Black Meme: A History of the Images That Make Us

Black culture has played a pivotal role in shaping notions of digital virality, according to this innovative analysis from curator Russell (Glitch Feminism). Tracing “Blackness itself as a viral agent” transmitted through “mediation, copying, and carrying,” from 19th-century lynching postcards to today, Russell examines how Black imagery has been used to perpetuate racism and racist violence. (Even seemingly innocent internet artifacts are objects of appropriation, according to Russell, who describes a widely shared dancing baby GIF from the 1990s as an “imaginary projection of a Black child who dances for the viewer on loop, in endless labor.”) In addition to constructing a persuasive case that digital culture steals from Black culture even as it looks down on Black people, Russell takes care to highlight positive media depictions of Blackness, such as Michael Jackson’s 1983 Thriller music video, in which “zombies, in a constant state of transmission, transformation, transmutation, and becoming, are the embodiment of the Black meme—reanimated, empowered, collectivized.” This is sure to stir debate. Photos. (May)