Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground

Adam Bank's book titled, Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground discusses the issues present within the Digital Divide and how this divide encompasses a conversation in rhetoric and composition. Bank's primary argument is that the Digital Divide is about access, which pertains to not only access to technologies, but also a lack of proficiency in educating people in how to use such technologies. Within chapter one titled, "Introduction" Banks introduces the term transformative access. We heard this term last week when we were discussing disability studies, and I find that a lot of what Banks is talking about coincides with issues of access in technology that people with disabilities face, as it pertains to race. Banks extends this notion further and argues that we need to consider African American rhetoric in our attempt to be inclusive to race and access to technologies. According to Banks, African American rhetoric is defined as "the set of traditions of discursive practices--verbal, visual, and electronic--used by individuals and groups of African Americans toward the ends of full participation in American society on their own terms" (2-3).

Most importantly, Banks calls our attention to embedding African American rhetoric into our technologies, and how such infusions can have a more inclusive function in digital spaces, arguing "I believe that African American rhetorical history shows powerful unities of identity and purpose across centuries, classes, genders, and ideologies, once we realize that unities are not absolute" (5).
Not only does Banks argue that the Digital Divide excludes African Americans in access and proficiencies with technology, but also that they are not present within the design of such technology, which brings in what Selfe and Selfe argue in their piece "Politics of the Interface: Power and Its Exercise in Electronic Contact Zones". Banks references Selfe and Selfe and how their article addresses that interface design is inherently racist. Such technologies that African Americans have access to are designed for a default user: white collar, white, and male. Within chapter four, Banks discusses such exclusions in design further, discussing how design jobs such as architecture and city planning have largely excluded African Americans, such the exception of urban planning. How are racial minorities supposed to be proficient in a technology that in the design phases rhetorically structured such technologies towards a specific audience?

Chapter two titled, "Oakland, The World, and The Divide: How We All Missed The Moment" discusses the implications such exclusions from technology have on education, and how the field of composition and rhetoric must rethink our notions of access and proficiencies in such technologies in order to better serve our students. Banks argues that the Digital Divide is a rhetorical problem, stating "because African American exclusions from the educational system that determine access to employment (and therefore the technologies that undergrid the American economy) are so rooted in the specter of the Ebonics speaker and writer, the rhetorical problems that dominate understandings of race in our discipline are technological problems" (12). From there, Banks discusses how the technology that is used in education is primarily for remediation for the African American population.

Thinking back to my childhood, I can remember such remedial activities on the computer, and how I wasn't being taught how to use the computer, but rather I was being taught how to play a game about math, or how to use the space bar to learn grammar. Because of this, Banks argues that it presents a problem "caught between the rock of political invective labeling them as failures and the hard place of magic pill solutions sold to them by technology companies, families and schools often make huge investments in technologies and still never escape the cycle" (18). These remedial games are consistently upgraded, and users must continue to purchase newer versions in order to be "up to date". To this, Bank offers that "technology issues must be as much the work of writing and communication teachers and scholars as writing and communication are, and we must find ways to build students' and teachers' digital literacies in the current environment of poorly funded schools and radicalized education politics" (19). In order to do this, Banks presents his second central argument to the text, stating "the most important change in perspective for writing teachers is that they must make sure clearly articulated pedagogical goals drive all technology decisions so that purchases, training, and planning related to technology implementation remains relevant to the learning, social, political, and economic needs of those we hope to serve" (19-20). With this, Banks makes the argument that "African American rhetoric has always been multimedia, has always been about body and voice and image, even when they only set the stage for language" (25).

The next chapter titled, "Martin, Malcolm, and a Black Digital Ethos" discusses how political figures such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X have used African American rhetoric to invoke change in America. Through the use of oral persuasion and the manipulation of multimedia, these rhetoricians have been wildly successful in their ability to persuade and reach a vast array of people. Part of African American tradition has been deeply rooted in the ability to use oral tradition and rhetoric to embody culture as well as politics. Rap culture, preachers, and other discursive mediums are all largely occupied by "black" orality. Bank's refers to this kind of orality as it applies to technology and a more inclusionary occupation as a 'black digital ethos'. According to Banks, a black digital ethos is "a set of attitudes, knowledges, expectations, and commitments that we need to develop and teach and bring to our engagement with things technological" (48).

Chapter four titled, "Taking Black Technology Use Seriously: African American Discursive Traditions in the Digital Underground" was my favorite chapter because it discusses Black Planet and other cyberspace mediums that aren't as exclusionary. To me Black Planet was interesting because it discusses how language is kept authentic. When I saw that language is kept authentic, I mean that it allocates for a space that doesn't conform to traditional grammatical expectations. Bank notes that "composition's stubborn, narrow focus on the grammatical features of language and insistence on waging a limiting debate on Ebonics do not work in theory or in writing practice. Banks really digs deep into this discussion by identifying two distinct modes of discourse: tonal semantics and sermonic tone. Banks argues that "the design of Black Planet is important because of what it implies about access" (77). Black Planet is a digital community space designed by African Americans, for African Americans. From IT help to romance, Black Planet is an all encompassing space that invites African Americans to embrace their culture on a digital platform. Banks also discusses the notion of how African Americans are largely left out of design. From architecture to planning, there is a lack of African American presence within these occupations. I found that to be interesting and also very true. Banks ties he notion of the lack of ethnic diversity in design to composition, arguing "Rhetoric and Composition can focus on creating similar spaces outside of the larger controls of the academy, the society, and the discursive practices that dominate the field." (84).

Chapter 5 titled, "Rewriting Racist Code: The Black Jeremiad as Counter-technology in Critical Race Theory" discusses interface and the limitations they provide to anyone that isn't the 'default user'. Banks argues that such interface designs that cater to the default user "fails to serve the needs of a huge portion of its population through assumptions about race and power relations that are hard-wired into it" (88). There is also a discussion about Critical Race Theory, where Banks states they "attempt to dismantle and rewrite those codes by explicitly attacking the conventions of legal discourse" (92).

Chapter 6 titled, "Through This Hell Into Freedom: Black Architects, Slave Quilters and an African American Rhetoric of Design" discusses how design is rhetorical, stating "the history of design has been so exclusive and has done so much to enforce the very exclusions encoded in the nation and its technologies" (105). In applying these notions to the classroom, Banks discusses how we must change how we design and sequence our courses in order to better serve the diversity that encompasses our classroom. For Banks, "those of us who care about ending critique alone will not interrupt these practices. Those of us who care about ending systematic oppressions must design new spaces, even as we point out problems in our current ones" (118).

Chapter 7 titled, " A Digital Jeremiad in Search of Higher Ground: Transforming Technologies, Transforming a Nation" discusses the conclusions and takeaways that Banks has to offer his readers. Banks returns to the notion of transformative access and argues the current design and utilization of technology in the composition classroom severely excludes Africa Americans. Banks stresses that we can learn a lot from African American rhetoric, and that the orality that largely encompasses African American culture as used by political figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X can have merit in the digital space, which Banks refers to as a "digital ethos".  Lastly Banks refers to the notion of the Digital Divide, and how it pertains directly to disciplines such as composition and rhetoric. At the end of the chapter he offers some pedagogical takeaways for teachers to consider when trying to be more inclusive to students with technology. I really liked the idea of exposing students to technologies that you're not necessarily comfortable with. I think learning with your students, or learning from your students can have a lot of value.