“There is a need to address the complexities of globalization, colonization, and the alienated labor of people of color in the production of technology that advances digital scholarship practices that they will not be able to access or directly benefit from.”
Bailey, M. Z. (2011). All the digital humanists are white, all the nerds are men, but some of us are brave. Journal of Digital Humanities, 1. http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/1-1/
all-the-digital-humanists-are-white-all-the-nerds-are-men-but-some-of-us-are-brave-by-moya-z-bailey/
This quote by Moya Bailey was particularly eye-opening for me as a new student of Digital Humanities. In her journal, Bailey writes about the discrimination and inequality she sees of women and people of color in the field of Digital Humanities. I found myself drawn in to what she was writing in this paper because it felt like a harsh introduction into the field. Often in classes we learn the objective history of what makes up a school of study, but this journal opened up a conversation about what is going on behind the curtain.
The quote I highlighted above refers to a specific point Bailey was making in her journal. She is talking about how much women and people of color do behind the scenes that does not get the recognition it deserves. This immediately reminded me of the movie Hidden Figures, which follows the story of three black women working for an Aeronautical laboratory in the early 1940s. I remember watching this movie in theaters a couple years ago with my dad. It sparked some interesting conversation on the way home about how far we’ve come in terms of equality in the workplace, but also how much further we still have to go. That movie showed how integral the three women were to the progression of the projects they were working on.
This is a parallel I saw with this quote, and the connection between the two strengthened my reaction when I first read Bailey’s piece. It inspired me to really want to engage in the work I’ll be doing in my Digital Humanities class this term. Not only am I looking forward to learning new skills on a digital platform, but I am curious to explore this field as a woman with no experience. There is a lot of history of Digital Humanities that I think I will learn as much from as I would from the computer programs themselves. I look forward to exploring more of this considering my personal perspective.
