Black Software, Charlton D. McIlwain
Black Software, Charlton D. McIlwain
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Black Software
The Internet & Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter

Author: Charlton D. McIlwain

Narrator: Leon Nixon

Unabridged: 10 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/14/2020


Synopsis

Activists, pundits, politicians, and the press frequently proclaim today's digitally mediated racial justice activism the new civil rights movement. As Charlton D. McIlwain shows in this book, the story of racial justice movement organizing online is much longer and varied than most people know.

Beginning with the simultaneous rise of civil rights and computer revolutions in the 1960s, McIlwain, for the first time, chronicles the long relationship between African Americans, computing technology, and the Internet. In turn, he argues that the forgotten figures who worked to make black politics central to the Internet's birth and evolution paved the way for today's explosion of racial justice activism. From the 1960s to present, the book examines how computing technology has been used to neutralize the threat that black people pose to the existing racial order, but also how black people seized these new computing tools to build community, wealth, and wage a war for racial justice. Through archival sources and the voices of many of those who lived and made this history, Black Software centralizes African Americans' role in the Internet's creation and evolution, illuminating both the limits and possibilities for using digital technology to push for racial justice in the United States and across the globe.

About Charlton D. McIlwain

Charlton D. McIlwain is vice provost of faculty engagement and development at New York University, and professor of media, culture, and communication at NYU's Steinhardt School. He is also the founder of the Center for Critical Race & Digital Studies, and coauthor of Race Appeal: How Candidates Invoke Race in U.S. Political Campaigns, winner of the 2012 APSA Ralph Bunche Award.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emma on August 17, 2020

A must read for anyone in the software or tech industry. McIlwan busts the myth that the web has always been a white male nerd colony and takes us through the remarkable story of engineers, programmers, business people and hobbyists who fought to build a place for Black folks on the internet and fos......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on February 21, 2021

i think everyone working in tech, esp born after like.. 1997, should read this -- puts lots of history I didn't know at all (early tech industry, early internet) in context w black tech history. the oral history-style exposition of the first half was also refreshing and simply fascinating. some argu......more

Goodreads review by Ivan on March 21, 2021

a must read for anyone entering the tech sector in this day and age. McIlwain brings a narrative angle towards a historical event that shows EXACTLY how forgotten some of the giants in tech have been forgotten and the importance of the Afronet in the early ages of the web.......more

Goodreads review by colin on January 30, 2021

A lot of standout moments in this book, which chronicles the often overlooked history of black contributions to the development of the internet and the field of computer science. It also provides some great background into the history of racial injustice and the development of technology in the 20th......more

Goodreads review by Robin on January 24, 2021

Ik had het heel graag een interessant boek gevonden, helaas was het dat niet. Het idee van het boek sprak me heel erg aan, maar jammer genoeg weet het boek de belofte niet in te lossen. De verhalen die verteld worden zijn niet erg interessant, de schrijfstijl leest niet prettig en de verschillende v......more