Digital Black Feminism
Using the virtual beauty shop as a metaphor, Digital Black Feminism walks readers through the technical skill, communicative expertise, and entrepreneurial acumen of Black women’s labor—born of survival strategies and economic necessity—both on- and offline.
Abstract
Black women are at the forefront of some of this century’s most important discussions about technology: trolling, online harassment, algorithmic bias, and influencer culture. But Black women’s relationship with technology began long before the advent of Twitter or Instagram. To truly “listen to Black women,”Steele points to the history of Black feminist technoculture in the U.S. to decenter white supremacy and patriarchy in the future of technology. Using the virtual beauty shop as a metaphor, Digital Black Feminism walks readers through the technical skill, communicative expertise, and entrepreneurial acumen of Black women’s labor—born of survival strategies and economic necessity—both on- and offline. Digital Black Feminism positions Black women at the center of our discourse about the past, present, and future of technology, offering a through line from the writing of early twentieth-century Black women to the bloggers and social media mavens of the twenty-first century. The blogosphere provided Black feminist writers a unique space to draft principles for a new generation of Black feminist thought, while other online communities offer practical lessons on the praxis of digital Black feminism. Steele makes connections between the letters, news articles, and essays of Black feminist writers of the past and a digital archive of blog posts, tweets, and Instagram stories of some of the most well-known Black feminist writers of our time. As Black feminist writers’ work now reaches its widest audience online, Steele offers hopefulness and caution on Black feminism becoming a product for sale in the digital marketplace.