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Race After Technology

Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

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Race After Technology

Written by: Ruha Benjamin
Narrated by: Mia Ellis
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About this listen

From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce white supremacy and deepen social inequity.

Benjamin argues that automation, far from being a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, has the potential to hide, speed up, and deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to the racism of a previous era. Presenting the concept of the "New Jim Code", she shows how a range of discriminatory designs encode inequity by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies; by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions; or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Moreover, she makes a compelling case for race itself as a kind of technology, designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice in the architecture of everyday life.

This illuminating guide provides conceptual tools for decoding tech promises with sociologically informed skepticism. In doing so, it challenges us to question not only the technologies we are sold but also the ones we ourselves manufacture.

©2019 Ruha Benjamin (P)2021 Tantor History & Culture Racism & Discrimination Social Classes & Economic Disparity Social Sciences Sociology
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This is a must read for those who think technology doesn't discriminate but guess what those who develop those technologies do and the bias does show up in the end result. A wonderful walk through the inherent bias in the era of technology.

Makes you think

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