Using Black Feminist Criminology to examine the tactics of women organizing in the Digital Era

• In Event: Centering Black Women's Lives in the Matter of Justice: Where Do We Go From Here?

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the distinctness of virtual feminisms - specifically how women of color utilize digital technologies for empowerment. To better situate their realities, I employ Black Feminist Criminology and probe the need for a Critical Cyberfeminist framework to examine contemporary mobilization around #BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, and other related movements. Black feminist consciousness is needed to interrogate the potential of cyberfeminist thought which is a construct developed to allow a voice to women who wish to participate in technology on their own terms. By incorporating Black feminism into the techno/cyberfeminist discussion, I envision a critique that could remove the confines of dominate structures in virtual feminisms and dismantle the privileges of Whiteness and masculinity.
Women are employing innovative methods within virtuality and contemporary examples reveal just how ‘savvy’ women can be in their efforts to utilize digital technologies: using narratives and privileging personal stories while blogging; tweeting to organize marches; conducting virtual sit-in’s in real and digital communities; etc. Although re-appropriating technology in these manners is not novel or innovative, what makes their tactics significant is that they have finally been afforded an outlet to participate and have their voices heard.

Author

• Kishonna Gray, Eastern Kentucky University