All of these articles effectively and critically shed light on issues of race,ethnicity, and multiculturalism in technical communication. While theseissues often are overlooked, go unnoticed, or are silenced, the articlesincluded in this special issue ofJBTCdemonstrate the prominence, andmuch-needed analysis, of race, ethnicity, and multiculturalism in technicalcommunication. As guest editors, we look forward to the intellectual discus-sions and writings that respond to these articles.

In the final article, ‘‘Reimagining NASA: A Cultural, Political, and VisualAnalysis of the U.S. Space Program,’’ Miriam F. Williams uses conceptsfrom narrative theory and visual rhetoric to analyze the images used in theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) History Time-line, paying special attention to whycertain images of social, political,and cultural significance were selected as historical markers over otherphotographs. Specifically, Williams uses arguments from Sontag’sOnPhotographyand Barbatsis’s ‘‘Narrative Theory’’ to explain how NASA’sphotographic narrative provides a plot that spans from triumphs and trage-dies in space exploration to pioneering efforts in racial, ethnic, and genderdiversity.

discourse in a way that Latino construction workers could more fully under-stand. Evia and Patriarca specifically demonstrate how Latino constructionworkers collaborate to design safety-related artifac ts that are culturallyrelevant to their needs

In the second article, ‘‘The Double Occupancy of Hispanics: CountingRace and Ethnicity in the U.S. Census,’’ Charise Pimentel and DeborahBalzhiser examine the historical and current racial implications of theU.S. Census questionnaire. In this analysis, Pimentel and Balzhiser demon-strate the problematic nature of both the Hispanic-origin and race questionsthat ultimately reproduce racial inequities. Through a careful, criticaldeconstruction of the 2010 census form and census data reports, Pimenteland Balzhiser propose a ‘‘double occupancy of Hispanics’’ whereby theHispanic-origin and race questions simultaneously encourage the U.S. soci-ety to keep a tab on Hispanic growth and inflate the white count.

The first article, ‘‘Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: A Case Studyof Decolonial Technical Communication Theory, Methodology, and Peda-gogy,’’ by Angela M. Haas, is a case study that examines the place of race,ethnicity, rhetoric, and technology in a graduate-level technical communi-cation classroom. This study demonstrates the importance of race and eth-nicity in the technical communication curriculum design and pedagogy

on race has become prominent. In this special issue, scholars in technicalcommunication and multicultural education add their voices to this nationaldiscussion

We acknowledge, though, that many, inside and outside of our field,believe that race is not a relevant concept in our society or field. Some arguethat we live in a nonracist society, and thus the need to acknowledge colorno longer exists. Gordon (2005) explained that color blindness ‘‘maintainsthat race does not exist as a meaningful category and posits that the benefitsaccrued to White people are earned by (gifted) individuals rather than sys-temically conferred’’ (p. 281). For example, in some technical communica-tion classes, as in most classes, instructors adopt a color-blind perspective,reiterating the sentiment that race has no place in the classroom (Hairston,1992). According to this perspective, to see or speak of race is to give life toa racist social system that has historically marginalized people of color andgiven unfair advantages to white European Americans (WEAs).The foundation of a color-blind perspective is grounded in the belief of amerit-based system of reward and penalty. Yet this merit-based systemrarely works to the advantage of people of color. As Bonilla-Silva (2003)and others have shown, the color-blind ideology is false and usually trans-lates into societal practices that build on and bestow neutral WEA cultural,linguistic, and racial knowledge

Thus, despite electing its first African-American president and having agrowing Hispanic population, the United States is not a postracial society.Unfortunately, we still live in a society that produces racial constructs andwhere people live out racialized lives as part of their everyday experiences.Even though (or quite possibly because) race as a concept and therebyracism still exist, many people, if not color-blind, avoid topics of race, eth-nicity, and culture in their daily conversations

EditorialIntroduction:Race, Ethnicity,and TechnicalCommunicationMiriam F. Williams1and Octavio Pimentel1According to the 2010 U.S. census, the Hispanic population has reached50.5 million people, making Hispanics the largest minority group in theUnited States. Between April 1, 2000, and April 1, 2010, the Hispanicpopulation increased 43%, which makes it the fastest growing populationin the United States.

Perhaps even more indicative of the country’s chang-ing demographics and views on race was the election of the first African-American president of the United States, Barack Obama, in 2008. While thenation has shown progress by electing its first African-American president,the education, employment, income, and health disparities between WhiteAmericans and historically marginalized groups still exist. Because of theseinequities, African-American, a group whose civil rights movement hasserved as a model for historically marginalized people around the world,continue to have the strongest political and racial group identity in theUnited States. While scholars from various disciplines study the effectsof major demographic and social changes in the United States, they alsoacknowledge that these changes have not alleviated obvious, and sometimesgrowing, inequities in health, wealth, and education. Noting these majorchanges in the United States, we are not surprised that a national discussion