Tressie McMillan Cottom
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
(In)Equity, Digital Infrastructures
Capitalism, Race
To understand racism in our digital society, follow the money.
The study of race and racism in the digital society must produce theoretically distinct and robust formulations of Internet technologies as key characteristics of the political economy. The author puts forth racial capitalism as a coherent framework for this research agenda. The argument for racial capitalism draws on two examples of its engagement with two characteristics of the digital society: obfuscation as privatization and exclusion by inclusion. Internet technologies are now a totalizing sociopolitical regime and should be central to the study of race and racism.