I had the opportunity to talk with Cruz Medina, co-editor (with Octavio Pimentel) of Racial Shorthand: Coded Discrimination Contested in Social Media this past fall. Below is a selection of a 40-minute interview where we discussed everything from the process in creating this book, to the affordances and constraints in its production, to its relevance in the larger conversation of people of color and rhetoric. We also talked about to how this book ties to his own practices and life and even spent a bit of time talking about his family. Rather than give you all of our conversation that wove in and out of topics and circled back again, I chose to give you the highlights, which means I left out my sometimes inarticulate thoughts connected to his work as well as stories of his adorable family. Those omissions leave you something to chat with him about when you see him next.
Transcript [PDF]