Seen and Unseen
Technology, Social Media, and the Fight for Racial Justice
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A riveting exploration of how visual media has shifted the narrative on race and reignited the push towards justice by the author of the “worthy and necessary” (The New York Times) Nobody Marc Lamont Hill and the bestselling author and acclaimed journalist Todd Brewster.
With his signature “clear and courageous” (Cornel West) voice Marc Lamont Hill and New York Times bestselling author Todd Brewster weave four recent pivotal moments in America’s racial divide into their disturbing historical context—starting with the killing of George Floyd. Seen and Unseen reveals the connections between our current news headlines and social media feeds and the country’s long struggle against racism.
Drawing on the powerful role of technology as a driver of history, identity, and racial consciousness, Seen and Unseen asks why, after so much video confirmation of police violence on people of color, it took the footage of George Floyd to trigger an overwhelming response of sympathy and outrage.
In the vein of The New Jim Crow and Caste, Seen and Unseen incisively explores what connects our moment to the history of race in America but also what makes today different from the civil rights movements of the past and what it will ultimately take to push social justice forward.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalists Hill (Problem) and Brewster (Lincoln's Gamble) take an insightful and immersive look at the role technology has played in the ongoing struggle for racial equality in America. They begin by documenting how video footage of George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police sparked worldwide protests against police brutality, then turn to historical examples of the links between racial violence and emerging media technologies. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Ida B. Wells and other members of the Black press brought attention to the widespread lynching of Black men by "culling data and making careful use of illustrations and photographs" that contradicted "inconsistencies and outright falsehoods" published in mainstream newspapers. Hill and Brewster also recount how Boston newspaperman William Monroe Trotter sought to "mobiliz popular dissent" against filmmaker D.W. Griffith's racist epic The Birth of a Nation, and explain how the "democratization of technology" has ensured that communication tools are no longer predominantly available to the white and the powerful, but also created a "digital environment where... the racist and the antiracist occupy the same amount of space." Packed with relevant history lessons and sharp analysis, this offers a fresh angle on an issue of vital importance.
