Legacy Russel
What is a meme?
The provocative answer from Legacy Russell, award-winning author of Glitch Feminism, unexpectedly takes us back to the early 20th century,
then brings us back to the hyper-digitized contemporary world with new eyes.
From postcards of lynchings of African Americans to photos of Emmett Till's battered body, from television footage of the Selma protests to Tommie Smith's famous clenched fist, from Michael Jackson's zombies to the viral beating of Rodney King, the author shows us how images of blackness have always
shaped our reality. Without the black meme, digital culture in its current form would not exist.
This fact invites us to rethink authorship and virality both inside and outside the world of the web, radically decolonizing its structure. So that black bodies, stolen from life and reproduced in a loop, are not condemned to eternal exploitation.
Original title: Black Meme: A History of the Images that Make Us (Verso books, 2024)
Translation: Isabella Pasqualetto
Year of publication: 2025
Language: Italian
