Benevolent Design and the Beloved Community: Legacies of Technological Discourse, Progress, Sanctuary, and Support in and around Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Abstract

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary rhetorical project that explores the discourse of race and technology in the African-American experience, particularly at HBCUs. It examines HBCUs as a site that historically and actively embodies the African-American rhetorical tradition, resists American racial animus, and works as a conduit and a corrective for the discourse of race and technology in America. The first argument this dissertation makes is that there has been an ongoing discursive tradition of technology within the institutional framework of HBCUs that long prefigures “the digital divide” debate. These conversations not only envision how best technology can be used, but also how HBCU leaders envisioned an approach to technology in order to accomplish community goals. The second argument that this dissertation attempts to make is that this persistent discourse within HBCUs is embedded with an ethos of community well-being and support. I am referring to this notion of support as a “techno-ethos”: something hardwired into the DNA of HBCUs since its inception, and, when ignored, can have disastrous, embarrassing, or counterproductive results. Finally, this dissertation is designed to acknowledge the value of applying theories of technological discourse to the study of HBCUs and to offer avenues of practical application for the successful use of a techno-ethos of support for HBCUs on a programmatic and institutional level.