From Float to Flicker: Information Processing, Racial Semiotics, and Anti-Racist Protest, from "I am a Man" to "Black Lives Matter".
This article engages the relationships between information systems, antiracist protest, and race today. Building on the body of work that describes the ways institutional racism has shifted from an overt system during the (pre-) civil rights era, to a covert, color-blind system today, this article a...
| Published in: | Criticism Vol. 60; no. 2; pp. 247 - 269 |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Wayne State University Press
Spring2018
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=134575802&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 134575802 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00111589 CIS jtl: Criticism issn: 00111589 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Spring2018 vid: 60 iid: 2 pid: 426 pub: Wayne State University Press artinfo: ui: 134575802 10.13110/criticism.60.2.0247 ppf: 247 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 276KB tig: atl: From Float to Flicker: Information Processing, Racial Semiotics, and Anti-Racist Protest, from "I am a Man" to "Black Lives Matter". aug: au: Laiola, Sarah Whitcomb su: Black Lives Matter movement Social movements Race discrimination Race relations African Americans sug: subj: Black Lives Matter movement Social movements Race discrimination Race relations African Americans ab: This article engages the relationships between information systems, antiracist protest, and race today. Building on the body of work that describes the ways institutional racism has shifted from an overt system during the (pre-) civil rights era, to a covert, color-blind system today, this article argues, first, that this shift mirrors the cultural change in information processing from analog systems to digital systems and, second, that signs of race articulated as racial protest have similarly changed over this historical period. Using the Black Lives Matter movement as a contemporary frame, the article focuses on three cultural objects that recall and revise civil rights protests to articulate this change: Ernest Withers's 1968 photograph of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike, Glenn Ligon's 1988 untitled painting ("I Am a Man"), and the 2000 condition report of Ligon's painting. Forming a historical network of racial protest, these images perform the changing semiotics of race and racial protest from signs that float as in an analog system to those that flicker as in a digital system. It is as a "digital," flickering signifier of protest that blackness is rematerialized as visible matter to operate against color-blind systems today. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Criticism is the property of Wayne State University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Criticism holder: Wayne State University Press dt: @attributes: year: 2018 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|