In 1967, the NAACP’s Roy Wilkins wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “Cannot the computer become a guidepost to interracial justice and peace?”
When the internet turned 50 last year, there was much to celebrate. It proved to be a powerful platform from which to mobilize millions to fight for racial, economic, and social justice, through movements such as Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, and Black Lives Matter. It has also given us a million different ways to escape, chill out, and give ourselves a much-needed break—from cat videos toBut the anniversary also gives us a reason to reflect.
My civil rights education continued in graduate school, studying with the first Black professor the University of Oklahoma had ever hired, back in 1967. George Henderson was a civil rights pioneer. He stood alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Received the former’s counsel. Respectfully declined the latter’s recruitment.
The 1960s—that was the explosive decade when the computer revolution and the civil rights revolution collided, catapulting us toward our current moment. But I also discovered that in the 1960s, our civil rights forebears, not the computer wizards, were the ones highlighting the challenges such innovation would bring. Those civil rights figures provided a blueprint for not just their own technology future in the 1960s, but our own future that we must confront now.
As the longtime head of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Randolph was primarily concerned that automation would displace Black workers. But he was no Luddite. He simply believed that public interest should govern and guide technology. He stressed that “the community and the government have a responsibility” to see that technology produced public goods.
Randolph was technology’s moral compass. Rustin its would-be social engineer. But Roy Wilkins was its civil rights visionary. Wilkins once hoped to become an engineer. He became a journalist instead, then a writer, then an organizer, the latter two during his decades serving the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Wilkins didn’t have an MIT degree. He didn’t know much about the inner workings of word processing .
Wilkins had many other concerns about the computer. But mostly he saw that we were not using it as we should. If the computer was as powerful as we thought it to be—if it was a great problem-solving machine—then could we not ask it to help us overcome that problem that lies at the heart of American society? The problem that predated the computer itself?
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Megan McKenna and Pete Wicks leave NTAs hand in hand after split three years agoExes Megan and Pete left the NTAs together, with gentleman Pete giving his ex girlfriend his blazer to keep warm
Read more »
Three Huge Defense Threats For Which Washington Is Woefully Under-PreparedIf you think the U.S. is prepared to cope with any big threat that comes its way, guess again.
Read more »
Three defensive plays are telling a different story about the bull market runStocks are in rally mode, but three defensive plays could be undermining the bull case. Here's which are knocking it out of the park.
Read more »
Tom Brady Gets Trashed Three Times as Kimmel's Mean Tweets Targets the NFLSavage roasts blast the likes of Sony Michel, Travis Kelce, Michael Irvin, Todd Gurley, Patrick Mahomes, Terry Bradshaw and more ... just in time for Super Bowl weekend!
Read more »
Three Attorneys General are Calling for ERA Ratification in CourtMark Herring, Kwame Raoul and Aaron Ford—AGs from the three states that most recently ratified the Equal Rights Amendment—filed a landmark civil rights lawsuit Thursday to ensure that the amendment is added to the Constitution.
Read more »
Japan Seeks To Arrest Carlos Ghosn And Three Americans Who Allegedly Helped Him To EscapeJapan has stepped up the pressure on the fugitive former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, and the men who aided his escape to Lebanon.
Read more »