Musings on Color Monitors

We read and discussed Color Monitors, The Black face of technology in america by Martin Kevorkian a week or so ago.  It has taken me some time to think about, and be able to blog about my impressions.  I can tell you that I was at first, and still am very unsettled.  Kevorkian advances theories that white society is using technology as the new slavery.  He theorizes that technology, in lieu of slavery is containing the black man; it is dirty work that no one else wants to do.  White society has given that job to the black man.  Kevorkian points out examples in ads; the business executive is pictured as a mature white male with hands free to leisurely drink his coffee while the black male is chained (figuratively) to the computer, working out the dirty details.  Similarly, in movies such as Mission Impossible, Die Hard, Terminator II, Kevorkian depicts the black male as the technology expert, saving the day for the white super hero who can’t or won’t deal with hacking or stopping the computerized countdown to nuclear obliteration.

I am unsettled because I don’t want to be racist.  I don’t want to think that anyone is using technology as a way to “keep a black man (or woman) or any other minority in a certain place”.  That is a repugnant thought to me.  I want to get beyond this. 

I don’t agree with the notion that technology is dirty work.  I am in awe of anyone who has these skills.  But, am I naive?  Is there a conspiracy or a subconscious effort in Hollywood or on Madison Avenue to contain blackness?  Is the portrayal of the technology expert as a black man or woman their manifestation of that effort?  I hope not.  I can tell you that I am going to be very observant of advertising and movies from now on to see.  In that respect, I’m glad to have read Kevorkian’s book – it’s important to recognize that this might be happening, and it’s important to have this discourse.