ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the place that science and technology occupy in today’s Black identity discourse as expressed online on the websites of the diaspora of African descent. Our main questions are the following: what are the tools and symbols associated with science and technology that are being used online to express Black identity? What are the online representations of Black scientists and Black inventors? What are the representations associated with the scientific or technological achievements of Black people and their relationship to Black identity? The main argument is that science and technology are given meaning within the context and in opposition to a perceived “white cultural hegemony,” which is to be countered by an identity discourse that aims to show not only the contributions of people of “African” or “Black” descent to scientific and technological progress, but also to reintegrate them into the historically constituted scientific communities. This counter-rhetoric is based on the supposed ability of the Internet to (re)negotiate the meanings associated with Black identity. Theoretically, the chapter takes place within the structuralist-constructivist framework designed by Bourdieu. It apprehends identity constructions as the result of symbolic struggles, the purpose of which is to impose a vision of social divisions. Methodologically, the study is based on a qualitative analysis of the design, the content, and the impact of a sample of Black diasporic websites.
