When the World Wide Web first became commercially available, researchers and pundits touted a new "cybertopia," a utopic view on how race would no longer "matter" on the Internet and one that some continue to hold today. Indeed, even within SXSW's offerings, a search for "race" results in almost no race-specific sessions. Why are we afraid to talk about race honestly? During this hour, the conversation starts with scholarly research on negative (racist?) and positive digital representations of race, and then turns into an "open fishbowl": Three participants are selected to fill the fishbowl, leaving one chair empty, while the rest of the group sits on the chairs outside the fishbowl. In an open fishbowl, any member of the audience can, at any time, occupy the empty chair and join the fishbowl. Several audience members will spend some time in the fishbowl to take part in our interactive discussion. I as the moderator will summarize the discussion and provide notes to all who attend.

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