Thursday 5/7 Draft Questions - Zahra McKee

• In Afrofuturism/Chicanafuturism: Fictive Kin, Catherine Ramirez describes the afrofuturist book Parable of the Sower, in which the main character Lauren is afflicted with "hyperempathy" that makes her feel other's physical sensations. What parallels do you see between this affliction and the societal expectations for women to be overly empathetic towards others?
• In Afrofuturism/Chicanafuturism: Fictive Kin, Catherine Ramirez explains how she has decided not to structure her black speculative fiction course in the same way to avoid lecturing about the objectification and objection of black bodies to a mostly non-black audience. As a non-latina in a class of mostly non-latin@s, this made me think about the fine line many diversity classes traverse. What do you think about Ramierez's decision (specifically in relation to our own class)?
• In Safiya Nobel's piece Missed Connections: What Search Engines Say About Women, she discusses how Google recommended people use the terms "Jews" and "Jewish people" rather than "Jew" when searching to avoid white supremacist pages. Should this burden be placed on the user, or should companies do everything in their power (even if it means venturing away from a computer-generated system) to limit hateful, but legal, content?
• Social media has helped build remote communities and connected people across the globe, like Walter Nicholls claims that social media united and empowered DREAMers.However, social media can also lead to anonymous cyberbullying, fake news, and more. Do you think that overall social media helps social movements or hurts them?