Black Meme: The History of the Images That Make Us (HC) (2024)

Images of blackness have become important in our understanding of the modern world because they reflect and shape the way Black people are perceived and represented. In Black Meme Legacy Russell explores the role of these images in the construction of Black identity and visual culture, from the early days of film and photography to the digital age.

The first ever film was a Black jockey riding a horse in 1887. The very first screen kiss was between two Black actors in Lime Kiln Day, 1913. Black Meme also explores lynching postcards that were common in the 1920s, the image of Emmot Till's body in the casket and Trayvon's hoodie, the grainy video of Rodney King and the gloss of Michael Jackson' Thriller, Diamond Reynolds's Facebook live recording of her boyfriend's killing by the police, and Beyonce's Formation.

Legacy Russell, the award winning author of Glitch Feminism, explores the power of these tokens and argues that without the contributions of Black people, digital culture would not exist in its current form.