Ruha Benjamin provides a list of ways to define the concept of exposure in her chapter “Coded Exposure: Is Visibility a Trap” of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. According to Benjamin, exposure is made up of the following definitions: (1) “the amount of light per unit area,” (2) “the disclosure of something secret,” (3) “the condition of being unprotected,” (4) “the condition of being at risk of financial loss,” and (5) “the condition of being presented to view or made known.” Additionally, Benjamin views exposure as also being “a form of suffocating social constriction.” Essentially, Benjamin considers exposure to be a method of liberation as well as of invisibility—what is highlighted is just as important as what is not shown. People are defined by virtue of what they are not. Formation of identity and preconceived notions of racial groups, we also look at what people are not when evaluating what they are. Benjamin stresses this in the paradoxical lens of specific races being invisible yet hyper-visible in technological advancements thus assisting in the perpetuation of racial inequalities.
Works Cited
Benjamin, Ruha. “Coded Exposure: Is Visibility a Trap.” Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, Polity Press, 2019.
