As a research scientist specializing in Africana phenomenology, I have dedicated my career to understanding our society’s complex mechanisms perpetuating racial hierarchies. Through years of study and observation, I’ve conceptualized these mechanisms as a form of technology – tools, techniques, and systems designed to maintain racial power structures. I first came to know the term and technology of race in an interview I had with sociologist Michael Kilman, who introduced me to Dr. Thomas Biolisi, a prominent scholar at the University of California, Berkeley who is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies, where he specializes in research related to American Indians, governmentality, race and racism, and Indigenous ecological knowledge and practices.
