Black Technological Thought in the Civil Rights Era

• In Event: Affective, Ecological, and Technological Entanglements in Education

Abstract

Although scholars have examined various conditions of inequality concerning education and technology, the inverse relationship between American progress and Blackness has not been sufficiently addressed. Instead, interventions have focused on increasing technological access for disadvantaged students, as well as multicultural education in STEM, and innovative learning activities that align with workforce development. In this paper, I examine Black intellectual approaches to technology during the Civil Rights era. I intend to highlight Black people’s active involvement in the technology revolution, and more importantly, on how they deciphered their relegated statuses in dominant discourses around technology, education, and society. I propose that their thoughts and practices could provide a way for us to envision alternative ways to practice humanistic alternative technological futures.

Author

• Anabella Afra Boateng, New York University