Aww junk! I been BoingBoinged! (Where Are the Black Tech Bloggers?)
Yeah, Joel Johnson of BoingBoing.net was at the South by Southwest “Where Are the Black Tech Bloggers?” — a panel I was asked to join at the last minute (but not the very last minute. That honor belongs to Cheryl :-). ).
So Joel wrote about it, and the comments went straight to typical. Which, of course, means I had to write the Standard Defense Post. The problem is that BoingBoing doesn’t guarantee prompt approval of comments unless you are a registered user and I am over the whole “Registering for Sites I Don’t Often Visit” thing. In other words, there’s a good chance my sh*t is and will forever be trapped in moderation hell. I’m reposting it here for your enjoyment.
I’m too lazy to create an account, especially since this will probably be one of three comments I will ever post here.
Anyhow: Darla Mack and Craig Nulan could not make it and were not on the panel. Cheryl Coward (www.cherylcoward.com) and I (Tiffany B. Brown, www.tiffanybbrown.com) filled in for them at the last minute.
That said @David Carroll: The question isn’t just why aren’t more black people blogging about tech. Actually, I’d argue that there are plenty of us doing just that. The better question — one I’m disappointed we didn’t ask — is Why do we assume that there are no black people blogging about tech?
That’s an issue of perception, geek culture, race, gender and class privilege. One illustrative point: why are Madden and NBA Live fans not conceived of as Gamer Geeks in the same way that players of Final Fantasy or WoW are?
The other point (And why does this even need explaining?) is that the people who are using the produts and tools aren’t involved in creating them. What constraints on people’s income, living situation, culture, etc. are we just completely missing out on because they’re not at the table?
No, that’s not specifically a black thing, but it is something that most people who are not some kind of minority (used in the sociological sense, not the numbers sense) tend not to get. And it’s those same issues that minorities tend to blog about.
Thanks Tiffany. Have to add your post to my roundup of posts about Black Tech Bloggers. And you also remind me that I have to put the final panelist list on my post as well.
Just wanted to let you know you are not alone in the Bloggerverse. (Black bloggers have flava!)
great post tiffany. i hope your comment doesn’t get stuck in moderation hell. it is so right on–succint, intelligent and interesting.
@Mark: Yeah, there’s a whole parallel black blog network out here. These folks have been my favorite cousins for almost as long as I’ve been blogging (6 years this October).
Great post! I hate the assumption that we don’t participate as much as we do. I can’t count the amount of times that people on the various message boards or online games find out I’m Black and begin to act surprised. It really pisses me off!
Track my Blog for about a week and see how much tech is covered… your ability to do this will answer (in a very large part) why there are no Black tech writers on your Internet.