Media 2070: An Invitation to Dream Up Media Reparations

This essay reveals the critical role that trafficking of enslaved Africans played in making our nation’s earliest media financially viable. The piece traces this history to the present day, when deregulation has resulted in very few Black owners of traditional media, and racist algorithms amplify the voices of white supremacists across online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The essay critiques corporate media’s ongoing lack of accountability or commitment to fundamental change while inviting readers to join Media 2070’s national conversation to help reconcile the history of media racism with the need to imagine and create the changes necessary to right these wrongs.