Category: technology

Animal>>> Cyborg>>> Machine (2009)

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in #BlackLivesMatter, #ProfessionalBlackGirl, African Americans, art, automation, Blackness, blogging, civic culture, comics, communication, persuasion, politics, teaching, professional writing, composition, computers, cuteness, cyborgs, design, ethos, family, fashion, feminism, film, gender, higher education, hip-hop, information design, LGBT, rhetorics, robotics, science, sex & sexuality, sexual politics, sexual politics, space & spatiality, spatial justice, spatial rhetorics, style, technology, time & temporality, visual literacy, whiteness studies

This video is much racier and sleeker than the previous montage vid I posted; more sound effects and video clips.

Race & Cyberspace (March 2009)

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in #ProfessionalBlackGirl, African Americans, Blackness, communication, persuasion, politics, teaching, professional writing, digital literacy, gender, higher education, information design, literacy, multimodal, politics, professional writing, race, racism, rhetorics, space, spatial justice, technology, video, visual literacy, whiteness studies, writing

Today while I was opening up old media files and preparing for the launch of CONJUREjournal, a new undergraduate digital publishing platform that I’m helping develop for our HBCU students, I came across this essay montage video that I made as a doctoral student almost 11 years ago. 

It was 2009. The iPhone was the hottest, must-have gadget on the market and the now, all-but-defunct iPod was still new. Despite the literally dozens of generations of  iOS and Android mobile devices that have come and gone in the last decade, sadly—though not surprisingly—generate many of the same debates surrounding technological access and what we’ve come to recognize as “algorithmic oppression.” 

Remember?

In those days, a cacophony of voices had declared it a “post-racial” era. To paraphrase Ta-Nehisi Coates, the president was black and Obama was about to be “eight years in power.” Fast forward to 2016 and it’s easy to understand why people might feel some nostalgia.

Also during that time, it was the boom years of what continues to be an offshoot field of English programs: digital rhetoric. We were still trying to figure out how to attribute authorial citations for on-screen projects and as one who was bearing witness to new idioms of expression, I decided to split the difference with a “SPECIAL THANKS” title card in the closing credits.

Another thing that strikes me about housing this and similar projects here on this very blog site is how much it looks like some kind of crazy time capsule. (I mean, can you say Tumblr gURLs?) The display and aesthetic layout right here appear less “cute” by today’s design standards—more kitsch—almost, in fact, quaint.

Quick warning: there’s nude content with images from a couple of Vanessa Beecroft’s conceptual art installations between the 1:05 and 1:22 time marks. 

 

Thanks, Cs! 

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in African Americans, Breaking Bad, captions, sketch comedy, cinema, communication, communication, persuasion, politics, teaching, professional writing, conventions, digital literacy, education, film, multimodal, rhetorics, spatial rhetorics, technology, TV, video, visual literacy, White Studies, whiteness studies, writing

postracial hauntings book coverRhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education (2017)—features the chapter, “Color Deafness: White Writing as Palimpsest for African American in Breaking Bad Screen Captioning and Video Technologies English” coauthored by Nicole E. Snell and yours truly—won the 2018 Conference on College Composition & Communication Outstanding Book Award in the Edited Collection category. This award would not have been possible without the steadfast commitment and encouragement of the collection’s editors: Tammie M. Kennedy, Joyce Irene Middleton, and Krista Ratcliffe.

This Southern Illinois University Press publication is made all the more special by the esteemed list of fellow constributors: Sarah E. Austin, Lee Bebout, Jennifer Beech, Cedric Burrows, Leda Cooks, Sharon Crowley, Anita M. DeRouen, Tim Engles, Christine Farris, Amy Goodburn, M. Shane Grant, Gregory Jay, Ronald A. Kuykendall, Kristi McDuffie, Alice McIntyre, Peter McLaren, Keith D. Miller, Lilia D. Monzó, Casie Moreland, Ersula Ore, Annette Harris Powell, Catherine Prendergast, Meagan Rodgers, Jennifer Seibel Trainor, Victor Villanueva, and Hui Wu.

The award ceremony takes place next week during the CCCC National Convention in Kansas City. 

Professional Black Girl: Video Series Celebrates ‘Everyday Excellence’ of Black Women

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in #ProfessionalBlackGirl, African Americans, beauty, communication, persuasion, politics, teaching, professional writing, composition, cute, cuteness, design, digital literacy, ethos, fashion, feminism, feminity, gender, hair, media, play, politics, professionalism, race, rhetorics, sexual politics, style, technology, video, visual literacy, YouTube

Professional Black Girl: Video Series Celebrates ‘Everyday Excellence’ of Black Women and Girls and explores the love language shared by black women, and how we twerk and work with unmatched professionalism. 

Episode 1

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#ProfessionalBlackGirl

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DURHAM, N.C. — Dr. Yaba Blay, renowned activist, cultural critic, and producer, launches Professional Black Girl, an original video series created to celebrate everyday Black womanhood, and to smash racist and “respectable” expectations of how they should “behave.”

Seventeen Black women and girls ranging in age from 2- to 52-years-old were interviewed for the series. Each episode features a candid discussion with personalities such as Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Rapsody; Joan Morgan, author of the Hip-Hop feminist classic When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost; and 13-year-old world traveler Nahimana Machen, sharing what it means to be a “Professional Black Girl.”

“‘Professional Black Girl’ looks like Taraji P. Henson at the 2015 Emmys jumping up to hug Viola Davis. It looks like Mary J. Blige and Taraji and Kerry Washington in that Apple commercial. It looks like me rolling up to a room full of people in Berlin to speak with my bamboo earrings on,” explains Tarana Burke, a non-profit consultant and fashion blogger featured in the series.

Limited edition Professional Black Girl merchandise, created in partnership with Philadelphia Printworks, is available now onphiladelphiaprintworks.com. The first full episode, featuring Dr. Blay, will air September 9, 2016, with an episode airing each Friday onYouTube and yabablay.com until December 23, 2016.

“The terminology that is often used to describe and define Black girls—such as bad, grown, fast, ghetto, and ratchet—are non-affirming and are words that are intended to kill the joy and magic within all Black girls,” says Dr. Blay. “We are professional code-switchers, hair-flippers, hip-shakers, and go-getters. We hold Ph.Ds and listen to trap music; we twerk and we work. We hold it down while lifting each other up, and we don’t have to justify or explain our reason for being. This is us.”

Follow #ProfessionalBlackGirl across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to celebrate and affirm the everyday excellence of Black women and girls.

For more information, or to interview Dr. Yaba Blay, please contact Shakirah Gittens at 718-687-6231 or by email at info@DynamicNLyfe.com.

Rhetorics of Neighboring

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in civics, rhetorics, Social Media, spatial rhetorics, technology, Writing

“HELLO NICOLE, I ENDORSE YOU!!!”

Wont-You-Be-My-Neighbor

Greeted my neighbor from her porch across the street. I smiled and thanked her while laughing to myself. I waved back with equal enthusiasm and finished sweeping my front steps.

My neighbor is an older European woman who is still learning English. When I told a few of my friends about my neighborly exchange, the idea of an “endorsement’  struck us all as funny and odd, but it made sense too—especially considering the residential layout and circumstances of my community. I rent a small house across the street from this particular neighbor. She and her husband own several larger houses on the same block, in addition to the one they already live in.  And while it’s a pretty well integrated neighborhood, I’m almost sure I’m the only single black woman, living without children on our whole entire street. My neighbors are very nice and everyone always look out for each other.

The word “endorse” comes from Latin law, meaning to write on the back of something. For this reason, the idea of an endorsement was originally meant to signify some type of legal documentation. Using the word in this particular context is to commit a solecism because of the way it grammatically pro/claims higher status by naively presuming that another person requires a voucher in the first place (since writing on the back of another person definitely would not be in keeping with modern standards of politeness). The irony of “endorsing” a person reveals a social order or conceit of authority through a politically measured, albeit kindly, acceptance of others. This type of greeting in English appropriates the proprietary of “neighborliness” through the magnanimous imposition of one’s personal rules of etiquette and understanding of good decorum  {~:

 

The Battle for Equality Is a WIRED Issue

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in #BlackLivesMatter, African Americans, athletes, beauty, Blackness, communication, communication, persuasion, politics, teaching, professional writing, computers, cute, cuteness, digital literacy, education, gender, information design, photography, politics, race, rhetorics, Serena Williams, social media, sports, style, technology, visual rhetoric

Serena Williams isn’t just a tennis champion and singularly great athlete; she’s been a leader in the fight for equal representation and pay in her sport.

Source: The Battle for Equality Is a WIRED Issue

What people get wrong about “Black Twitter”

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in technology

Repost from The Washington Post

According to the Pew survey from 2013, 40 percent of black Internet users ages 18 to 29 said they were on Twitter, compared with 28 percent of their white peers.

In 2013, a Pew survey showed that among those younger than 50, there was no significant difference between the rates at which black and white people accessed the Web. (Pew also showed that two-thirds — 68 percent — of Latino Internet users said they used Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites.)

 

Marissa Johnson, left, speaks as Mara Jacqueline Willaford holds her fist overhead and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., stands nearby as the two women take over the microphone at a rally Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015, in downtown Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
 

You’re not an expert until you can explain what you’re doing in public.

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in technology

No matter how good you think you are at something, you’re not really that good until: You can explain it in clear, concise terms Someone else reviews your work and agrees Someone reviews your…

Source: You’re not an expert until you can explain what you’re doing in public.

NCTE Statement Affirming #BlackLivesMatter

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in technology

Capturing The Crisis

I’m very proud to share this statement coming out in support of #BlackLivesMatter — just released by my disciplinary community: National Council of Teachers of English / Conference on College Composition and Communication (NCTE/CCCC). Kudos to the NCTE/CCCC Black Caucus for following up this statement with pertinent lesson plans and K-post curriculum ideas. (See links under “Additional Readings & Resources” at bottom of page). 

At this pivotal moment, between a space of hopeful resistance and fragile defiance, the dilemmas of race and racism in the United States have become so copious that to ignore them would be to render NCTE voiceless and bequeath it to those great chasms of silence through which racial injustices endure. The recent incidents of racial injustice in our country — from Charleston to Cincinnati to a tiny jail cell in Texas — require that we speak up. Each moment of despair, of another mother’s or father’s eyes swollen from carrying the…

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Black/White & in Technicolor: Thinking & Looking Deeply at Race

by Nicole Ashanti McFarlane, posted in technology

Capturing The Crisis

So far this semester, we’ve been reading about how national and local television news and print media covered the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and helped shape the African American quest for equal rights. We’ve also been watching Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 on Netflix. Additionally, we’re reading about MLK’s Birmingham Campaign and how the CRM was covered differently in various news markets, such as Mississippi and Virginia. 

QUESTION: How does a theory of “image event” apply to what’s currently happening in #BlackLivesMatter today?

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