Black to the Future: How Black Women, Femmes, and Non-Binary People Imagine the Future of Technology

Abstract

Drawing strongly from the tradition of Afrofuturism and additional critical perspectives, this work aims to amplify the ideas and insights of Black women, femmes, and non-binary people in the design, development, and innovation of future technologies to consider and recognize the importance of our perspectives.

This research pulls from critical perspectives and approaches centered on Blackness such as Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, and Black Feminist Thought. The research questions for this dissertation are: How do Black women, femmes, and non-binary people use their lived experiences to envision the future of technology? When given the space to gather together and future or ethically speculate, what do they see as the technological future they hope for and the harms they want to avoid? And what impact do they believe they have on bringing that future into fruition?

The preliminary work in this dissertation included comparing the Jim Crow era travel guide and directory the Negro Motorist Green Book to the community of Black people on the platform formerly known as Twitter—Black Twitter. While the Green Book was created by and for Black people, Twitter was not. Exploring what it would look like if Black people created their own digital spaces, a fictitious research paper in the form of a design fiction was written about “the Stoop,” a future imaginary social media platform. Thirdly, twelve facilitators of the ethical speculation classroom activity the Black Mirror Writers Room exercise were interviewed to determine what was working well and what could be improved in the activity. While students and facilitators enjoyed the exercise, additional scaffolding was requested to assist facilitators in incorporating tech ethics and for students to incorporate more social justice issues into their scenarios. Taken together, this research motivated the final two studies.

Through speculative co-design workshops, participants engaged in an introspective, collaborative, and retrospective research experience. The first study invited different groups of participants to create a future communication technology with a UI/UX Designer who created a digital low-fidelity prototype. In the second study, a distinct set of participants critiqued one of the designs from the first set of workshops. This second study also included the Black Mirror Writer’s Room exercise within which participants created pitches for a speculative science fiction episode based on alternative present or near future technologies.

The design process and ethical speculation from participants involved considering accessibility, the vulnerable, and aiming past techno-solutionism to the solutions that humans around the world need (connection, hope, basic resources, etc.). Ultimately, this research demonstrates to the technocracy that our ideas are impactful and provides marginalized people with inspiration to design their own futures which have the power to radically liberate technology (and society) for all.