Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication

摘要

A vibrant mix of primary research and theoretical articles, Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication is a welcome collection that addresses critical issues in technical communication, especially for our globalized society. The intercultural communication subject is not new to technical communication; however, one of this book's best features is that the articles are fresh and innovative. The main areas covered include historical representations of race and nationality in health and science communication, social justice and activism, social networking, reporting at historically Black colleges and universities, users' right to their own language, and communicating across borders and disciplines. The subject matters timeliness is also a highlight where authors address issues of race and ethnicity about contemporary technology language, outsourced labor, and activism. Even historical representations of race and ethnicity have relevance to practicing technical communicators and graduate students. For instance, in the article "The Eugenics Agenda: Deliberative Rhetoric and Therapeutic Discourse of Hate," Richardson discusses a historical moment in North Carolina where extremely poor, "feebleminded," and "unfit" people were sterilized by the state. The deliberative rhetoric behind this movement is astounding and disturbing but not so far off from rhetoric associated with other social and political movements in contemporary society. Likewise, Pimentel and Gutierrez's chapter discusses negative racial rhetoric where they argue that the degrading rhetoric used to marginalize Mexican Americans is no longer associated with geographical regions or local populations. Since many commercials are uploaded onto YouTube and viewed around the world, the negative conceptions of Mexican Americans are seen, thus proliferated, worldwide.