The readings listed for Tuesday’s class related to racial issues that seem to be overlooked in the development of Digital Humanities. While I think that this is true, I think that there are a few reasons that I can come up with to explain this lack of information. For one thing, I think that DH is still so early on in the development of content and information, that writers are trying using what they know best and the most about as content for their Digital Humanities projects. In an emerging field, I am much more likely to write about authors that have been around for centuries and are well known in my projects than I am to write about authors I am less familiar with. This doesn’t go to say that a specialist in African American literature cannot build their own DH site or post their findings, I just think that it is more likely that many writers write about the “go to” authors and texts that they are familiarized with when building a new type of humanities.

Another reason why I believe that the DH is so “white” is the idea of public domain versus copyright. Public domain is the point when previously copyrighted works are no longer in that stage and can instead be used by anyone in the public without fear of legal measures being taken out on them for the use of the material. The majority of the texts that are in public domain at this moment are texts that were written by white authors. It is much easier to build a site and share ideas in the DH on materials that are available for the public without copyright laws to worry about, rather than having a constant concern that too much of a text is being used that would break a law or cause lawyers or lawsuits to be presented at your doorstep. I personally have made my DH projects in our course on works that are already in public domain. This allows me to use texts that I do love, are easy to get access to, and has enough references and articles published on the materials that I have ample amounts of resources available for my research. The convenience of these texts being available to me for free and without legal issues are much more appealing to me to build a Digital Humanities site on, than texts that I need to second-guess my use of and worry of copyright laws. This also means though that the majority of the resources that I depend on and work with were written by white authors.

I do believe that the whiteness in DH is a problem, but I think it’s one that will work itself out over time and with the availability of texts from other races in the future. This is an emerging field that is still developing. I think that the more DH expands and the more people and authors get involved with this field, the more racial issues and topics will be covered. It’s just going to take more time and involvement for this to happen.