Modular Technology

“Modular technology” connects race and technology in more ways than most people think, especially with the UNIX operating system commonly used in computers, as it is “the first operating system to embrace modularity” according to Lisa Nakamura and Peter A. Chow-White (26). Besides the fact that most of the “key players” in this technological history includes mostly white men (22), a common factor in those who run American society as a whole, technology is more recently a contending control of western culture and individual lives, along with race and these two powerful dynamics inevitably intersect. An example of the relationship between race and technology is the 3D postcards that use “lenticular logic” as an example of overt versus covert racism in the post-Civil War period (24). With these cards, one image can be seen at a time despite there being multiple images, and this is a common …show more content…
In UNIX’s “Rule of Diversity,” encouragement of segregation of the kernel in charge of the computer’s memory, from the shell which works as the intermediary between the computer’s complex internals from the user, who prefers simplicity (29). The kernel symbolizes diversity in people and the shell represents those in power who work towards minimizing complexity in order to advocate for the standard because “modularity in software design was meant to decrease ‘global complexity’ and cleanly separate one ‘neighbor’ from another.” While this is not consciously done by the computer programmers, it nevertheless inevitably results in perpetuations of racist practices within technology and supports the colorblind rhetoric of “unintentionality” and even occurs in the university