EventFebruary 3 2022

Network Book Forum: Digital Black Feminism

Catherine Knight Steele
hosted by Serena Oduro


On Thursday, February 3rd, Dr. Catherine Knight Steele discussed her new book Digital Black Feminism at Data & Society’s Book Forum Series hosted by Policy Research Analyst, Serena Oduro.

Digital Black Feminism traces the longstanding relationship between technology and Black feminist thought. 

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, Catherine Knight Steele argues that Black women’s relationship to 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 United States and its ability to decenter white supremacy and patriarchy in a conversation about 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. 

 

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Resources

“We need to be mindful of the fact that while we’ve entered this space where everything is become commodified, that includes Black feminists creating themselves as brands and products, and that there is a limit to how far we can go down a path of charging for liberation ideology. We’re charging for radical free thought and if it becomes a good that is for sale, we no longer control like the marketplace does, that can be a really scary path to go down” – Catherine Knight Steele

Credits

Producers: Nazelie Doghramadjian, Rigoberto Lara Guzmán 

Website, Design, and Communications: Veronica Eghdami, Ji Eun Yang

Thank you to Serena Oduro for curatorial and engagement support.

Additional support provided by Data & Society’s Communications, Engagement, Accounting, Strategy, and Policy teams.