Mapping the history of sensitive topics such as racial violence and white supremacy comes with large ethical implications that must be considered when understanding and interpreting maps. As outlined in the abstract of the Racism in the Machine article, it mentioned how “data visualizations are inherently rhetorical, and therefore bias-laden visual artifacts that contain both explicit and implicit arguments.” When looking at maps of such sensitive topics, it is important to keep in mind the bias-laden artifacts and look at both the explicit and implicit arguments within them. The article takes a look at the two projects that look at lynching in the United States and outlines both the positives of each project but also the critiques of them.
The “Racial Terror Lynchings Map” which was created by the Equal Justice Initiative looks to document the lynchings of African Americans primarily in the southern portion of the United States. While this map can be used as an advocacy tool as it highlights the historically targeted injustices and their current-day implications such as mass incarceration, the map reviews many critiques. Firstly, it has a narrow focus and overlooks other marginalized groups experiencing similar targeted violence during its time period such as Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Mexicans. It also has an emphasis on the Southern regions of the United States, but these other marginalized groups often experience injustices outside of the South. The map immediately centers itself on the United States South, even when there are counties outside the region that are marked as lynchings occurring. It takes some navigating of the site in order to see the rest of the United States to look at other Lynchings. Looking at the broad overview of the site, it does offer different ways of observing information. It has an interactive map, stories of lynchings, videos, and the original report on lynchings in American. It also offers educators lesson plans on how to talk about Lynching. I find this especially interesting because we did not talk about lynching in high school. This could have been because of where I went to school and it could be different in other states.
The Map of White Supremacy is the second project the article takes a look at. This project is an interactive map that systematically documented lynchings in the United States. It depicts lynching records in the context of historical racial violence and public discourses of white superiority. Developed by Auut Studio, the map presents a comprehensive depiction of racial violence, emphasizing the nationwide prevalence of white supremacy enforced through mob violence. Initially showing grey dots representing each recorded lynching, the map becomes more detailed upon interaction, displaying state and county boundaries subtly while highlighting individual incidents with bright colors. It incorporates features like a timeline and a color-coded legend to allow users to explore different aspects of lynching history, including the racial diversity of victims and the temporal patterns of racial violence. Moreover, the map personalizes the data by listing the names and details of lynched individuals, shedding light on the humanity behind these tragic events and underscoring the racism inherent in lynching incidents, often obscured in historical records. Through these features and interactive elements, the Map of White Supremacy Mob Violence effectively contextualizes the data within the broader societal issues of racism and white supremacy, offering users a deeper understanding of this dark chapter in American history.
The next section compares the representation of lynchings in California on two maps: the Racial Terror Lynchings map and the Map of White Supremacy Mob Violence. While the former only illustrates lynchings of African Americans, the latter includes incidents involving Native Americans, Latinos, Italians, and other races, providing a more comprehensive view. The Map of White Supremacy Mob Violence presents a stark visual narrative indicating widespread lynchings across California, underscoring the enforcement of white superiority. In contrast, the Racial Terror Lynchings map lacks clarity in its data representation, implying fewer instances of racial terror or lynchings in California. This discrepancy is problematic given the high rates of black incarceration in California today, contradicting the Equal Justice Initiative’s aim to address racial injustice tied to the history of lynchings. The section highlights how the visual argument of the Racial Terror Lynchings map inadvertently weakens advocacy efforts regarding California’s prison system and racial disparities in incarceration rates.
When looking at these topics, one cannot avoid the ethical implications of the topics. As such, the article discusses an ethical visualization workflow that they Hepworth and Church feel with minimize harm to three groups: people using visualizations, people represented in visualizations, and people personally affected by the represented material. In addition, this will also maximize the capacity and effectiveness of the visualization itself.
Bibliography:
EJI and Google. “Lynching in America: Racial Terror Lynchings.” https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/explore
Hepworth, Katherine, and Christopher Church. “Racism in the Machine: Visualization Ethics in Digital Humanities Projects.” Digital Humanities Quarterly. Vo. 12, no. 4 (2018).
Monroe and Florence Work. “White Supremacy Mob Violence.” https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/nKAyaWTMZtLxS/
Excellent final post Levi. You effectively integrate all the material and interrogate them insightfully. I particularly like they way you distinguished between explicit and implicit bias – the latter of which we can only hope to minimize (using the methods you outline at the end) – but the former we should always strive to avoid.