consider what ways of knowing are traditionally privileged and how this work serves as a positive disruption.

Authors

• Stephanie T. Jones, Northwestern University

• Marcelo A.B. Worsley, Northwestern University