Tara McPherson’s essay, The Intertwining of Race and Unix, describes the development of UNIX and the civil rights movement after World War II as connected paths, each reflecting the other in structure, style, even language. She posits that those who study each of these areas need to look at developments in computing from a cultural lens, the same way we could analyze the media content or access.
Despite my complete lack of understanding regarding UNIX and operating systems as a whole, I think I have a basic grasp of her argument. However, I do not agree with McPherson that the trouble lies within the functions of UNIX or in modular design, and I am surprised that she did not specifically mention the role of bias within her essay.
Programming languages and operating systems are as flawed as the people who code them. Bias can translate into what McPherson calls “covert logic”. For instance, Kodak’s camera films were originally calibrated to best highlight white skin (Del Barco). Hewlett-Packard’s webcams were recently called out for not being able to recognize a black face (Frucci). These major flaws in programming and design more than likely came from engineers who code based on what they know and understand. Since the vast majority of computer science professionals are white men (Bours), their biases and knowledge is what gets packaged into our tech.
As far as modular and diverse design goes, I do not quite grasp McPherson’s connection between it and the “tenets of neoliberal multiculturalism”. Modularity and diversity in engineering and design predates UNIX and the civil rights movement. Our bodies themselves are modular in design, and we’d still be in the stone age if our past innovations weren’t modular as well. Can you imagine having to buy a new car every time you got a flat tire? It is not post-structuralist; it is a principle of good engineering.
While I agree with McPherson on some points in her essay and find the idea of an overlap between the back-ends of technological and cultural progress fascinating, I think certain aspects of her argument read more like a forced metaphor than a convincing hypothesis.
Sources:
McPherson, Tara. “U.S. Operating Systems at Mid-Century: The Intertwining of Race and Unix.” Edited by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun et al.
Barco, Mandalit del. “How Kodak’s Shirley Cards Set Photography’s Skin-Tone Standard.” NPR, NPR, 13 Nov. 2014, http://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363517842/for-decades-kodak-s-shirley-cards-set-photography-s-skin-tone-standard.
Frucci, Adam. “HP Face-Tracking Webcams Don’t Recognize Black People.” Gizmodo, Gizmodo, 18 June 2013, gizmodo.com/hp-face-tracking-webcams-dont-recognize-black-people-5431190.
Myers, Blanca. “Women and Minorities in Tech, By the Numbers.” Wired, Conde Nast, 28 Mar. 2018, http://www.wired.com/story/computer-science-graduates-diversity/.
History and Theory of New Media 