What does it means to be hi-tech anyway? A new anthology broadens the definition of technology by looking at how people of color have created their own innovations in other ways. . - book bytes - book review

The Internet boom of the late 1990s produced a wave of E-business companies, Web sites and new-media moguls, practically overnight. But cyberspace offered little opportunity--financial or otherwise--for many people of color who did not own PCs, or have access to the World Wide Web. The reality of this digital divide has created a misconception that people of color have difficulty adapting to America's highly technological society.

African Americans have a rich history of innovators--from Benjamin Banneker to entrepreneurs like Omar Wasow. However, according to Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life (New York University Press, May 2001, $18.50, ISBN 0-814-73604-1), that misconception exists because of how technology is defined.

"Theorists of technology have taken their nod from business, and business tells us that the only valuable technology is cutting-edge, which makes the most money like Microsoft or what's listed on the NASDAQ. So we wanted to think about it beyond the Internet or computers, and chose to tell the stories of people of color and technology that went past their lack of negligence," explains Alondra Nelson, coeditor of Technicolor. Nelson, who is in her final year as a graduate student in the American Studies Program at New York University, helped develop the idea for this insightful anthology along with fellow Ph.D. student and coeditor Thuy Linh N. Tu and coeditor Alicia Headlam Hines, a teacher of literature and language arts at the Horace Mann School in New York.

"Does the average person know what kind of skill it takes to isolate a break beat or use sampling technology," asks Nelson. "Black folk created all of this. It's just as sophisticated and complex as computer technology," she says.

In Chapter 8, "Sound Effects," Tricia Rose, author of Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Wesleyan University Press, May 1994, $17,95, ISBN 0-819-56275-0), interviews electronic musician Beth Coleman a.k.a. M. Singe, who, in order to become a successful DJ, needed to learn how to operate a mixing board, sound system and turntable technology.

"Another form of technology mentioned in the book is low-rider car suspension, which goes back to the 1950s, particularly in California and Chicano culture," Nelson explains. "Manipulating hydraulics in cars takes a lot of technical skill," she says, referring to Chapter 6 of Technicolor by Ben Chappell, who explains this skill and its history. We also learn of an African-American pioneer in online entrepreneurship, McLean Mashingaidze Greaves, founder of cafelosnegroes.com, which is described as "a vibrant and important virtual hangout for people of color, long before racial/ethnic content was considered profitable."

Technicolor also relates the perspective of Asian Americans, who have had a prominent place in the high-tech hierarchy, but ironically have been negatively affected by it, according to an essay by Karen J. Hossfeld on immigrant Asian and Latino women who labor in the production side of technology.

Along with the ideas pondered in Technicolor is Nelson's list service AfroFuturism, groups.yahoo.com/group/afrofuturism, which launched in 1998. "AfroFuturism means using the past in the future--not forgetting the past lives of African Americans and African-American culture," says Nelson. The listserv explores how scientific and technological innovation is changing the face of black art and popular culture. The site, www.afrofuturism.net, was created and is maintained by Web master Kali Tal. It includes the writings of black science fiction authors, such as Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson, and other futuristic themes (See Black Speculative Fiction, page 28).

"It's not to say that people of color don't need computer literacy, but that's not the only game in town," says Nelson.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group