Digital Diaspora
A Race for Cyberspace
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Traces the rise of black participation in cyberspace.
Description
2009 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
Deftly interweaving history, culture, and critical theory, Anna Everett traces the rise of black participation in cyberspace, particularly during the early years of the Internet. She challenges the problematic historical view of black people as quintessential information-age outsiders or poster children for the digital divide by uncovering their early technolust and repositioning them as eager technology adopters and consumers, and thus as coconstituent elements in the information technology revolution. She offers several case studies that include lessons learned from early adoption of the Internet by the Association of Nigerians Living Abroad and their Niajanet virtual community, the grassroots organizing efforts that led to the phenomenally successful Million Woman March, the migration of several historic black presses online, and an interventionist critique of race in contemporary video games. Ultimately, Digital Diaspora shows how African Americans and African diasporic peoples developed the necessary technomastery to ride in the front of the bus on the information superhighway.
Anna Everett is Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her books include Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media; New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality; and Returning the Gaze: A Genealogy of Black Film Criticism, 1909–1949.
Reviews
"Books about the Internet are plentiful, but Everett has written one of the best, most-informative works on the black experience—in particular that of African diasporic populations—in cyberspace … A fascinating book for anyone interested in communications/media or African studies. " — CHOICE
"Clearly well-researched, with copious end notes and list of references. " — Multicultural Revie
"This is a well-balanced and fascinating study. Everett provides both a utopian call to arms and a thorough criticism of the manner in which corporate capitalism, the mainstream media, and the forces of racism still work to marginalize the contributions and activism of African American intellectuals, journalists, video game makers, and grassroots organizers. " — David Desser, coauthor of American Jewish Filmmakers, Second Edition